FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Wednesday, 1/30 – It’s Trae SZN!

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Wednesday, 1/30

Welcome back to the Wednesday edition of the FanDuel NBA Breakdown! I’m “Thunder Dan” and I love playing and writing about FanDuel NBA DFS. I’m ready to help you get your research started for tonight’s NBA DFS slate on FanDuel.

Tonight we have an 8-game main slate that locks at 7:00 PM.  I love when we get 7-8 slates because I feel like they are often the perfect sized slates for NBA DFS. I think they are ideal for both cash games and GPPs.

Yesterday I nailed some picks with Aldridge being a solid cash game play and my Harden-Faried-Okafor-Holiday game stack went for a combined 210 FanDuel points between the four of them!

"The FanDuel NBA Breakdown is a first look article that is intended to be a starting point for your cash game or GPP research for FanDuel NBA DFS."

My goal when I revamped the Breakdown was to create an all-inclusive article that gives you a place to start your research for FanDuel NBA cash games and GPPs.  When making my cash and GPP picks I always take into account salary, Vegas trends, ownership, and match-up and I always do my best to give you a clear rationale for why I believe each player makes a great GPP or cash target.

This is where I remind you that in order to win in NBA DFS you have to be flexible with your roster construction and sometimes take things down to the wire before lock with late-breaking injury information. At the same time, I always warn against totally scrapping your original first look build, as sometimes the plays that you were on the night before or that morning end up still being the best plays on the slate.

As always, let’s take a quick look at our injury situation and Vegas data to get us moving in the right direction.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: First Look

INJURY REPORT

OUT: Anthony Davis, Jamal Murray, Emmanuel Mudiay, Nikola Mirotic, Tyus Jones, Frank Nkilitina, Wendell Carter Jr., Raul Neto, Dante Exum, Garrett Temple, Tyreke Evans, Chandler Hutchinson, Thabo Sefolosha, Omri Casspi, Markieff Morris, Luke Kornet, Cody Zeller

DOUBTFUL: Kyrie Irving

QUESTIONABLE: Derrick Rose, Julius Randle, Elfrid Payton, Tyler Johnson, Kent Bazemore, Dwayne Wade, Robert Covington, Etwaun Moore, JaMychal Green

PROBABLE: NONE

Not too many surprises on this list today, but of course we have some important news to look for on the status of Kyrie Irving (who sounds unlikely to play), Derrick Rose, and the Pelicans Randle, Payton and Moore.

VEGAS INFO

We have two totals that are significantly higher than the rest of the pack with the Sacto-Atlanta game coming in at 235 and New Orleans-Denver set at 227.

There are two games with very tight spreads as Washington-Indiana is a pick ’em and Utah-Portland is only a one-point spread.

The Bulls, Wizards, and Pelicans are all on the second half of a back-to-back.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Cash Game Core

Welcome to the cash game core plays section of the Breakdown!  I’ve been giving you a GPP core in the past, so instead, I wanted to provide you with a solid trio of players to start building your cash game lineups with tonight. I highly recommend playing cash games on a nightly basis to help build that bankroll.

Will Barton (6500)

“Will the Thrill” Barton is now the de-facto point guard for the Nuggets with Jamal Murray out and he’s an easy play for me here tonight as Denver is getting paced up by the Pelicans and allowing a ton of points and fantasy production to their opponents. Barton played 35 minutes in Denver’s last game and it seems that he’s no longer on any kind of minute restriction after working his way back from injury.

Terry Rozier (6500)

This explanation might not require a full paragraph. If Kyrie Irving sits, the easiest play on the slate is just to slot Rozier into one of your PG slots today. He’s everyone’s favorite fill-in and he’ll likely be 80% owned or more in your 50/50 contests today.

Marcus Morris (5500)

Morris is usually the second Celtic that I slot into my lineups when Kyrie is out. He gets the biggest usage bump of any Boston player without Kyrie on the floor and he also happens to be the cheapest between him, Horford and Tatum. Give me Morris and Rozier for a combined 12k and I feel pretty good about my odds of getting 60-70 FD points from that duo.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Top GPP Plays

For tournament plays, I’m looking for more than just 5x. I’m looking for 6-7x or more and we really want to chase those players with high ceilings, not just floors. We also want to take some risks on players that we think we can get at lower ownership than the chalkier cash game plays.

Jrue Holiday (9600)

Holiday led the short-handed Pelicans to a big victory over the Rockets last night on the road and dropped 55 FD points in doing so. He led the team with 18 field goal attempts and did a little of everything for New Orleans including racking up 6 blocked shots. He showed some great chemistry with Jahlil Okafor in the pick and roll and should be asked to carry the load again tonight in a tough matchup against the Nuggets.

Trae Young (7300)

Took me some time but I finally got to our cover boy. Let me just take a second to admit that I was very skeptical about Trae Young’s ability to become an impact player in the NBA. But I’ve been watching him play and he has really adjusted well and after some early season struggles, he’s been coming on strong. In his last two games he’s scored 56 points and dished out 16 assists and tonight’s matchup with the Kings is about as good as it gets for a young point guard who likes to run and gun.

