NBA DFS: Rudy Gobert and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Saturday, Feb. 22nd

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

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• The Pistons are officially undergoing an uber-tanking effort. Detroit and Markieff Morris agreed to a contract buyout yesterday... and in a matter of hours, the Lakers added Morris to their roster as a free agent. Gotta love it after his censored brother was traded to the Clippers earlier this season. Another reason to root for the Lake Show, if it means shutting that brother out.
• The Lakers didn’t have room for Morris so they had to release DeMarcus Cousins. It pains me to see this happen, because DMC must be one of the unluckiest players to ever made it. Cousins has played nine seasons and 565 games so far, and I don’t even know if we’ll ever see him again on a court or not. He’s only 29 but injuries have been so present in his career lately that even if he gets back to playing he will probably have no impact at all. Sad, but true.
• Speaking of the Lakers and rumors floating around Hollywood, Moe Harkless won’t be bought out and will remain a Knick for the remainder of the season. Good luck, mate.
• Karl-Anthony Towns will miss two weeks at least. Great player, shitty season. Stinky team.
• Lance Stephenson wants back in the NBA! Yessir! The guard has been balling in China this season and now the league is on hold due to the Coronavirus. The season is not yet over but on hiatus over there. That complicates the situation a bit in terms of contract negotiations, so we’ll see how this ends for Stephenson and other potential free agents coming from China.

Duds and Studs: Last night slate roundup

• Anthony Davis, Pascal Siakam, and Luka Doncic were the three men to make it past the 60-DKFP threshold. AD (66.75 DKFP) finished with a sweet 28-13-4-1-7 double-double with a monster 7 (!) blocks. Siakam (65.5) hit 5 triples to complete a 37-12-3-0-3 effort. Luka (62) fell just short of a trip-dub with a 33-10-8-1-1 stuffed line all across the board.
• Seven more players inside the 50-to-60 DKFP clip: Steven Adams (56.75), Porzingis (56.5), Vucevic (55.5), Tatum (52.75), Jokic (51.75), LeBron (50.25), and McCollum (50). Shouts to Stevie for dropping the hammer big time and finishing fourth in the slate with a very nice 19-17-2-4-2 that became his best performance of the season!
• Four players with ROIs over 10 is something very hard to see in a single slate, so the value was all around the place yesterday. Emmanuel Mudiay was the ROI King, though, with 32.75 DKFP at $3K (18-5-3-1-1 in just 17 minutes). Gorgui Dieng (32.5 at $3K; 14-10 in 21), Stevie, and Daniel Theis (48 at $4.7K; 25-16 in 28) followed him.
• And the DOTS Award goes to... Kevin Love! This fool finished with 11.25 DKFP in 22 minutes of playing time while priced at a massive $7.5K. Sorry for those of you paying for such a disaster of a performance. Julius Randle was close (22.75 at $8.1K), same as Ja Morant (20.25 at $7K).
• Absolutely bonkers night for dub-dub lovers. We saw 19 (!) double-doubles via points and rebounds (Favors and Valanciunas fell short by just two points, while Shai, Barton and Naz Reid did so by just one board!), and four dub-dubs via points and dimes (Shai again, Ricky, Fultz, and Jrue missed on it by a single assist). No triple-doubles, though, but Shai’s 11-9-9 line was this close to it, almost the same as Luka’s 33-10-8.

