FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Tuesday, 3/26 – Serious Star Power!

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Tuesday, 3/26

Welcome back to the Tuesday 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.

"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."

I had to take yesterday off from writing about the NBA to start preparing for MLB coverage. I just want to thank all of you for reading the Breakdown this season and I wanted to let you know I will continue to keep the FanDuel NBA Breakdown going until the end of the regular season. It might not every day, but I will at least have it several times a week even after opening day for baseball.

Tonight we have 10-game main slate on FanDuel. Tonight is actually the biggest NBA slate of the week and the last big NBA slate before the beginning of MLB season. There are some big-time stars in action tonight (LeBron, Harden, Giannis) and some really interesting games for fantasy purposes. This should be a really fun slate and I’m excited to break it down!

As the NBA season winds down, I would encourage you to really take these first look articles with a grain of salt.  I do my best to try to anticipate what injuries and rest situations we might encounter each night, but in the final month of the season we are going to see a lot of players sit out and we aren’t always going to know who it will be until later in the evening.

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.

Gordon Hayward (5400)

With Kyrie Irving resting tonight and the Celtics possibly even more shorthanded with Jayson Tatum and Al Horford questionable, Hayward is one of the safest bets on the slate to anchor our cash game lineups. The Celtics have a favorable matchup with the bottom-dwelling Cavaliers and Hayward is coming off a solid game in his last outing, too. He’s way too cheap for the number of shots he should put up tonight and he usually grabs his fair share of boards and dishes out assists, too.

Thomas Bryant (6000)

Bryant has played 35 minutes in back to back games now for the Wizards as they have stated publicly they are committed to playing him and Bobby Portis together in their frontcourt for the remainder of their season. He’s got a great floor based on the number of boards he grabs and easy buckets he gets on offensive rebounds alone. At only 6k, he feels like a safe bet for 30+ FD points in a plus matchup against the Lakers.

Frank Jackson (5600)

Jackson has been playing heavy minutes for the Pelicans now for two straight weeks and finally has established some consistency with his fantasy game, averaging around 29 FD points over his last three games. Elfrid Payton is questionable tonight for New Orleans, but even if Elf plays, Jackson should see a ton of minutes and shot attempts in a game that should be fantasy gold as both teams like to play fast and don’t play much defense.

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.

LeBron James (11000)

I absolutely love LeBron tonight, and he’s my top GPP play on the entire slate. I am well aware that Giannis and Harden face off in a big game tonight, too, but LeBron is likely to be lower owned than both and I think he crushes against the Wizards. It’s a solid matchup for the King, and despite the concerns with his playing time down the stretch he’s been playing 35 minutes and cruising to value lately. He’s my late night hammer and I think he goes berserk tonight in a national TV game.

Lou Williams (7400)

Lou Williams is the ultimate GPP play on any given night. He has an awesome ceiling for a guy priced in the 7k range and we have seen him break slates before. I want a piece of this game between the Clippers and T-Wolves tonight and I think Lou Will is the perfect compliment to Karl-Anthony Towns on the other side.

Marvin Bagley III (7700)

Bagley has been a popular play in NBA DFS for a few slates in a row now, but I’m expecting some people to jump off him as his price continues to climb. I will keep playing him, though, because the kid is super talented and continues to see his minutes and usage increase with this Kings team here late in the season.

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.

Dario Saric (4100)

D-D-Dario should be a safe cash punt tonight as Taj Gibson is out of the lineup again for Minnesota. He’s playing 26-28 minutes for the T-Wolves and while he doesn’t do a ton of scoring, he’s still doing enough in other categories to be a safe 20+ FD points.

Willy Hernangomez (4200)

I love paying up for KAT tonight, but I also think Hernangomez is an elite punt play. He’s averaging 20 minutes a game over the last three games while Zeller is out and has produced 20+ in those games and even topped out at 31 FD points last weekend against Toronto.

Shaq Harrison (4800)

The entire starting lineup is out for the Bulls tonight other than Lauri Markannen, and Harrison is a guy who played 38 and 39 minutes. He’s a player who can rack up fantasy points without having to score that many actual points and I think he’s got both a floor and ceiling tonight.

Luke Kennard (4500)

I like Luke tonight a good bit. He’s outplaying Wayne Ellington at shooting guard for Detroit and this is a sneaky good matchup against Denver, which is a team that has struggled against perimeter shooters.

Taurean Prince (4900)

Prince is a nice cheap piece of the best game on the board (Atlanta-New Orleans) and has one of the best matchups of any sub-5k play on the board. He’s trending up lately and has played 31 minutes in his last two games.

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. Trae Young
2. Frank Jackson
3. Shaq Harrison

Shooting Guard

1. Luka Doncic
2. Lou Williams
3. Kenneth Caldwell-Pope

Small Forward

1. LeBron James
2. Gordon Hayward
3. Miles Bridges

Power Forward

1. Marvin Bagley III
2. John Collins
3. Bobby Portis

Center

1. Karl-Anthony Towns
2. Thomas Bryant
3. JaVale McGee

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.

In fact, Stars and Scrubs is likely going to be the chalky build for NBA DFS for every slate the rest of the season with the amount of value that we are going to have on a nightly basis.

Today’s sample lineup is a cash lineup. I have my cash core plays here in this lineup as well as my favorite stud to pay up for (LeBron) and then a lot of solid mid-tier plays in the 5-8k range. Dario Saric is my punt play at 4100 and I’m trying to lock in some safety from the rest of my plays on this massive 10-game slate.

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: Frank Jackson (5600)
PG: Trae Young (8200)
SG: Andrew Wiggins (6600)
SG: Kenneth Caldwell-Pope (5400)
SF: Gordon Hayward (5400)
SF: LeBron James (11000)
PF: Dario Saric (4100)
PF: Marvin Bagley III (7700)
C: Thomas Bryant (6000)

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