FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Wednesday, 3/13 – Better Get Center Right!

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Wednesday, 3/13

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. As always, my goal is to help you get your research started for tonight’s NBA DFS slate on FanDuel. 

My goal when I created the Breakdown was to make this 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.

Last night was another night with unusually low cash lines in both cash games and GPPs as it seemed there was some bad chalk and no real clear path to take. Hopefully, you avoided those land mines and managed to cash some lineups. My mantra has always been if you break even, then you’ve lived to fight another day!

"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."

We have one of the smallest Wednesday slates in recent memory tonight with only six games on the docket. As I’ve said many times before, I really dig these type of slates as they are in my sweet spot with just the right number of games. They’re big enough for cash games but small enough that the right game stack or leverage plays can win you a tournament.

Kevin Durant is OUT, while Ricky Rubio and Aaron Gordon are questionable. Other than that, there’s not that much other injury info that we need to monitor…yet.

With only six games and a lack of wounded athletes, let’s bypass our first look and jump right into the cash core!

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Cash Game Core

Welcome to the cash game core 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.

Dennis Schroder (5300)

I love playing Schroder in cash games and FanDuel just never gives him any respect, failing to raise his price out of the low 5k range. He’s a steady contributor as the Thunder’s sixth man and you don’t have to wait for George or Westbrook to be out in order to use him. He’s a high-usage bench player who regularly hits value and he should be able to produce 30 or more FanDuel points tonight against the Nets.

Bobby Portis (6900)

Portis is still under 7k, playing 30 minutes and a solid fantasy producer who averages 1.1 FPPM. He’s really been a bright spot as the starting center for Washington since coming over in a trade and tonight he has a great matchup against Orlando, a team that struggles to rebound the basketball. I think Bobby P has another big double-double tonight and he’s an easy plug and play until his price finally gets adjusted to around 8k.

Klay Thompson (8000)

It might seem odd at first to want to pay 8k for a scoring dependent shooting guard in cash, but this is perhaps the best pure shooter of his generation (other than fellow splash brother, Steph Curry). Klay missed two games last week with an injury, but has since returned with a bang and scored 56 and 46 FD points in his last two games. With Kevin Durant out tonight, look for Klay to continue to pour in the buckets as his teammates continue to look to get him open shot opportunities.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: 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.

Rudy Gobert (9800)

One of my two favorite centers tonight is none of other than the “Stifle Tower” Rudy Gobert. Gobert finally got his price bumped down under 10k and has a matchup tonight against Phoenix that he should be able to exploit. I’ve been targeting the Suns with centers all season and I see no reason to stop tonight. Young DeAndre Ayton is a talented offensive player but has been a turnstile on defense.

Nikola Vucevic (10000)

For only 200 more dollars you can roster Vuc, who has a tasty matchup as well against the Wizards who are a bottom 5 team against centers. Vuc has already dominated Washington twice this season with averages of 22-11-2 in those two games and we know he has a great ceiling if this game stays close throughout. The icing on the cake would be if Aaron Gordon were to miss tonight’s game and if that happens then I’ll lean Vuc over Gobert as my top center play.

Mike Conley (9200)

I may have saved the best for last. Conley is quite possibly my favorite play on the slate and rostering him is going to allow you to gain some leverage in GPPs. By now you should know that using point guards against Atlanta is one of the best matchups in all of NBA DFS, but I still have this feeling that Conley won’t be super popular based on this elevated price tag and the fact that Steph Curry is the exact same price and is without his sidekick KD (Yes, KD is the sidekick, not the other way around).

Conley is averaging 50 FD points over his last three games and he’s somehow still not going to be that popular. Play him tomorrow and you won’t regret him, he’s going to have a great game.

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.

Goran Dragic (4400)

Dragic has played two games in a row and saw his minutes increase from 11 to 20. if that trend continues then he could be looking at 25 minutes off the bench for the Heat and he’s the kind of efficient fantasy player that could turn that into 30 FD points.

Royce O’Neale (4300)

O’Neale logged a whopping 40 minutes in his last game and could be asked to play a lot more minutes tonight if Ricky Rubio is out. He’s not a dynamic fantasy player but he can get there with the volume of minutes he’s getting.

C.J. Miles (3800)

I don’t love playing Miles, but you can’t ignore the minutes he’s seeing with the second unit and the elite matchup against the Hawks. He’s got no floor, but he definitely has an 8x ceiling here tonight if you want a really cheap punt play for GPPs.

Allen Crabbe (4300)

Crabbe is definitely a GPP-only play tonight as he’s a streaky shooter who plays for a team with somewhat unpredictable rotations with their guards. He did play 34 minutes in his last game and had a solid 14-10-4 line, but I wouldn’t expect that same kind of production tonight. The matchup is good, however, as the Nets will be paced up by the Thunder and have struggled against perimeter players.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Position Rankings

What some players find really helpful are position rankings. I will rank my favorite players at each position based on their upside and point-per-dollar viability for cash and GPP.  Think of this a type of “cheat sheet” but it’s not an exhaustive list of my player pool by any means.

Point Guard

1. Mike Conley
2. Steph Curry
3. Tomas Satoransky

Shooting Guard

1. Klay Thompson
2. Dennis Shroder
3. Avery Bradley

Small Forward

1. Paul George
2. Jabari Parker
3. Jae Crowder

Power Forward

1. Bobby Portis 
2. Bam Adebayo
3. Blake Griffin

Center

1. Nikola Vucevic
2. Rudy Gobert
3. DeMarcus Cousins

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Sample Lineup and 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.

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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 GPP lineup. I am anchoring it with my favorite studs Conley, Thompson, and Vucevic and then mixing in some of my favorite mid-tier and value plays. There’s not a lot of correlation in this lineup, and that’s usually something that I like to do in many of my GPP lineups but it’s certainly not always necessary.

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. I rarely end up playing this lineup as there are always pivots that need to be made as the slate unfolds during the day!

PG: Mike Conley (9200)
PG: Goran Dragic (4400)
SG: Klay Thompson (8000)
SG: Dennis Schroder (5300)
SF: Royce O’Neale (4300)
SF: Jabari Parker (5800)
PF: Bam Adebayo (5900)
PF: Bobby Portis (6900)
C: Nikola Vucevic (10000)

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 with your contests