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

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• I told you. The buyout market would be here even before we had processed the deadline. Turns out Charlotte took it pretty seriously as the Hornets have already gotten rid of both Marvin Williams (Bucks bound) and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Potential teams being floated around for MKG: Dallas, Oklahoma City, Houston, and the Clippers. We’ll see.
• The Clippers have officially waived Isaiah Thomas. Sucks for the guy, as he always had it hard and always proved people wrong and performed as great as he ever could. Hope he keeps grinding somewhere.
• It’s that time of the year when we have multiple debuts going on for a few nights in a row. Wiggins, Iguodala, etc. will all don new threads during the next few games and we’ll be covering them daily as always!

Duds and Studs: Last night slate roundup

• Obviously, the sooner I hate on someone, the sooner he goes bonkers. Shouts to Deandre Ayton because the man deserves them. Ayton had a monster game yesterday and led the slate with his 61.75 DKFP to the tune of 28 points and 19 boards to which he was even able to add 2 dimes, 3 steals, and a block. He played a night-high 42 minutes and shot 61.9 percent from the floor on 21 attempts, hitting also his two freebies.
• Jrue Holiday was the only other player on the 60+ DKFP after logging 61 for the Zion/Ingram-less Pels. He got 31 pops, 6 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals and scored 4 long-rangers while logging a massive 36.8% usage rate on a pretty weird night in which arguably the two-best New Orleans players were out.
• Tons of players in the 50s: Giannis, KAT, Jamal Murray, AD, Buddy (my buddy!), Vucevic, Middleton, LeVert, Devonte’, and LeBron. Quite a list.
• More than a bunch of true-value players yesterday, led by ROI King Malik Beasley. The new Wolf got to 48 DKFP on 29 minutes of playing time while priced at just $3.2K. He scored 23 and grabbed 10 boards to go with 4 assists and a steal. Two more Wolves had impressive nights for their price: Jordan McLaughlin (48 DKFP in 37 minutes at $4.3K) and James Johnson (31.75 DKFP in 20 at $3K). Shouts to Matt Thomas and Avery Bradley too as they finished with 31.5 and 35 DKFP while priced at $3K and $3.5K respectively.
• Time for the DOTS Award, who tonight goes to... De’Aaron Fox! Foxy could only get 22 DKFP in 26 minutes while priced at a high $8K. In a close runner-up position DeMar DeRozan finished with 25 DKFP in 30 minutes while priced at $8.1K. Shitty returns for those betting on these two normally sure-fire performers.
• Everybody seemed to be angry for dub-dubs yesterday. There were 13 double-doubles on points-rebounds (Harry Giles missed on it by two points, five other players by one rebound), and five on points-assists (Ky Bowman missed on it by three points, three two other players by one dime). No triple-doubles yesterday but LeBron (22-8-11), Giannis (19-18-9), KAT (22-13-9), and Dejounte Murray (17-9-9) were all this close to it.

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

• All eyes on Malik. He was the ROI King yesterday but in his three games during the past week he leads the ROI leaderboard by a mile averaging 16.3 ppg, 5 rpg, 3.3 apg, and 0.7 spg. The change of scenery won’t harm him as he was a role player in Denver and that’s the baseline at the very least for his Wolves tenure going forward.
• Gray Trent Jr. has played 10% of his dad’s total games in the NBA, but so far so good for Junior. In just 26 minutes of run he’s posting up a 15-2-2-2 line and hitting 3.3 treys per game at a very cheap price, so you might want to pounce before it’s too late.
• Not the ultimate surprise because we all know him by now, but Caris LeVert has been for real for real lately. He’s averaged 46 DKFP in his last three games to the tune of a 30-3-6-1 line while scoring a ton of three-pointers (3.7 per) and keeping his fg% high at 52.2 on a massive 34.4% usage rate.
• Although Jrue Holiday saved face a little with his performance yesterday he’s been way on the low. Just 33 DKFP per game (15-4-7-1-1) in his last four while still priced super high at around $7K. More overvalued players from the past seven days: Zion (35 DKFP at $7.5K, 21-7-2-1-1), Siakam (36 at $8.1K, 19-7-4-1-1), Randle (38 DKFP at $8.4K, 20-8-3-1-1).
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Terence Davis (19.8 ppg in 27.5 mpg), Furkan Korkmaz (17.3 in 24), and Malik Monk (16.3 in 26.7).
• Cheap threes: Duncan Robinson (4.3 3pm in 36) and Bryn Forbes (3 in 24.3)
• Cheap boards: Cabel Swanigan (8.3 in 20), John Henson (6 in 21.7), and Harry Giles (6 in 17.3).
• Cheap dimes: Jordan McLaughlin (6.7 in 28.7), Michael Carter-Williams (5.3 in 23), and Delon Wright (5 in 21.8).
• Cheap steals: Brad Wanamaker (2.3 in 24.3).
• Cheap blocks: Brook Lopez (3.5 in 30.5), Mo Bamba (1.8 in 10.8), and Myles Turner (2.8 in 29).
• Cheap shooting: Tyus Jones (66.9 fg% on 10.7 fga), Joe Harris (55.9% on 11.3), and Harrison Barnes (53% on 11).

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

• Love: (C) Rudy Gobert, UTA ($8000, at HOU): I don’t have any idea how you can’t play The Croissant today. I mean, have you paid attention to what Houston has done this past trade deadline? The tallest player the Rockets have these days might be Eric Gordon, who knows. Even if Rudy just gets on the court and stands still behind the rim you can see him getting 30 pops and 20 rebounds easily. Like, without moving at all. The best move Houston would be pulling on him would be the refs calling 3-sec violations. LOL. Seriously, go pay Gob. More than worth it today.
• Hate: (PF/C) Larry Nance Jr., CLE ($6900, vs LAC): For some reason Larry is still priced at $6.9K while he should be priced at—forget about it. Larry shouldn’t even be priced at all. He should be out straight out of the slate and deemed unplayable. The Cavs have traded for Dre Drummond, which means Cleveland now has Dre, TT, Love, and Larry sharing two lineup spots. And you tell me Junior is worth playing? Sure thing, brother. It’s actually sad because his last two games had been great with consecutive 39 and 38 DKFP performances even getting a nice 14-10 dub-dub in his last one. I’m afraid those days are over and the minutes will get back to his season-low averages of around 20 at most.
• Love: (PG) Ja Morant, MEM ($6300, at WAS): Truth be told, Ja has been way cold. It’s been four games in a row already and counting. BUT. This slump has something positive and it is that MoMo is going at a bargain price while facing a get-right opponent in the Wiz. Morant is far more than a $6.3K player, can’t lie there. He’s a 34-DKFP player on the season averaging 30 minutes of playing time for a 1.13 DKFP per minute return. He’s reaching 17.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg, and 7 apg per game while shooting almost 50% from the floor on a healthy 13.3 fga diet, and well, he’s the clear no. 1 option of these baby Grizz. Also, he’s happier than ever now that Memphis has sent Iggy’s ass packing out of town.
• Hate: (PG/SG) Collin Sexton, CLE ($6500, vs LAC): Not the highest of prices to pay for young blood, but still a little bit too rich. Knowing how this column works, now Sexton will probably have a booming game and feed Drummond like 38 assists while hitting 27 points himself. Shaking my head... That’d be beating the odds to their ultimate death, though, because Sex is far from that player. His 0.92 DKFP per minute on the court are as bland as they can get and although he’s scoring almost 20 pops per game that’s basically all he does. The rest of the cats have nothing to do with him and he skips them as hustlers dodge cops. Sexton is more cop than hustler, by the way.

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!