NBA DFS picks September 1: Will Murray break another slate?

NBA DFS forward plays:

With Jamal Murray taking over the series, it has lowered the ceiling on Nikola Jokic. He’s still right around 5x value. It might be worth dropping down and getting the 5x value at a lower price. The risk with doing that is that if Utah manages to slow Murray, Jokic could have a monster, slate-breaking game. He is capable of that.

Jayson Tatum is a fine play, especially on FanDuel where both forward positions are very thin. However, I feel he’s overpriced compared to Mitchell and Murray. I’ll use them first and only run Tatum if I have the extra cash.

Pascal Siakam isn’t going to be that bad every game of the series, but he doesn’t have a huge ceiling against Boston either. The problem, especially on FanDuel, is that there aren’t a lot of cheap options worth chasing. It may be best to chase the upside of either Siakam or Tatum. I prefer Siakam for the savings, but Tatum’s ceiling is likely much higher.

Rudy is a giant waste of money and has been since the restart. Drop down to Serge Ibaka instead. Boston did well enough against him, but Ibaka will likely be closer to 5x value than Rudy is.

One saving grace is that Daniel Theis is eligible at PF on both sites. That makes forward a lot less thin. If Thies plays like he did in Game 1, he’ll be the best value on the slate even with the inflated price.

Jerami Grant is seeing big minutes in this series, but he still hasn’t hit 5x value. The minutes are great, but he’s not doing much with them. I don’t mind him in cash games, but if you’re going to have to chase at forward anyway, chase someone with better upside on GPP formats.

I feel the same way about OG Anunoby, but that $300 savings might come in handy. Even Royce O’Neale has more upside than OG, but the floor is a lot lower.

Robert Williams saw extra minutes against the Raptors, not Enes Kanter. This is a bit peculiar, but Williams could be a huge value play considering not all of his production came in garbage time. Kanter didn’t even see the floor. Williams is a risky dart throw, but with the way he played in Game 1, I would think he gets decent minutes in Game 2.

The guards are somewhat of a tough decision, but this slate will be decided by what you do with the  scattered debris at the forward positions. This is especially difficult on FanDuel where you have to play two each of SF and PF. On DraftKings, there’s enough flexibility where you can get away with only playing one true forward. Good luck out there!