Buddy Hield (6500)

I had to do a double-take when I saw this price on Buddy tonight. I’m going to want some exposure to this Hawks-Kings game and Buddy feels way too cheap for this spot.  He’s a knockdown shooter who can get hot and carry this Kings offense for long stretches of a game.  He’s usually not a cash play but I’m actually considering him in cash at this price.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Value Plays

For our purposes here at the Breakdown, we classify players priced at 5000 or less as “value plays.” Identifying value has been crucial this year on FanDuel as the new “drop score” rule has forced us into playing a lot of “stars and scrubs” rosters in both cash and GPP formats.

Joakim Noah (4000)

I know what some of you are thinking, “wait, Noah is still in the league?” Yeah, believe or not, he’s serving as Marc Gasol‘s primary backup for Memphis and has been producing lately, averaging 21 FD points a game over his last three games in about 21 minutes of floor time.

Alex Len (4600)

Len has been really efficient while on the court lately and even though he’s in a timeshare with Dwayne Dedmon, he’s still been able to make value in only about 20 minutes off the bench.

Darius Miller (4200)

Miller played a whopping 40 minutes for the Pelicans last night and put up a solid 30 FD points. He’s just way too cheap for a guy who’s going to play that many minutes for a team that likes to run as much as New Orleans does.

Jerryd Bayless (5000)

I’ve been riding Bayless for four games in a row and he’s been good for 27-35 FD points during that stretch. He’s finally up to 5k but could still be in line for a ton of minutes if Derrick Rose ends up out again tonight.

Jabari Parker (4000)

Jabari went ham last night scoring 48 FD points in only 22 minutes off the bench and I’m kicking myself for pivoting off him in a few lineups. His price didn’t change at all and with Chandler Hutchinson out for an extended period of time we’d have to assume that Parker’s minutes and role as bench scorer is secure again tonight.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Game Stack of the Night

Atlanta (+5.5) @ Sacramento (235 total)

Man, this game is jumping off the page compared to most of the other games tonight. Both of these teams are young and like to play fast. The pace of this game is going to be crazy fast and that means more possessions for each team and therefore more fantasy stats – more shots, more rebounds, more steals/blocks, etc..

Trae Young and Buddy Hield are favorite players in this game from their respective teams. However, you really have to consider most of the Kings core players at their prices (De’Aaron Fox – 7800, Bogdan Bogdanovic – 6600, Marvin Bagley III – 6200, and Willie Cauley-Stein – 6400).

The Hawks can be frustrating to figure out based on how deep their rotation can go and that may only get worse tonight if Kent Bazemore (6400) returns. After Young, John Collins (8000) is the other Atlanta player with a big ceiling. Taurean Prince (5100) is certainly interesting if Bazemore is out as he’s finally playing enough minutes to make value. Of the two centers, I prefer Alex Len to Dwayne Dedmon (6300) mainly because of the 1700 savings.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Sample Lineup and Slate Overview

If you’re not familiar with how I wrap up the Breakdown, this is where I give you my thoughts on roster construction and briefly discuss my strategy for how I want to attack the slate.

More from FanSided

• Thunder projected lineup and rotations heading into 2023-24 season
• NWSL Challenge Cup news: Courage ruthless against Washington, Racing remain perfect
• 2023 Women’s World Cup: Ary Borges and Brazil showed the entire world what they are about
• Trea Turner’s rough season goes from bad to worse
• Brewers attempt to troll Elly De La Cruz backfires 456 feet

I usually like punting one or two spots on FanDuel with this year’s new “drop score” rule. Playing a lineup of all 5-7k players just makes zero sense to me and you’ll find that the guys winning consistently on FanDuel are going “stars and scrubs” pretty frequently.

Today’s sample lineup is a CASH lineup. I have my cash core locked in and I’m pretty comfortable with Noah being my 4k punt. This is one of the more balanced lineups I’ve built on FanDuel in some time as I don’t really see the need to pay for any 10k+ players in cash games today.

Remember, the sample lineup is for illustrative purposes and is not necessarily a “plug-and-play” lineup. This time of year so much can change in the course of 10-12 hours from when you begin to research a slate to when it actually locks.

PG: Terry Rozier (6500)
PG: Mike Conley (8300)
SG: Jrue Holiday (9600)
SG: Buddy Hield (6500)
SF: Bojan Bogdanovic (5600)
SF: Will Barton (6500)
PF: Marcus Morris (5500)
PF: Lauri Markannen (7400)
C: Joakim Noah (4000)

I hope you enjoyed my slate breakdown and I appreciate you taking the time to read my article. Be sure to share it with friends and fellow DFS players, leave comments or hit me with other feedback or questions on Twitter.  And keep coming back to FantasyCPR for the best free content in the industry! Good luck in your contests!