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Welcome to your daily NBA DFS digest at FakeTeams, gents. Every day I’m here with a handful of pro-tips to roster a winning team just a few hours from now.
You might be new to fantasy hoops, so let me tell you this: the world doesn’t end in LeBron James. Each night gives us a pretty good batch of surprising performances and leaves us in the dust with more than a few upsetting outings by those we played. First world problems, carry on. That’s the beauty of this game. There are so many matches going on every single day and such a big roster available that you can’t fixate yourself in the very same player on and on but instead you need to keep things fluid.
So read on, take note, play cool, and win the day. (Player salaries pulled from DraftKings.)
Love: (PG) Trae Young, ATL ($8900, at HOU)
Such is the state of the Association these days that there is no problem in expecting back-to-back 50-burgers from anyone. Young Trae didn’t quite cook his yesterday falling just one pop short, but I see no reason he cannot drop 50 for the first time against Houston. I have this soul-pacifying felling every time Young Money put up big scoring numbers. It feels like if there is someone that should be done it is him, and that he does it without effort. He shoots a ton from the logo (8.8 3PA) and he’s icing 37.7 of those attempts, but he’s also stubborn enough to go to the charity stripe 7.3 times per while hitting freebies at an 84.7% clip. Ice Trae is playing all the minutes he can handle (34.7) for these Young Hawks and putting up a massive 28-4-8 line on the season. The turnovers are high but he’s more than making up for them.
Hate: (PG) Malcolm Brogdon, IND ($7300, at PHI)
The President has played 15 games this season, 14 not counting the one he went down injured. First seven games: 47.75 DKFP per game, a 24-5-9 stat line. Last seven games: 35.11 DKFP per game, a 16-5-7 stat line. Sure, the boards are still there, and the dimes haven’t dropped a lot, but Brogdon’s start was scorching hot and he has come down to earth a little lately. Humble Malcolm’s price went all the way up for last night’s game (a $1K-plus raise) mostly due to him eating golden turkey or something on Thanksgiving, because otherwise I can’t comprehend. No leftovers on the table, though, and it dropped a bit already, but not enough to consider him a value with his production on a massive 39 minutes as he played yesterday. Contributions all across the board but potential ugly matchup and not the best shape we’ve seen him in.
Love: (SG) Jeremy Lamb, IND ($6100, at PHI)
This isn’t the best play around, but if you don’t go this way I don’t see another route other than paying a shit ton of money for James Harden ($12000; he’ll cook though so think about it). The Lamb has not been of God for the Pacers but it’s been quite nice, can’t lie. He’s playing above his head (32.9 MPG) with a much heavier role than he’s ever held in the L and he’s putting up 17.3 points and 5.8 rebounds. You love him cause he’s cheap and because of his shooting splits (48/28/89) though his treys look straight from Halloween. They should go up soon as J-Lamb is a 34% long-range career hitter so that’s something, plus it is rare to see him without a three-pointer made in any game you check. Would have gone with Middleton but he’s über-restricted in minutes and until that changes that’s a risk not worth taking.
Love: (SF) Jabari Parker, ATL ($6700, at HOU)
Poor Jabari went on a safari on Trae’s night yesterday by logging a measly 15% usage rate. He just couldn’t mess around with his friends and was left out finishing with a ridiculously low four points on 12.5 percent shooting from the floor. Shaking my head... I’m betting on him having a pre-Thanksgiving feast tonight though. Jab jabbed the Bucks with 33 pops (with three treys!), 14 boards, and 5 dimes on Wednesday and I’m all in for another explosion against Houston. He finished the day with 64.50 DKFP, which meant he was the no. 1 player in fantasy on a rather stocked deck of games, which niiiiice. Prince Ali Parker has failed to score 10 only twice this season, and he’s averaged 9.5 rebounds per during the last weeks of the month in four games. He keeps the turnovers low and his usage is around 25% on average so he’s the one to go with until John Collins comes back.
Love: (PF) PJ Washington, CHA ($4600, at MIL)
Something went wrong inside the White House a couple of weeks ago, but it looks to be fixed and for good now. PJ commenced his presidential run to much acclaim but for some reason he stank right in the middle of the month for five straight games. Thank God he made amends and came back stinging. Just yesterday against the Pistons he logged more than 34 minutes of playing time and fell only one point short of his season-best with 26. He didn’t stop there, because PJ is a true leader and not pleased with just bombing pops away. That’s why Wash added five boards, dished out three assists and stole four (four!) balls from Detroit silly guys. He even shot 75% from the floor and 71.4% from the charity stripe in his best game of the season, good for the 17th-best performance in the main slate with 45.75 DKFP. Not the safest of plays but the price is ridiculously low and the upside sky-high.
Love: (C) Myles Turner, IND ($5700, at PHI)
Got me too many Myles to walk, but if there was a time to do it it was for tonight. Embiid is on a back-to-back with the Sixers and he might miss the game. Turner ain’t turning any corner yet, but at least he’s doing something I guess and for the price he can hand some ROI back. At the end of the day, we’re talking about Myles, not Evan. He’s playing more than 31 MPG so the opportunities will be there though his usage rate (17.4%) stinks in these Pacers... He’s on a 12.6 and 6.3 line, and his most impressive stats are his 2.7 boards. Not much more other than that in counting stats, but his shooting percentages both from the floor (47.5%) and beyond the arc (45.2% on 4.2 attempts) are nice to say the least. Let’s hope for an absence of the JoJo and a ceiling performance from Samurai Myles.
If you have any comment or question about the daily column, tonight’s games, players involved in them, or even season-long fantasy NBA topics, just drop it below or reach out to me on Twitter at @chapulana and I’ll get back to you as soon as I grab a keyboard!