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
- As much as I love the whole buyout thing, I also hate it to death. It is this time of the year when most borderline players hang on the verge of being cut or remain rostered, and for some of them this might mean it’s over for good. Just yesterday I told you about Charlotte cutting Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. This guy was the 2nd-overall pick in the 2012 draft! Good for all involved, he’s now a Dallas Maverick. Bullet dodged there, but I’m sure some other guys will lose their chance to remain in the league for long during the next few days... and I hate it.
- Jeff Van Gundy of all men on Earth is making the rumor mill as a potential future head coach for the New York Knicks. For the gazillionth time, that is. I wonder when will Mark Jackson’s name pop up again.
- I don’t know if Joel Embiid will leave Philadelphia eventually, but I’m going to tell you it wouldn’t surprise me at all. I guess the Sixers would bet on Simmons over the biggie, but who knows. No matter what though, I don’t see this team completing The Process up to a Larry O’B, so the break is just bound to happen one day.
- Bad news confirmed: Jonathan Isaac will be out for the remainder of the season. Sucks as the kid was having quite a year.
Duds and Studs: Last night slate roundup
- It’s crazy how good the NBA is on a nightly basis that when don’t have any 60-DKFP performance we’re pissed off... That happened yesterday, as 10 players broke for more than 50 fantasy points but none of them reached 60.
- Domantas Sabonis led the slate with 58.5 DKFP with a stupid 23-10-11-1 line that will live forever in the triple-double record books. Pretty nice game for Domas who also shot 73.3 percent from the floor on 15 attempts and added a freebie from the charity stripe. Lowry (27-7-11-1-2) and Middleton (28-11-8-1) both finished with 57.75 DKFP and Siakam (34-6-5-2-1) closed the top-3 in DKFP getting himself 56.5 yesterday.
- Anunoby, Vucevic, Bledsoe, Jimmy B, KAT, and Aldridge closed the 50-DKFP group.
- Not many doubts about who was the ROI King yesterday, and you’ve already read his name in the bullet point just before this one: O.G. produced an incredible 55 DKFP (25-12-3-3-1 in 36 minutes) while priced at just $3.9K. Nuts performance for peanuts on the change.
- The other four great value-returners from yesterday’s slate: Kelly Olynyk (41.5 KDPF at $3.6K), Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (36 at $3.2K), Rajon Rondo (40.5 at $3.8K), and Jordan Clarkson (46 at $4.4K).
- And today’s DOTS Award goes to... Devin Booker! As it is tradition now, Book read the column yesterday and was determined to make me eat crow, so he went on a massive effort to finish with 21 DKFP (10-4-5 in 31 minutes) while entering the slate at $8K...
- Shouts to Andrew Wiggins though as he helped me look good with the Hate after getting just 26.5 DKFP at $7.8K. Ugh. Other honorable-dud mentions: Kelly Oubre Jr. (16 DKFP at $7.3K), Christian Wood (20.5 at $7.2K), and Malcolm Brogdon (15 DKFP at $6.9K).
- Massive day for dub-dubbers. We saw 12 double-doubles in points-boards (Cody Zeller missed by 6 points, other four players by one rebound), and six dub-dubs in points-dimes (Jeff Teague missed by two points, four other players by one assist). Kudos to Domas for finishing with a triple-double!
What’s cooking? Statistical trends from the past seven days
- Is Thon Maker turning into Thon Maker!? It’s been four games in seven days and things can’t look much better for him. Maker is putting up 10 points, 6 boards, 2 dimes, and almost 2 stocks per game in those while only playing 23 minutes nightly. All in all, cheap/available player producing quite some value.
- Jordan Clarkson is bananas these days. If you can still add him to your roster for free you’re losing your time reading this. Go and get him asap! The line reads 21-4-3 with a massive 75 percent shooting from the floor and 2.5 treys per game. If moving to Salt Lake City does you so well then I’ll be packing my bags in no time.
- Of those a little bit more expensive, one has to acknowledge the efforts of Jamal Murray (28-3-5 in 32.5 minutes), Avery Bradley (14-3-2-1 in 24.5), and Aaron Gordon (18-8-5-1 in 33.3).
- Kyle Lowry merits his own mention as he’s averaging 53 DKFP while priced at “just” $7.1K on average in his last three, making him one the best values out there thanks to a massive 25-5-11-1-1 average line. Go play him while he’s hot.
- Hurts to say, but Donovan Mitchell has been ugly to watch play in his last four games. He’s still holding his $7.1K average price tag but the production has dropped to 33 DKFP on a 20-6-4 line far from his true-talent level. The same goes for Valanciunas, the worst all players priced at $7K+ in the past seven days with an average of just 31 DKFP per game (10-13-0-0-2).
