NBA DFS: Bam Adebayo and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Wednesday, Mar. 11th

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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• Who knows what will be of this Cavs. Players seemed to be at odds with the staff and head coach John Beilein was ultimately kicked out of the building. They didn’t trade Kevin Love away, and doubled-down on the nonsense by trading for Andre Drummond. Now, the Cleveland Cavaliers have extended JB Bickerstaff. God bless his soul and gives him enough strength.
• For some reason people keep heavy-talking about Giannis upcoming free agency—he’ll re-sign with the Bucks, folks, just accept it—instead of how freaking great Milwaukee’s season is. Fools never learn...
• One player to keep an eye on coming from the Chinese CBA while it remains in pause due to Coronavirus: Donatas Motiejunas. Looks like Phoenix, Minny, and Euro-Maccabi have called the former NBA player to check on his status.
• Shout-out to Mychal Mulder, who got a multi-year deal from Golden State yesterday. Those playing in the G League, keep grinding because it works. Just ask my brother Juan Toscano-Anderson.
• Jordan Bell was cut by Memphis not long ago. It was known yesterday that he had signed a contract in the G League. He’s now part of the Wizards organization and with four years of NBA experience, it is absolutely not out of the realm of possibilities to see him back on Associations courts sooner rather than later. See what I meant? Keep. Grinding.
• Andre Iguodala is sucking all he can suck on the Heat. I can’t love it any more.

Duds and Studs: Last night slate roundup

• When you have a nine-game slate you know you’re in for some fireworks. Luka Doncic brought the fire yesterday leading all players with 63.25 DKFP in a 38-7-8-2 effort with the Mavs. He hit 6 triples, shot exactly 50% from the floor on 26 fga and although he committed 5 turnovers he was still able to lead the pack.
• Two more players broke the 60-DKFP barrier: Bradley Beal became Mad Brad again and logged 61.75 fantasy points with a 40-burger paired with 3 boards, 7 dimes, 3 steals, and a block. LeBron was the other one to get 61.5 with a 29-12-9-1 dub-dub on 54.5% shooting in almost 36 minutes of playing time.
• A monster eight players in the 50-to-60 fantasy points clip: Harden (59.5), Hayward (55), Dame (53.25), Domas (51.75), DLo ( 50.5), Valanciunas (50), Russ (50), Tatum (50).
• Pretty clear ROI King yesterday in Frank Ntilikina, Knicks Savior. Frankie Smokes dropped 43.5 DKFP at just $3.1K with a neat 20-2-10-2 dub-dub for New York against Washington.
• Two more valuable plays: Derrick White (47.25 at $4.6K), and Dragan Bender (35.75 at $3.5K).
• And the DOTS Award goes to... Kristaps Porzingings! The Zingalungadung could only get 32 DKFP while priced at $9.3K. He wasn’t alone, though. Other horrific performances came from Julius Randle (25.25 at $7.6K), Paul George (27.25 at $7.7K), Elfrid Payton (13 at $6.3K), and Malik Beasley (11.25 at $6.2K).
• Tons of double-digit rebounders helping us to watch 12 dub-dubs via points and boards (Domas missed on it by a single rebound, Kristaps by a point) while we had just a couple of points-assists double-doubles (five players finished with 9 assists, though, and Aaron Gordon missed on it by a couple of points and that single dime).
• Three fools blocked 4 shots: Aldridge, Derrick White, and Myles. Kudos to the men.

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

• There is something fluky with Aron Baynes line (yes, that monster game he pulled off the other day) but even accounting for that he’s still a good value out there to plug into your lineups. Baynes is putting up a line of 22-8-1-1-1 in his 34 minutes per game while still going on the low price/ownership, so take advantage. One of the few biggies hitting big-time triples with 4.7 3pm per.
• Both Shaq and Delly are maintaining their level of play at truly high heights. The two have played four games in the last seven days and are keeping up 14-6-3-3-2 and 7-4-9-1 lines respectively in their 31.3 and 36 mpg.
• Silly cheap values: Shaq, Delly, Caleb Martin (12-0-2-1-1 in 24 mpg), Dewayne Dedmon (10-8-1-2-1 in 22.3), DJ Augustin (15-2-4 in 22.8), Michael Carter-Williams (16-3-2-2 in 22.3)
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Devonte’ Graham (25-2-8-2 in 37), Ibaka (18-12-4-0-1 in 33.3), Rubio (20-8-11-2 in 35), Saric (20-8-1-1 in 34)
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Jokic (11-9-8-1 in 30.3), Mitchell (18-3-4-2 in 33), Gobert (11-9-2-1-2 in 33), Wiggins (18-5-3-0-1 in 25.2)
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Reddish (19.7 ppg in 26.7 mpg), Carter-Williams (15.8 in 22.3), Portis (15.5 in 25.5)
• Cheap threes: Reddish (3 3pm in 26.7), Korver ( 3 in 16.3), Caleb Martin (2.7 in 24)
• Cheap boards: Zubac (10.3 in 17.3), Dedmon (8.3 in 22.3), Shaq (6 in 31.3)
• Cheap dimes: Delly (9.3 in 36), McLaughlin (5.3 in 22.3), Mykhailiuk (5 in 24)
• Cheap steals: Gary Harris (3 in 32), Jerami (2 in 25.7), Danny Green (2 in 27.3)
• Cheap blocks: Derrick White (2.3 in 28.7), Shaq (1.5 in 31.3), Dedmon (1 in 22.3)
• Cheap shooting: Duncan Robinson (66.3 fg% on 12.7 fga), Gary Harris (62.9% on 9.3), Jeff Green (60.9% on 9.8)

