FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Thursday, 3/28 – D-Lo vs. The Process
By Dan Palyo
FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Thursday, 3/28
Welcome back to the Thursday 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."
It’s opening day in Major League Baseball, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make some NBA lineups after these afternoon baseball games get underway, right? I have enjoyed grinding this NBA season with you and as long as people continue to read, I’ve committed to keeping the breakdown going several times a week until the end of the regular season.
Tonight we have 8-game main slate on FanDuel. I’ve said this many times before, but I really love 6-8 game slates for NBA and while playing NBA DFS can be challenging right now, I think it can also be rewarding for those grinders like you and me who have been following the league all season long.
Remember 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. Let’s jump right into the cash game core for tonight!
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.
Marvin Bagley III (7600)
One of my favorite games on this slate is the matchup between Sacramento and New Orleans. This game should be played at a fast pace and have a lot of fantasy points scored. Bagley is coming off his first dud since returning from injury, scoring only 16 FD points against Dallas in his last game. I’ll ignore that and chalk it up as a fluke and I expect Bagley to bounce back in a major way here in an excellent matchup.
Joel Embiid (11400)
Embiid is averaging 51.5 FD points per game against Brooklyn this season. He’s my favorite stud on the slate and it’s not really close. I expect both of these teams to go after each other tonight and try to get a win tonight. Paying up for Embiid is my priority in cash games and he should be relatively easy to fit with some of the available value we should have at other positions.
Pat Connaughton (5100)
Yes, you know it’s the few weeks of NBA DFS when you’re writing up Pat Connaughton as a cash core play. Don’t sleep on this dude, he’s been fantastic for the Bucks for the last two weeks and only seen his minutes and role increase down the stretch with his stellar play. He is an excellent rebounder, averaging over 6 boards a game in his last 8 games and a solid passer and 3-point shooter.
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.
Dwayne Wade (5800)
We’re seeing some vintage D-Wade lately as the future Hall-of-Famer has scored 39 and 46 FD points in 29 minutes off the bench his last two games. Miami gets to host a poor defensive team in Dallas tonight and both Josh Richardson and Justise Winslow are both listed as questionable for that game.
D’Angelo Russell (9500)
Somewhere in New Jersey, @2locksports is smiling. He gets to stack against Jon Lester AND roster D’Angelo Russell in the same day! I hope I can get D-Russ right at least once this season as I’ve been on the wrong side of playing him or fading him just about every time he’s in a good spot. I love using attacking point guards against the Sixers and Russell did drop 61 FD points on the Sixers in one of their meetings earlier this season. His minutes are trending up and I expect the Nets to give him all the run he can handle as they try to lock up a playoff spot.
De’Aaron Fox (8600)
Fox is my second favorite Kings player tonight after Bagley, and I also like Buddy Hield, too. But shooting guard is actually pretty deep tonight (oddly enough) and point guard is pretty thin. Point guards have excelled all season long against the New Orleans defense and I expect Fox to eclipse the 40 FD point mark with ease and push for 50 tonight against the Pellies.
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.
Bryn Forbes (3900)
Forbes is just too cheap for a guy who’s back to playing minutes in the high 20’s for the Spurs. He has a nice matchup against the defensively challenged Cavaliers and doesn’t need to do a whole lot to hit value. He’s a solid cash game punt.
Michael Carter-Williams (3800)
MCW has re-emerged as fantasy contributor as the backup point guard for the Orlando Magic. He has a fantasy friendly game with his ability to rack up counting stats and has scored 35 and 21 FD points in his last two games. He’s carved out an 18 minute role as the primary back up to D.J. Augustin.
Derrick Jones Jr. (3800)
Jones Jr. is pretty risky here, especially if some of the other Heat starters end up playing. But he has a ton of upside with his skillset and the recent uptick in minutes (25+ in 3 of his last 4 games).
DeMarre Carroll (4700)
DeMarre has really emerged as a consistent role player for the Nets and has seen his minutes increase to 33+ in 3 of his last 4 games. He’s coming off the bench, but has established himself as a guy the Nets will lean on as a perimeter shooter and defender. He also closes out games for them and think he’ll be on the floor late in this game as I think it stays close.
Danny Green (3900), Garrett Temple (3800), Marco Belinelli (3700)
I’m interested in all three of these cheap shooting guards and I can’t really decide which one I like the best so I listed all three of them. Green usually plays better with Kawhi out of the lineup. Temple is coming off a start and played 30+ minutes last game, while Belinelli is always a threat to get hot shooting with the second unit.
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
- De’Aaron Fox
- D.J. Augustin
- Michael Carter-Williams
Shooting Guard
- D’Angelo Russell
- Dwayne Wade
- Pat Connaughton
Small Forward
- Danilo Gallinari
- DeMarre Carroll
- Joe Harris
Power Forward
- Marvin Bagley III
- Bam Adebayo
- Serge Ibaka
Center
- Joel Embiid
- Nikola Vucevic
- Clint Capela
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.
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 “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 game lineup. With the amount of chalk we are seeing on these late season slates, it makes a ton of sense to play some cash games every night and just plug in as many of the optimal plays as possible using the value that we have available.
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: D.J. Augustin (5900)
PG: De’Aaron Fox (8600)
SG: Pat Connaughton (5100)
SG: Dwayne Wade (5800)
SF: Derrick Jones Jr. (3800)
SF: DeMarre Carroll (4700)
PF: Bam Adebayo (7100)
PF: Marvin Bagley Jr. (7600)
C: Joel Embiid (11400)
Next. MLB Opening Day Value picks. dark
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