FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Friday, 3/29

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Friday, 3/29

Welcome back to the Friday 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."

Tonight we have 7-game main slate on FanDuel. As I’ve said before, I really love 6-8 game slates for NBA and I think we have a really compelling one tonight. We aren’t going to have to have all our Vegas data and injury info this early for the rest of the season, so let’s jump right into the cash core again today.

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.

Russell Westbrook (11300)

The Thunder might be without Paul George tonight, which would make Westy a must play in cash games. It’s not the best matchup against Denver, but the Thunder need to win to avoid dropping into the 8 seed and having to meet the Warriors in the first round. If Russ is playing 40 minutes tonight without his Thunder buddy PG13, it will be hard for him not to make value even at this price.

Kemba Walker (10000)

Kemba and the Hornets need a win here if they are going to make a push for the 8-seed in the East. They are only two games out right now and have been playing well lately. The Lakers represent a pace-up spot for Charlotte and I really love Kemba in a matchup with the terrible defense of Rajon Rondo. He’s scored 66, 55, and 66 FD points in his last three games and he’s a really safe bet for another 50-spot tonight with the number of shots he’s taking in this offense.

Enes Kanter (5900)

Kanter only played 21 minutes in his first start for the injured Jusuf Nurkic. However, that may have been due to the fact that the Blazers were blowing out the Bulls B-squad on Wednesday. He’s still fairly priced here and has another solid matchup tonight against the Hawks. Portland will be paced up and has one of the higher team totals on the night. I expect Enes to get his and get us the 30 FD points we need for him to make value.

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.

DeMarcus Cousins (8600)

The Warriors have the highest implied team total and the Boogie-man has a matchup he should be able to exploit. While KAT is an uber-talented offensive player, he doesn’t play much defense and Boogie should be able to bully him down low. As long as he stays out of foul trouble, I think he has a great chance of dropping 50+ FD points. We know he can do it, we’ve seen his ceiling before, but his tendency to get in foul trouble or lose his cool in games is what makes him pretty much always a GPP-only type play.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (5500)

I’ve been driving the KCP hype train lately and I’m not about to let one bad outing against a good Utah team stop me from playing him tonight in a much better matchup. Keep in mind that the Lakers didn’t have LeBron in that Utah game either, and his impact on this team is so huge. KCP should get more look with James (hopefully) in the lineup and I think this game has the best potential of any game on the slate to shoot out.

Paul Millsap (7500)

Millsap has been really inconsistent lately, and I am banking on that keeping his ownership down. Recency bias should be in full effect here as Sapper has been up and down a lot lately and not always getting his full allotment of minutes. However, the matchup here is excellent against OKC, a team that has struggled against power forwards all season. I’m banking on him playing his full share of minutes tonight in a close game, If that happens, he’s got massive upside at this price as his ceiling is 50+ easily.

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.

Dwayne Bacon (4700)

I am a tad nervous that Nicolas Batum is supposed to return tonight, but I think he’s likely to stay on the bench. The Hornets have won some games and played well going with a “Kemba and the Kids” lineup lately.  I like this kid’s potential and he’s still cheap enough to save us some salary cap.

Seth Curry (5100)

Curry has been really good lately since slotting into CJ McCollum‘s role with the second unit in Portland. He’s seeing good minutes and getting plenty of opportunities to score. I am going to want several Blazers in my lineups tonight, the spot against Atlanta is just so appealing.

Zach Collins (5100)

Collins had a nice game on Wednesday. He played a full 25 minutes and was able to produce 26 FD points. He’s a very skilled big man who can knock down threes and also rack up board and blocks. At this price, I’m willing to play him and hope that his upward trend continues in the Portland rotation now that Nurkic is done for the year.

Willy Hernangomez (4200)

He’s still playing 20 minutes off the bench with Zeller out. He’s really only a GPP play if you want to full-on punt Center as he’s not guaranteed many minutes and he’s really only producing with rebounds and offensive putbacks. They’re not running any offense for him, or through him.

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. Russell Westbrook
2. Kemba Walker
3. Seth Curry

Shooting Guard

1. Dennis Schroder (if Paul George is out)
2. Ketavious Caldwell-Pope
3. Josh Okogie

Small Forward

1. LeBron James (if he plays)
2. Mikal Bridges
3. Dwayne Bacon

Power Forward

1. Domantas Sabonis
2. Draymond Green
3. Dario Saric

Center

1. Enes Kanter
2. DeMarcus Cousins
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 game lineup with my cash core and then some of my favorite value plays and mid-tier plays mixed in. There are a lot of injury situations that we don’t know about just yet so obviously make sure you are monitoring those throughout the day. My final lineup may end up nothing like one, I just want to warn you.

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: Russell Westbrook (11300)
PG: Kemba Walker (10000)
SG: Dennis Schroder (5400)
SG: Josh Okogie (5400)
SF: Joe Ingles (7000)
SF: Dwayne Bacon (4700)
PF: Dario Saric (5200)
PF: Zach Collins (5100)
C: Enes Kanter (5900)

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