NBA DFS: Jimmy Butler and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Monday, Mar. 2nd

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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• When it seemed impossible for the Warriors to keep adding “guys” to their roster they went and signed Chasson Randle from the Chinese league after it was canceled due to Coronavirus. Another “what-the-heck” player to see what is in him, I guess.
• The Lakers, on the contrary, have released Troy Daniels. Also, the Denver Nuggets have bought out Jordan McRae, who will sign with the Suns for the remainder of the season.
• We will look at it later, but Giannis became the first player since 1983 to have a 40-20-5 game in under 35 minutes of playing time. James Harden, a much more skilled basketball player than Giannis (not my words) has all of zero 40-20-5 games in his career, no matter the minutes he was on the court.
• Joel Embiid, down. Ben Simmons, down. And now, Josh Richardson down too.
• Two weeks off the courts is what is ahead for JJ Redick after suffering a hamstring strain. Sucks for the playoff-chasing Pels.
• The day has come, my men. It’s Dion Waiters Monday and the man, the myth, the living legend, is working out today for the Lakers. The roster spot is there with Daniels out of Hollywood, so you know what to do LA.
• Shouts to the Clippers for pursuing the construction of a new arena and getting closer than ever to it per the last news. Too bad for the Lakers they’ll still need to let the Clips use the Staples come June later this year—and the next one, and probably the next next one, etc—as the move will still have to be completed.

Duds and Studs: Last night slate roundup

• Giannis is too ridiculous. Check this out: 41 points, 20 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, all in under 35 minutes of playing time. 60.7% shooting from the floor, a triple, 85.7% from the charity stripe, and 41.4% usage rate. Crazy as hell, and good for a slate-leading 77.5 DKFP yesterday.
• Two more players on the 70s, which is kinda bonkers to be honest: Kristaps went for 75.75 DKFP after posting a 38-13-4-1-5 stuffed line while hitting 6 treys, and LeBron finished close with 75.5 DKFP with a monster 34-12-13-2 trip-dub facing Zion for the second time and taking things perhaps too seriously.
• We saw three men broke the 60-DKFP mark too: Nikola Jokic (67.5 DKFP; 23-18-11), Bradley Beal (61.5; 34-2-8-5), and OG Anunoby (60.75; 32-7-3-7). Only two into the 50s (Shake Milton with 54.75 and Lonzo with 50.75).
• And with that, I’ve already named the ROI King of the night: Shake Milton reached 54.75 DKFP at just $5.2K by having an incredible and unexpected 39-3-5-1 very complete game in which he also hit 7 triples in almost 40 minutes of run. He started and seems entrenched into the starting lineup of these super-injured Sixers at least short-term.
• The other superb value-returner was Mike Scott. He only logged 26 minutes but reached 30.5 DKFP pretty good for his underground-level price of $3K.
• The DOTS Award goes to... Brandon Ingram! Bones finished the game against his ex-team with just 24 DKFP while entering the slate priced at $7.9K. Jrue Holiday was a very solid dud for the Pels too, with 28.25 fantasy points at $8.3K. Derrick Rose only played 9 minutes and in those he reached 15.75 DKFP... at a high price of $6.6K.
• People went bananas on the boards yesterday and we had seven dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Alex Len and Dragan Bender missed by two points, Naz Reid and Finney-Smith by one, and DLo, Lonzo, and Harrell by a single board), but no one excelled on the assists department with Lonzo the only one reaching nine.
• Obviosly, I’ve left LeBron and Jokic out of the last point. Bron logged a sweet 34-12-13 trip-dub, same as Big Honey with his 23-18-11.
• OG Anunoby was on acid stealing rocks all around the court and getting to 7 thefts on the night, and the very own JaVale McGee went off the charts blocking 6 shots in just 24 minutes of playing time!

