NBA DFS: Fred VanVleet and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Monday, Sep. 7th

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

• It looks like Milwaukee likes suffering. They went to overtime against Miami fighting for their lives, got the win, and have probably just extended the pain for two more days with the series now at 1-3 for the Bucks.
• The Lakers won their Game 2 yesterday, evening the series at 1-1 in a game that Russ will want to forget sooner rather than later after committing 7 turnovers and killing Houston with his horrific shooting.
• Giannis had to leave the game in the second quarter after spraining his ankle for the second game in a row. We’ll see if he makes it to Game 5, as he was seen with a protective boot yesterday.
• Injury watch: Nikola Jokic sprained his right wrist against the Clippers two days ago and he is questionable to play tonight. Denver needs Jokic, Murray, the whole squad, and then some to put on a fight against LAC, so Jokic better get it right before tipoff or the Nugs will have a pretty rough time.
• Shout-out to LeBron James for moving to 2nd in the all-time playoff threes surpassing the legendary Ray Allen. He also is now tied for the most playoff wins. Jeeeez.
• No Jimmer Fredette in the NBA next season, as he announced he will be playing for the Chinese Shanghai Sharks for the second time in his career after being part of the squad from 2016 to 2019.
• Zion Williamson will debut his first signature shoe next season: the Jordan Z Code.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• Just in case anyone had any doubt: LeBron is still LeBron. James came back to his old ways after a one-game hiatus and dropped 65.75 fantasy points on Houston to even the series at 1-1 yesterday, putting up a near-trip-dub 28-11-9 line to go with 4 steals and 2 blocks. Insane game for LBJ, though he also lost 7 possessions tying Russ’ turnover-mark...
• The other player to score himself a W while breaking the 60-DKFP mark was my value-pick from yesterday’s pool: Khris Midd. Middleton stepped up his game on Gianni’s absence and finished the OT Game 4 with 48 minutes played in which he reached a 36-8-8 sweet line. Terrific and much-needed game by Khris, that one.
• Two guys inside the 50-to-60 fantasy point clip: Bam Adebayo reached 56 while eating a sour L (26-12 dub-dub) while AD helped Bron with a 34-10 double-double and 55.5 DKFP.
• Only Harden and Tucker finished with 40+ DKFP, which was bad in James’ case as he was the second-most expensive player of the slate but glorious in Tucker’s at just $4.7K.
• The Lake Show got it right and the ROI King award went to... Rajon Rondo! After a good-not-great bubble-debut two days ago, Rondo was a monster in Game 2 for the Lakers. RR finished with 37+ DKFP and a stuffed 10-3-9-5 line in his 29 minutes, and all of that at just $3.3K! The algorithm was smart in not overpricing him because it’s been a while since we last saw Rajon other than two days ago, but his price will start to rise too soon so take advantage while you can. P.J. Tucker was also very valuable, same as Duncan Robinson from the Heat.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Jimmy Butler! The real DOTS was Giannis, but he had to leave due to injury after just 11 minutes of playing time and even in that super-short run he still, somehow, reached 28.5 DKFP (which means an average of 2.6 per minute WTF). With him getting a free pass today, Butler was definitely the lineup-killer yesterday with 28 DKFP after being tagged at $8.6K. Harden was a little bit underwhelming given the price, too.
• Not a bad day on the double-double department, with six dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Westbrook, Bam, LeBron, Tucker, AD, and Bledsoe) but none between points and assists.
• Three men finished really close to trip-dubbing yesterday, including Bam (26-12-8), LeBron (28-11-9), and KMidd (36-8-8).
• Rondo led the slate with 5 steals, while no player got to block more than 2 shots.

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

• Love: (PG) Kyle Lowry, TOR ($8200, vs BOS): At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I see no possible way of not adding Lowry to your lineups today and going forward. The price is still low for his exploits. Lowry is playing a monster 35+ mpg since the start of the playoffs and averaging 41+ against Boston, with his last two games (both Ws) reading 46 and 44 MP. In those two wins Lowry has gotten to 54+ fantasy points, dropped 31 and 22 pops, averaged 8.5 boards, and 7.5 dimes with 2 steals per. And he’s done all that while shooting 40.2% on this series, which should get a bit up during the next couple of matches. Lowry is a goddamn walking value, no matter how you look at him.
• Hate: (PG/SG) Jamal Murray, DEN ($8900, vs LAC): With Jokic out or at least banged up, are we sure Murray will take advantage of the situation and become the fantasy-scoring leader of these Nugs today? He should, if only because of the volume he’ll have to handle, but without Jokic around the Clippers will know who to put their clamps on in order to short-circuit Denver for good. In Game 2 Murray reached all of 45+ fantasy points, which was great, but I’m not entirely sure he can repeat that tonight. Back-to-back sweet games against Kawhi and George seem like a stretch, much more with The Joker out or limited. I’d pass on Jam and bet on other players at lower prices with more upside to step up today.
• Love: (C) Fred VanVleet, TOR ($7800, vs BOS): The Raptors backcourt is just incredible. Lowry is a beast, and that’s why he headlines this section today. But FVV is an absolute steal too with his 40-DKFP average against Boston while also playing 38+ each and every game this series. Freddie is almost a lock to finish with 20 pops and 3+ triples any day. He’s averaging some sweet 5-6-plus rebounds-dimes against the C’s yet his price has virtually remained the same for the past four games, varying just $100 bucks up or down. For someone with such upside, starting every game, and logging usage rates of 25% on average, that’s some great player to put in your lineup all day long.

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!