What’s cooking? Statistical trends from the past seven days

• After coming back to winning ways, Steven Adams made the alarms went off again yesterday and we’ll need to keep an eye on his exploits going forward. He’s averaging 11 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2.3 steals, and 1.8 blocks in his last four games while still cheap/largely available, making him a great value.
• Anfernee Simons only has three games in the last seven slates but is also providing tons of ROI with his 13-4-2-1 line in 24 minutes. More great players going for peanuts: Jae Crowder (17-7-1-2-1 in 28 minutes), Trevor Ariza (13-5-2-3 in 29 minutes), and Juan Hernangomez (16-7-0-1-1 in 29 minutes).
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Lou Williams (24-4-6-1-1 in 35 minutes), Gordon Hayward (21-9-5-1-1 in 38 minutes), and LaMarcus Aldridge (24-9-4-1-1 in 35 minutes).
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Devin Booker (19-5-7 in 34 minutes), Andre Drummond (15-14-2-1-1 in 24), and John Collins (22-9-2-1-2 in 36).
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Landry Shamet (16.3 ppg in 36.7 mpg), Juan Hernangomez (16 in 29.3), and Patty Mills (15.3 in 21.3).
• Cheap threes: De’Andre Hunter (2.8 3pm in 36), Reggie Bullock (2.7 in 26.3), and Bryn Forbes (3 in 25.3).
• Cheap boards: Dwight Howard (10.3 in 22.7), Michael Carter-Williams (8 in 19.3), and Cedi Osman (6.7 in 28.7).
• Cheap dimes: Derrrick White (4.7 in 21.3), Tyus Jones (4.5 in 17.3), and Frank Ntilikina (4.3 in 22.3).
• Cheap steals: Cameron Johnson (2.3 in 18.7), Trevor Ariza (2.5 in 33.8), and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (2.3 in 27).
• Cheap blocks: James Johnson (2.3 in 26.7), Jakob Poeltl (1.7 in 12.3), and Trey Lyles (1.7 in 29).
• Cheap shooting: Montrezl Harrell (62.8 fg% on 10.7 fga), Brandon Clarke (61.6% on 10.5 fga), and Dejounte Murray (61% on 13 fga).

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

• Love: (C) Rudy Gobert, UTA ($7800, vs HOU): Le Croissant against the Pocket Rockets. At just $7.8K. LOL. Please, don’t make me go over this decision, as it is so easy to make it that I don’t even know where to start. You know what the Rockets are doing with this whole Small Ball thing and you know—at the very least—that Gobert is some sort of a tall man. That is enough to make him your cornerstone tonight. Gob is averaging 15.6 points and 14.6 rebounds on the season facing different degrees of opposition in the paint. He will face none tonight. He will feast. He will score 30 and grab 45 boards. Or something like that. In his last six games, Rudy has caught at least 14 rebounds and scored 12+ points in each of those games. The usage is ridiculously low but that doesn’t matter when he’s just killing the boards. Not much more in his stat lines, but those pts-rbd are strong enough to boost your whole lineup.
• Hate: (SF) Khris Middleton, MIL ($8100, vs PHI): The last time the Bucks played the Sixers—on Feb. 6 just before the break—Midd had his worst game since Jan. 24 and could only finish with just 34.75 DKFP even while playing 35 minutes, which were way more than his 29 mpg on the season. He dropped 20 points and grabbed 7 rebounds to go with 3 assists, but those numbers were a bit too low for his true level. He did so while priced at $7.4K that night, though, so the return wasn’t that bad. The problem is that K-Midd is going quite a bit more expensive today and that definitely makes him way less appealing to put in your lineup. Sure, he will probably reach the 20 pops and get himself some 5-5 in rebounds and assists, but that might be his ceiling and the upside isn’t that great tonight. The Sixers are giving up the fewest fantasy points per game to their rivals, so you better fade Middle-a-Ton tonight.
• Love: (SG/SF) Tim Hardaway Jr., DAL ($6100, at ATL): I won’t sell you the idea of Timmy being a slate winner because, simply put, he just ain’t one. On the other hand, though, his price and upside playing alongside Luka and KP and facing the Hawks is so sweet you have to consider playing him. Hardaway has started every game since Nov. 20, his usage is low due to those two he plays with, but he’s still remaining on the court for north of 30 minutes nightly. It’s been seven games in a row for THJr. scoring 14+ points with at least 2 triples to his name (he’s dropped 3, 5, 5, and 3 in his last four), and he’s got a couple of 25- and 33-point performances in that span. The rebounds are high enough considering his position and role, and he often finds a way to contribute in the assists cat too. Sublime shooting at 57.4% in his last three games while attempting 13.6 fga per.
• Hate: (PG/SG) Collin Sexton, CLE ($6400, at MIA): Cleveland is the closest to a dumpster fire you can find in the NBA these days. Not even the Knicks approach the situation, just imagine! Sexton keeps doing what he does best: shooting the hell out of the ball every night and scoring his daily 20 pops, and there’s where good news stops. Collin’s got the minutes (33.5 per since the start of February), the usage rate (26.6%), the field goal attempts (17.1 per), and the freebies (5.1 fga scored at a 84.8% clip), but that’s all. The rebounds are low, the assists are low, the stills barely exist, and the blocks are not in Sexton’s dictionary. Not the Sex(iest) of plays, with a Ton still to be learned.

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!