NBA DFS: Caris LeVert and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Friday, Aug. 21st

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

• Shout-out to the Minnesota Timberwolves for getting the no. 1 pick in yesterday’s draft lottery! Here’s to a potential Big 3 down the road if they hit the jackpot and pair whoever they pick with D-Lo and KAT and the three of them become big things.
• The Warriors dropped to the no. 2 slot and Charlotte jumped up five spots to close the top-3. Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit,... and New York (LOL) followed.
• Rajon Rondo didn’t play yesterday. Not that the Lake Show needed him to demolish the Blazers in a pretty-much-expected, get-you-shit-together win.
• Upcoming free agents might have to wait to fill their bags. Woj reported that it is probable that free agency gets pushed back from mid-October to the start of November at the very least.
• Another delay: the 2020-21 season looks more and more like a 2021 thing, indeed. Commish Silver said yesterday that Dec. 1 feels a little early to get things going next season, and that it is likely that the 20-21 campaign has everything to do with 2021 and nothing with the last month of this putrid 2020 year.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• Close but no cigar for Giannis, who fell one fantasy point short of reaching 60, finishing with 59 DKFP against Orlando yesterday. No surprise in his 28-20-5 line in just 31 minutes of playing time. He’s been doing it like this for the whole year and there is no player around that can put on more efficient performances daily. Enough for the Bucks to outplay the Magic and get back on track putting the series at 1-1 entering Game 3 tomorrow and potentially gentlemanly-sweeping Orlando in their very own home state.
• Two more players finished with 50+ fantasy points, those being AD even while playing just 29 minutes (31-11 with 3 dimes, a steal, and a block while shooting a very nice 61.9% from the field) and Vucevic (ate the L but dropped a sweet 32-10 dub-dub).
• Surprising, but only three ballers reached the 40-to-50 clip of points including Harden with a super-weird 21-5-9-3-1 line shooting 31.3%, SGA, and Pat Connaughton hitting five treys while snatching 11 boards (!).
• Absolutely indisputable ROI King yesterday in Milwaukee Buck Pat Connaughton! Even if he didn’t play more than he often does (21 minutes), Patty finished with 40.75 fantasy points while priced at just $3.5K. Conn dropped 15 points, all of them from the three-point line, and also grabbed 11 rebounds to complete his dub-dub performance. Not bad. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished close to Pat on the ROI ranks with a 44.5-fantasy point game at just $6.3K.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award goes to... Dame Lillard! Hurts and surprises to write, but here we are. Dame left the game against the Lakers with a finger injury (no worries, he’ll play Game 3) but he still reached 30 minutes of run so he had more than enough chances to put on a show... only he didn’t. Dame scored 18 pops, sure, but other than that was mediocre with just 3 rebounds, an assist, and a steal. LeBron was almost as bad with a 6-7-2 line far from his averages.
• Bad night for the huge-line eaters, with just five dub-dubs on points and rebounds (Giannis, AD, Steven Adams, Connaughton, Vucevic) and none between points and assists.
• At least Justin Holiday stole 5 rocks (Danny Green committed 4 thefts himself) while Myles Turner was able to block 5 shots, leading the bunch on that front.

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

• Love: (SG) Caris LeVert, BKN ($8100, vs TOR): Everybody knew Brooklyn was cooked even before the restart. No matter what, they entered this thing sentenced to death thanks to a holy bunch of injuries. Also, we all knew that if there was anyone capable of at least trying to carry the Nets for a bit that was going to be Caris. And oh boy is he doing so. It’s been five games in a row for CLV hitting 42+ DKFP, and in three of those five matches he’s finished with a dub-dub (he also had a 37-9 performance in that span). Now the Nets are also going to play without Joe Harris, which will free around 10-to-15 more field goal attempts of which I’m sure LeVert will take some, and he will stay on the court eating big-time minutes. All points to another booming game by Caris today and an easy 20-5-10 line going his way against the soon-to-be 3-0 Raps. Can’t have everything, I guess.
• Hate: (SG) Jaylen Brown, BOS ($7200, at PHI): The Celtics are ultra-running Philly out of Disney and already command a 2-0 lead in their series with the Sixers. Just the other day, in a true demolition, Jay wasn’t that needed so he only played 28 minutes. I think the key with Brown is basically that, the playing time. In game one playing 39 rounds of the clock he finished with 50 DKFP, but that was really over his average 1.02 DKFP per minute. I expect another explosion from Boston today, which means a short run and also low fantasy points scored by Brown. Even dropping to 2-1 shouldn’t worry these Celtics a lot, really, so there is no need to force things or ride with their starters for long ruining them before the real war starts on round two. Fade Jay for now.
• Love: (SG/SF) Norman Powell, TOR ($4300, at BKN): Risky play this one but look at how Toronto operates—everybody eats—and what Powell showed in the Raps’ G2 win and we might be in front of the best value of today’s slate. The algorithm is dumb, and has not caught up yet, so Powell has retained the same price he had prior to his last game even after finishing with a nice 24-6-2-1 line and 37 DKFP just two days ago. It is not that Norm will be shooting 65% every day, but for someone going as cheap as Powell is, and the upside he’s shown to have in him, there aren’t many more players available for peanuts that can boost your score this much.
• Hate: (C) Rudy Gobert, UTA ($7400, vs DEN): All things considered, Gobert’s price isn’t that crazy as to hang a hard-hate on him today. BUT. In the first two games of the first-round series, Gob hasn’t dropped more than 19 points and more worryingly he hasn’t been able to grab more than 7 rebounds. I mean, we’re talking about a perennial DPOY contender not being able to drop dub-dubs at will, which is something he proved earlier in the season—and in the bubble too—he’s very capable of. Considering the rest of options available at the center position in today’s slate—looking at you, JoJo and Joker—it doesn’t make much sense to save money by playing Gobert when you can pay top-dollar for one of the other two great bigs and actually rip huge rewards. I mean, I’d even considering playing Jarrett Allen if only for the upside if I’m into saving bucks.

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!