NBA DFS: Jimmy Butler and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Saturday, Aug. 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

• Stinking night for Denver and Brooklyn, which were absolutely demolished by Utah (+37 points) and Toronto (+25) in their respective Game 3s. Not surprising in the Raps case, a little worrying on the Nuggets side of things as they now trail the Jazz 1-2.
• Joel Embiid got his ass whooped and played the “poor boy, imma cry” move as good as he ever has. One more loss and Philly will be packing its bags for good.
• Mike Conley left the bubble. Welcomed his child to the world. Came back. And burned the Nuggets with all of his passion. As Fred VanVleet learned in 2019 and Conley now, aim for the playoffs when calculating the birth of your kids, pro-hoopers reading this. That’d definitely boost your abilities quite a bit.
• Lillard got banged up against the Lakers a couple of days ago and injured a finger but he will be back today. Someone who doesn’t: Zach Collins. The big man was shut down for the season by Portland after having missed some time in the bubble already now requiring ankle surgery.
• No Russell Westbrook in Game 3 tonight. I’m starting to get anxious. I need my Brodie fix.
• Not even 24 hours since the draft lottery and every living draft pick seem to be available via trade from Minny’s to Golden State’s to whichever you can think of. Makes sense, as it is not that the 2020 class looks super bright.
• Speaking of the draft... LaMelo is probably a lock to become a top-3 pick, most probably landing in Charlotte. Do you know who’s making headlines yesterday, though? Big Baller Brother Lonzo Ball, who is seemingly being shopped by the Pels. Kid can’t catch a break.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• About we got some Klaw Experience! Kawhi (64.75 DKFP) finally decided to bomb-out against Dallas yesterday, played all of 39 minutes, dropped 36 pops, and paired those numbers with 9 boards, 8 dimes, 2 thefts, and a block to spare. That’s the Leonard we expect and enjoy the most. That’s also the Leonard LA will need if Playoff-P keeps putting on stupidly bad performances...
• Two more players finished with 50+ fantasy points, in this case Kristaps Porzingis terrorizing the Clips for a while with a 34-13 hitting 5 triples, and also JoJo with a 30-13 effort against Boston... that went for nothing.
• A massive amount of guys got inside the 40-to-50 DKFP clip, the ROI King of the day among them. Those were Luka, Kemba, Siakam, Gobert, Tobi, Ibaka (in 22 minutes!!!), Lowry, and FVV.
• Not the greatest ROI King ever, but we need to hand out the award daily so... congrats to Serge Ibaka! Considering Ibaka played only 22 minutes yesterday coming off the bench, his 20-13-2-1 line was even greater than it looks like. The dub-dub was good enough to help Serge reach 43.25 fantasy points at just $5.3K on the slate. Imagine if he had played 40 minutes, oh boy. Close to Ibaka in the value they returned yesterday for their prices were Seth Curry, Chris Chiozza, and Landry Shamet, although none of them scored more than 30 fantasy points.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award goes to... Donovan Mitchell and Nikola Jokic! This is the first tie ever in the history of our beloved DOTS, so shouts-out to these two for making it to the books in golden letters! DoMi played 27 minutes and finished with a middling 20-4 line for 31.5 DKFP, while Jokic played 31 and got to a 15-5-6 line for 32.25 DKFP. The two of them priced at $9.2K+, which was a ridiculously high price for those returns. Ugh.
• Not the greatest of bulky-stat nights with only six dub-dubs on points and rebounds (Tobi, Gobert, JoJo, Kristaps, Ibaka, Lowry) and none between points and assists.
• Shouts to Luka for becoming the only player to drop a triple-double in yesterday’s slate even missing playing time to injury (29 minutes played) yet finishing with a neat 13-10-10-1-1 line. The greatest of all things? He shot a putrid 28.6% from the floor. LOL
• Chris Chiozza led the slate with 4 steals and Jayson Tatum (?) did so in blocks with 4.

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

• Love: (SG/SF) Jimmy Butler, MIA ($7600, vs IND): This Butler isn’t the cheapest of your potential employees today, but he’s definitely undervalued. The algorithm is dumb, that’s for sure, because Jimmy has been excellent in the bubble. Jimmer is a top-20 player in DKFP per game since the restart averaging almost 40 per to the tune of an 18-6-5-3-1 line. That’s some stuff bunch of stats right there, and all of those numbers are on par with the performances he’s had against Indiana in the first two games of the series (in fact, he’s dropped 28 and 18 points on them, beating that scoring average). Butler is a lock to give you 40 DKFP without effort with upside for 50+ if T.J. Warren heats him, which has yet to happen.
• Hate: (SF/PF) T.J. Warren, IND ($8000, at MIA): Well, I guess this is the Warren we all expected and knew and who represents the real Warren that Warren has ever been. After a scorching regular-season restart in which he seemed unstoppable these days T.J. is no more an otherworldly hopper. The most damage he’s applied to the Heat in the three consecutive games in which he’s faced him were 22 points in Game 1, and that’s pretty much it. Other than high scoring totals, Warren rest of stats just don’t amount to much. The lines are not bad, don’t get me wrong, but grabbing 5 boards and dishing out a couple of assists or three is not going to hand you a good bunch of fantasy points. Even with that, the algorithm has remained high as a Georgia pine on Warren for today’s slate, so you know who to fade.
• Love: (C) Hassan Whiteside, POR ($4600, vs LAL): This is definitely a flier, but you know we love Hassan over here mostly because his game can lack everything in real-life but has all you want for fantasy contests. The bubble hasn’t been the greatest environment for Hassan to flourish because he’s had no chance to do so—Whiteside was averaging 16 mpg prior to the playoffs and 24 mpg now versus the Lake Show. BUT, Zach Collins is out and although Nurk will still be the main biggie of Portland, the Blazers will be forced to run with Hassan for longer spans. That might not translate into Ws, but it will definitely come with some dub-dubs and tasty fantasy points attached to it. Bank on Hassan becase during the regular season he was sweet as a cake averaging a pretty nice 16-14 line on the year.
• Hate: (SF) Khris Middleton, MIL ($7900, at ORL): Let me tell you this fade might burn you—it happened with Gobert’s fade yesterday—but hey, better safe than sorry. The signs are there to skip Khris at least for the time being, which is to say until Milwaukee sends the Magic packing or until he really gets his mojo back, which I don’t know what the hell he’s waiting for. It’s been four games in a row for Midd virtually falling under 30 fantasy points. The best-combined line he’s dropped in those four games would be a measly 17-6-6-1-1. Khris is shooting 22.9% from the floor against Orlando... and scored 2 (!!!) points in his last game facing the Magic. What the hell was that aberration! He’s also playing 30+ minutes, so no excuses there. He just has lost his touch and he will undoubtedly regain it at some point. Until then, fadity fade.

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!