- Get away from RJ Barrett (7-3-3 in 20 minutes), Eric Gordon (12-2-1 in 22.3), and Jarrett Allen (7-9-0-0-1 in 18.3), please.
- Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Seth Curry (20.3 ppg in 29.7 mpg), Furkan Korkmaz (25.7 in 29), and Harrison Barnes (19 in 33.7).
- Cheap threes: Duncan Robinson (5 3pm in 37.3), Malik Beasley (4 in 27.3) and Landry Shamet (3.3 in 29)
- Cheap boards: DeAndre Jordan (13.3 in 25.7), Dwight Howard (8.8 in 15.3), and Joe Harris (8 in 29.3)
- Cheap dimes: Jordan McLaughlin (7.7 in 27.7), Michael Carter-Williams (5.3 in 22.5), and Joe Ingles (6 in 31.5).
- Cheap steals: O.G. Anunoby (2.8 in 29.5), De’Anthony Melton (2.3 in 23), and Cam Johnson (1.7 in 19.3).
- Cheap blocks: Mitchell Robinson (2.3 in 24), Ivica Zubac (1.7 in 17.7), and John Henson (1.7 in 21).
- Cheap shooting: Tyus Jones (69.6 fg% on 9.7fga), Jordan Clarkson (63.5% on 14 fga), and Gary Trent Jr. (62.3% on 10 fga).
Gotta Win The Day: Best/Worst DraftKings plays for tonight’s slate
- Love: (SG) Zach LaVine, CHI ($8100, at WAS): I just read about a potential trade that went nowhere a few days ago between Denver and Chicago. It would have involved both Zachary and Gary Harris. I would have loved to watch Hollywood LaVine in Denver as just “another guy” playing under some heavier-role and more coveted players such as Jokic, the clear no. 1 of the Nuggs, but I won’t be doing so. LaV stayed a Bull and in Chicago he’s the surefire leading option at everything. That means when the Bulls face cupcake-teams such as the Wiz LaVine is the one primed to eat big time. No better player-matchup combo tonight, probably, as Zach could easily make himself a 40-burger to go with some 5-5 boards-dimes or something of the like. Believe it or not, ZLV is a top-30 player this season and averaging 41 DKFP on the year. No slouch.
- Hate: (PG/SG) Marcus Smart, PG/SG ($5600, at HOU): Smart has been swinging from starting to riding the pine this season and even more so lately. No matter what, he’s still on the 25+ minutes per game and breaking for more than 30 often. Even with those extended runs he’s just not producing a lot. The price is so low that he’s not an incredibly risky play, but in his last couple of games he’s just averaged 8 points, 3 boards, and 4 dimes for 23 DKFP. Going back three weeks to Jan. 20 (nine-game span) his line reads 11-4-5-1, not bad, but not overly good. Smart has only had one 35+ DKFP performance in those nine games and it doesn’t look like he will be reaching those heights any time soon.
- Love: (PF) Davis Bertans, WAS ($5400, vs CHI): Every single GM wanted Bertans this past deadline, but he stayed put in DC given the impossible price Washington tagged him with. No problem for us fantasy nuts, which have a very caring algorithm handing those prices and Bertans’ happens to be ground-level low. Nice! Nothing to discover in D-Be’s shooting these days. It’s been 42 games for him already and the percentages are still as high as they have ever been at 44/43/87 on 11.1 fga, 8.4 3pa, and 2.0 fta per game. The man can shoot, that’s for sure. Just because of that he’s going to give you 15+ points nightly and more than 3 triples every single day. He brings the upside of grabbing a bunch of boards and he’s lately boosted his assist numbers so there is that. Not a slate-winning guy, obviously, but someone with quite some upside for the price he’s tagged at.
- Hate: (SF) Paul George, LAC ($8000, at PHI): Hating on surefire players always backfires, so maybe you want to play Pauly tonight. Who knows. Looking at his season averages might make you think George isn’t playing that great as 22-6-4-1 doesn’t scream pure greatness, only he’s doing so playing under 30 minutes per game. All in all, though, the price is high at $8K and that sure claims for production-production-production if you want the play to return value. That’s always hard when the minutes are cut nightly. PG13 has played six games since he went down on Jan. 5 and then came back on Jan. 30. He’s played more than 26 minutes just in one of those six games, and he’s needed mental efficiency levels to reach more than 40 DKFP three times. He’s going to reach 20 points and probably 5 rebounds, 4 assists, but that’s pretty much his ceiling in LA. If you’re happy getting 40 DKFP for $8K, then play George. If you are looking for a potential explosion, forget about PG giving you one, much less against the Sixers.
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!