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

• Love: (PG) De’Aaron Fox, SAC ($7800, vs NO): Believe it or not, the Kings are still in the playoff race 3.5 games behind no. 8 seed Memphis having won seven of their last 10 games. One of the reasons? Crazy contributions by Foxy who has been playing a tremendously steady basketball since the break. In his last nine games, he’s still to fall under 35 DKFP and he’s never cracked the $8K+ price in any of the slates he’s been part of. That’s some pretty neat value you’re getting on Fox, folks. Barring a 14-point game last Saturday (he made up for it by dishing out 11 dimes though) D’AF has scored 20+ points in the other eight games. The triples are a little bouncy and they appear and disappear nightly, but the rebounds are always north of 3+ and the assists normally end around 6+. All in all, Fox is a surefire play locked to give you 40 fantasy points no matter what and with upside to getting some extra goodies if the triples fall or the dub-dub on assists and points happen on a bright night. The usage is often closer to 30% than lower than that, and the minutes always in the 30s so it’s not that he’s lacking chances to thrive.
• Hate: (PG) Tobias Harris, PHI ($8500, vs DET): Here is the problem with Tobi: randomness and volatility. Sure, you might not believe in the concept and straight skip it and play Harris no matter what, but that stuff is something to always keep in mind. You’re going to pay $8.5K for a guy that finds as easy to get 55 DKFP (he’s done so in two of his last nine games) as he does to end under 30 fantasy points (three times in that span). Philly has played similar lineups since the break with Simmons and Embiid mostly out of them, but that has not meant much for Tobi in that he has kept this bouncy profile during that stretch. No way you can explain performances of 10 points against Cleveland and Milwaukee, or 25+ ones facing the Clippers and the Kings. There is massive randomness there. On the best of his nights, he can give you a sweet dub-dub, though he often struggles to get past 7 boards and the assists are not there for him in bunches. Quite risky play given the price.
• Love: (C) Bam Adebayo, MIA ($9000, vs CHA): Check this out: NBA All-Star, Player of the Week once, Skills Challenge winner. Yet I bet you ask any random NBA fan out there about Bam and he will still say who!? That’s the world we live in, folks. The price is high but not bigger than Bayo’s talent. It’s been 10 games played for Bam since Feb. 20 when he came back from Chicago and his first ASG. Do you know what Bam has been up to? 46 DKFP on average, top-20 player, an 18-11-6-1-2 line, seven of 10 potential dub-dubs (in another game he finished with 9 points, just one short of the eighth), and 51.3% shooting from the floor on more than 10 fga per game. If he reduces his turnovers a bit, Bam is a lock to log nightly 50-DKFP games, seriously. The Hornets are giving up the 10th-most fantasy goodies to the opposition and Bam doesn’t even need to stay on the court for long with his great 1.21 DKFP per minute out there. Beast of the East.
• Hate: (C) Kristaps Porzingis, DAL ($9400, vs DEN): Kristaps is soooo frustrating. He’s capable of breaking the game, and he’s done so in most February games and also three times in March, but in the last couple of matches he’s gone back to his bad-influence-Milhouse games. It’s been back-to-back 24 and 32 DKFP tallies for KP in no short 38 minutes of playing time in each of those games, so that’s no excuse for him. He’s scored 9 points in each of those, and only grabbed 8 and 12 boards while dishing out 2 and 3 dimes. Those numbers are putrid. As clear as water. That’s probably not your average Zingis—he’s not, for sure—but he’s facing Denver tonight and with the Nuggets running to clinch the playoffs and more importantly the no. 2 seed over the Clippers, I have serious doubts Jokic is going to make it easier on KP to put up numbers tonight. Not convinced at all of this gamble, much less at his top-heavy price.

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!