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

• Not hard to understand why Shake Milton appears at the top of the value-charts these days. The price/ownership has yet to catch up to his exploits and the guy is basically thriving in Philly given all the injuries. Milton is averaging a 21-4-5-1-1 line in his 33.3 mpg during the last four games, and most of all he’s hitting 4.3 treys per game. His 14 consecutive triples made NBA history, just in case. Whether or not he can keep the efficiency up is a serious question with a dubious answer, but hey, current-Milton doesn’t look shaky at all!
• OG Anunoby is flying absolutely under the radar for some reason, but he’s excellent in what he does and he’s playing 36 minutes per game. His line reads 20-7-3-5, he’s shooting over 55% from the floor, scoring more than a couple of threes per game, and is part of a Raptors team that has always been all-in on this type of player and rotation of young guns.
• Silly cheap values: Mitchell Robinson (13-11-2-1-3 in 28.3 mpg off the pine), Kevin Porter (16-5-4-2-1 in 32.5), Myles Turner (10-10-1-1-5 in 31.3)
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Marcus Smart (18-5-6-3-1 in 37), Ricky Rubio (15-5-11-3 in 30.8), Donovan Mitchell (35-6-4 in 34)
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Jrue Holiday (15-4-7-2 in 26.3), Kyle Lowry (16-5-7-1-1 in 38.7), Paul George (17-3-3-1 in 26)
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Jerami Grant (21.7 ppg in 25.7 mpg), Kyle Kuzma (14.3 in 25.3), Gary Trent Jr. (14 in 32.7)
• Cheap threes: Brandon Knight (4.7 in 24.3), Svi Mykhailiuk (3 in 28.3), Langston Galloway (2.7 in 22.7)
• Cheap boards: Alex Len (8.8 in 19.8), Donte DiVincenzo (7.5 in 23.5), Dragan Bender (7 in 23.8)
• Cheap dimes: Tony Snell (5.7 in 33), Cory Joseph (4.8 in 20.3), TJ McConnell (4.3 in 18.3)
• Cheap steals: Dennis Smith Jr. (2.3 in 18.3), Justin Holiday (2 in 20), George Hill (1.5 in 22.8)
• Cheap blocks: Mo Bamba (3 in 13.8), Bismack Biyombo (2.3 in 19.8), JaVale McGee (1.5 in 17.8)
• Cheap shooting: Shake Milton (63.9 fg% on 12 fga), Jerami Grant (54.4% on 13.3), Duncan Robinson (50.3% on 9.5)

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

• Love: (SG/SF) Jimmy Butler, MIA ($7500, vs MIL): Yes, the mighty Bucks are no joke, but the discount is so sweet I’ll be skipping dessert today. Call my Butler and tell him there is no need to serve me one today, as I’ll be good watching him cooking Milwaukee at home. Jimmy B aka Buckets has already played 50 games this season yet he’s still keeping up an all-around contribution of 20-7-6-2 over the year. That’s insane. I know this version of JB is not close to the one that set the league on fire through the first two months of the campaign, but we’re still talking about a man that is averaging over 40 DKFP in the last month of games, playing over 33 minutes per game, rarely falling short of 20 points a night, and who finds ridiculously easy to get himself into the 5-5-1-1 realm daily while shooting over 45% from the floor in relatively low usage rates on offense. Luxurious asset at a thrift shop price.
• Hate: (PG) Elfrid Payton, NYK ($6700, vs HOU): We all know Elfrid and we all know he ain’t no Gary, no matter he played like the latter leading up to the ASW break. In the six games from Jan. 29 to Feb. 12 Payton averaged 44 DKFP per game and a 15-7-10 line that, obviously, was highly unsustainable in the long run. Payton is an 11-4-6 player on his six-year career, so I invite you to do the math. No wonder, after coming back from the Chicago festivities he’s had one good game (18-6-12) and a couple of nicely rounded stinkers (21 and 17 DKFP). The Knicks are giving all the minutes he can handle and then some, but the return on investment of season-long Payton (and what we should reasonably expect from him going forward, as the regression must be coming) isn’t worth it. Even taking his early-February in consideration over his full season (39 games played), he’d be averaging just 30 DKFP. If we remove the games in which he played fewer than 20 minutes, he’d still be averaging 32 DKFP. And the difference in the before/after-February splits is bonkers: 26 DKFP before, 39 DKFP from Feb. 1 on. Fade Payton, his good days are probably over.
• Love: (C) Jonas Valanciunas, MEM ($6800, at ATL): The Grizz as a whole have struggled as hell lately and they’re on the verge of falling out of the playoff picture if their recent form doesn’t improve—and fast. Enter JoVa, who along with Ja has dropped a few eggs along the way during the month of February. Good for us fantasy nuts, Valanciunas seems to have regained his form and he’s closed last month with a couple of 50-DKFP games with 13-25 and 22-20 outings against no less than the Kangz (meh...) and the Lakers (yay!). Those last couple of performances are more in line with full-season JoVa, to be honest. The big man has played the season like a top-50 player at the very least and although he started a bit slow, he thrived from December on raising his averages to the level of those of a top-35 performer. It’s been three games in a row in which he’s gotten himself a dub-dub, so there is reason to believe Jo is back on track.
• Hate: (C) Andre Drummond, CLE ($8000, vs UTA): I’m probably going to regret this pick, but I would say don’t get fooled by a single good game. Drummond has been in Cleveland for three weeks and in that time he’s played six matches starting all of them. He’s averaged just 26 mpg and only in the last one did he play more than 29 minutes... That might be the case going forward, but not until I see it will I believe it. On top of that, Dre hasn’t been himself in Ohio, not at least his early-season self, that is. His fantasy tallies for the Cavs read 47, 37, 36, 15, 25, and 60. That last outing was impressive, sure, and what we might expect (not a daily 60-point performance, obviously, but still) from Drummond, but that has been one out of six games hitting. Utah features a great big—Gobert, although he’s struggling a bit lately—and that doesn’t bode well for Dre’s chances of reaching high heights again today. Risky fade, but even riskier play to my eyes.

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!