NBA DFS: LeBron James and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Friday, Oct. 9th

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. On top of that, I’ll bring you some news, statistical trends from the past few days, some studs/duds from the last slate of games, and much more!

Hoop Land Times: News and notes from around the Association

• Consider this thing over, folks. The Lakers grabbed a 3-1 lead in the Finals and although Miami pulled an almost-impossible feat this is pretty much decided already. Not too bad for Miami to have snatched that W, though.
• The Heat were banged up and still without Dragic but they still fought during all of the game, forcing AD to murder them with a late dagger. Kudos to Miami for keeping up with the Lake Show even while missing key players through the series.
• You know how it goes in the NBA: superstars are always going to produce and have big games, so it’s all about scrubs stepping up. Enter KCP yesterday for the Lakers, who pretty much was the X-Factor that decided G4 and put LA in a prime position to gentle-sweep Miami in five games.
• Introducing your 2019-20 Executive of the Year, Clippers’ Lawrence Frank. Shout-out to the man for putting together a monster team and not even reaching the WCF. You the real MVP, dawg.
• Alvin Gentry was kicked out of New Orleans but he’s already reached an agreement to join the Kings as an assistant coach.
• New names in the Clippers-head-coach headlines: GSW assistant Mike Brown interviewed with the team and is another candidate for the position, and Bucks assistant Darvin Ham will do in the following days—Ty Lue still sits at the no. 1 spot among candidates, though.
• Speaking of Lue, the Rockets have yet to interview him for their head coach position. Houston has already met Wes Unseld Jr. and former Nets HC Ken Atkinson.
• Another interview scheduled for Wes Unseld, who will meet with the Clippers’ brass.
• Kevin Knox and Julius Randle would need to be included in any trade the Knicks want to pull off this offseason, be it for CP3 or whoever else, reports Marc Berman.
• Jrue Holiday won the player’s Teammate Of The Year award. Holiday, as you know, is one of the most sought-after trade targets entering a contract year next season.
• Potential trade given the latest rumors: Philly gets Buddy Hield in exchange for Al Horford. Massive contracts on underperforming bodies, so it makes sense and I’d be very interested in watching Buddy in this “new” 76ers iteration.
• Jonathon Simmons and Andrew Harrison are moving on from American ball and have signed deals in the Chinese CBA. Kudos to them for keeping their game active even by having to cross the pond.
• Pau Gasol spoke yesterday and said that he will make a decision about his short-term future during the next 90 days. That means he’ll see if he can properly recover from injury in time to play NBA-ball next season, and also attend the Olympics in the summer.
• PJ Tucker and Gerald Green expect to be back with Houston. Jae Crowder wants back in Miami. No surprises here.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• Another night, another slate led by LeBron James... LBJ played 38 minutes and that was all he needed to reach 56+ DKFP on a 28-12-8 near-trip-dub once more. He committed 6 turnovers, but it is not that those mattered much with the rest of the stat line he put up.
• Jimmy Butler merits special mention, as he just finished 0.5 fantasy points behind Bron. Butler did everything he could (22-10-9-3-1) but even stuffing the line to historic levels the effort wasn’t enough to put Miami over LA. Bam was there with him but was limited to 33 minutes, so it would have taken another mental game from Jimmy to pull the miracle off. Turns out it couldn’t be.
• Anthony Davis finished close to 50-DKFP with his 49 on the night, thanks to a plenty great 22-9-4-1-4 line in G4. Only Tyler Herro (36) broke for more than 27 fantasy points among the rest of the players in the slate.
• We’re back to a Laker in this section, as the ROI King award went to... Kentaviuous Caldwell-Pope! For all of the crap Laker fans have thrown toward KCP over the years—reasonable to an extent given his contract...—the man stepped up as hell in G4, dropped 15 points with 3 triples on the Heat, and added a very nice 3 boards and 5 dimes in a game in which he could very well be considered the factor that flipped the table and helped LA to their current 3-1 lead. Kudos to the K!
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Bam Adebayo! It is not that I can hate a lot on Bam—he was banged up and still not at his 100% in G4—but for his high price he could only play 33 minutes, and finished with a paltry 15-7-1-1 line and a dumb-low 18.7% usage rate. Too bad he got injured early in the series and we could have the full Bayo Experience. With Bam back Olynyk came back to playing 12 minutes... ultra-dud.
• Two dub-dubs via points and rebounds (LBJ’s 28-12 and Jimmy’s 22-10) but no dub-dubs on points and assists.
• Butler was alone leading the slate with 3 steals, while Anthony Davis (4) was the only player with more than a block.

Gotta Win The Day: Best/Worst DraftKings plays for today’s slate

• Love: (PG/SF) LeBron James, LAL: Title-clinching game for the Lakers. What does that mean? It means that, having LBJ in their squad, the Lakers have already won this game. LeBron is undefeated in championship-clinching matches (3-0) in his career, and let’s be honest, he ain’t dropping this one. Jimmer is putting up one more fantasy point per game than Bron, but he’s doing so playing three more minutes per game. James is averaging a monster 28-11-8 in the Finals, adding a steal and a block to that on a near-30% usage rate, the highest of every player involved. Night for the memories the one coming later today, folks. Enjoy the show.
• Hate: (SG/SF) Anthony Davis, LAL: Not hating too much on AD, but I wanted to add him here just to make sure that Bron is your Finals MVP, even if they end losing G5 tonight. As absolutely fantastic as Davis has been, LBJ has been nuts himself. AD had a very serious dud in G3 disappearing for good, and that alone killed his chances at the award. I don’t think he will be horrific tonight, but chances are Bron eats in a game that can seal the chip, while AD takes a secondary role to clinch the Larry O’B.
• Love: (SG/SF) Jimmy Butler, MIA: If you don’t think Jimmy will give it all today, then I don’t even know. I don’t care if Bam is in or out, is Goran is in or out, or if the very own Pat Riley has to get to the court and play power forward. Jimmer is going to play 48 minutes if that’s what the Heat need to force G6, have that in your head.

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!