NBA DFS: Rudy Gobert and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Saturday, Jan. 23rd

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

• The Nets sat Kevin Durant for the second leg of the mini-series against Cleveland... and the Cavs closed them with a resounding W that put them 2-0 against Brooklyn. Watch out for that postseason run, cause it’s coming to The Land.
• Clint Capela joined the exclusive blocks-trip-dub yesterday, in which there are only 33 players now including Cap. Of those 33, only 12 have had such type of trip-dub more than once, and Clint’s is the first one since AD put up the last one all the way back in March 2018.
• Zach LaVine is virtually averaging a 25-5-5 line this season. Only 19 players have done so for a full year more than once in their careers, with LeBron logging that season-line 16 (!) times, followed by Oscar Robertson’s 9 such seasons. No joke, this Zachary. Hope he can keep it up.
• Cody Zeller and Michael Porter Jr. came back from injury and COVID-related stuff respectively yesterday, but neither of them reached 20 minutes on the court. Even then, those are two massive additions to their respective teams and they will be fundamental going forward for Charlotte and Denver.
• The Wizards added recently waived Alex Len to their roster yesterday, signing him for the remainder of the season. Given how thin the Wiz are in the interior, even if Len doesn’t do a lot for the team he will still put up numbers.
• Brooklyn also added a big to bolster their paint-game: former Sixer Norvel Pelle. He played almost no minutes last season for Philly after honing his game in Europe, and is now back in the NBA to fill the very worrying hole the Nets have inside.
• Plenty of voices out there calling out the Inside NBA crew for their recent shit-shows. Just a couple of days ago Shaq went live with Donovan Mitchell just to let him know “he doesn’t have what it takes to make the leap”, Chuck has been giving a shit about 95% of league players for years now, etc, etc...

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s slate roundup

• Tons of games played last night, which opened the door to a bunch of great performances. Luka led the slate with his 66 DKFP to the tune of a near-trip-dub reading 36-9-11 with 4 treys on the day. That was good and all, but allow me to give all of my props to Clint Capela (63 FP) and his 13-19-10 trip-dub with a steal to spare, and no turnovers and fouls in 30 minutes of playing time.
• Two more fellas on the 60+ wave: Jaylen dropped 42 pops on Philly stuffing the line with 9-3-1-1 in the rest of cats, and Jokic put up a near-trip-dub of 31-10-8-3 while only going to the line once—and missing that shot.
• Up to nine players in the 50-to-60 DKFP clip: JoJo, Trae (43 pops), Sabonis (18-11-9-5), Kawhi, Randle, Bridges, LaVine, Hayward, Drummond.
• The ROI King award went to... Mikal Bridges! Mikey has been absolutely beastly for the Suns this year, yet the algorithm seems to never catch up to his value. Bridges put up a sweet 24-10 dub-dub against Denver in OT yesterday, hit 6 treys, and added 4 dimes, a steal, and a block to his line. Bridges wasn’t the best literal value with Rondo and Lamb above him, but his 51 DKFP were way above the other two scores. Again, great ROI plays in Rondo, Lamb, Nwaba, Fournier, and Cousins.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... D’Angelo Russell! James Harden was bad for his price (43 FP at $10.8K) but his game was good enough to at least return some value. DLo’s, though... Russell finished yesterday’s game against Atlanta playing just 20 minutes and reaching 17 DKFP to the tune of a 9-2-4 line shooting 22% on 9 FGA, losing the possession a couple of times, and committing four personal fouls. Yikes. Bam, Brogdon, Jerami, Oladipo, and LaMelo sucked big time too.
• There were 16 dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Cousins, Dwight, Biyombo, and Isaiah Stewart missed on points; Jaylen, Aaron Gordon, Myles Turner, Aldridge on boards) and four between points and dimes (CP3, Luka, Harden, and Simmons; with six players missing on it by just one assist).
• One triple-doubles yesterday, and it was one for the ages. There had only been 89 block-trip-dubs in the history of the L until Capela put up the 90th yesterday logging a monster 13-19-10 line in just 30 minutes of playing time. Kudos to the man, who is turning into a machine now that he has returned from injury and is fully fit. Semi-props to Aaron Gordon for his close-but-no-cigar 17-9-9 and to Luka, who finished 36-9-11.
• More silly numbers: Sabonis and Iggy both logged 5 steals, while Richaun Holmes came the closest to Capela’s 10 blocks with 6 swats himself.

What’s cooking? Statistical trends from Week 4 (Jan. 11th to Jan. 17th)

• If you remember what happened last week, Doncic was—along with Brad Beal—the only player to average 65+ DKFP per game, although he played just three games. Well, Luka has improved on that and this past week, in three more games, Doncic (33-13-12-1-1) has averaged a stupid 75 DKFP. Only Jokic (27-12-10-4-1) came remotely close to Luka with 68 FP himself.
• Kevin Durant only got to share the court once with newly-acquired James Harden, but KD led the week among players with 3+ games played in PPG notching 34 pops a night in three games. Doncic and Dame were the only other players to average 30+ PPG in the past seven days.
• Myles Turner missed Sunday’s game but he still played 3 other times last week averaging a stupid 4.0 BPG. Noel ranked a distant second with 2.8 BPG in four games. LOL
• Enes Kanter’s über-efficient season might see a drop in per-minute numbers now that he will be starting for Portland, but Kanter kept up the highest DKFP/min average among players valued below $5.5K during the past week putting up a 1.46 mark. Clarkson, Tillman, and Boucher were some other overly-efficient per-minute players during the last seven days.
• The algorithm has yet to catch up with LaMelo Ball’s game, no less than the youngest of trip-dubbers in NBA history. Ball has played four games this past week putting up an average of 43 DKFP at just $6.2K. Somehow, the Hornets keep playing him off the bench and starting Rozier and Graham...
• Silly cheap values: Alexander-Walker, Quickley, Bruce Brown, Tillman, Tate, Grayson Allen, Vincent, Poeltl, Achiuwa, Okoro, Dort
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Boucher, Duncan Robinson, Myles Turner, Clarkson, Fox, Danny Green, Wood
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Ingram, Trae, Paul George, Porzingis, VanVleet, Gobert, John Collins
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Alexander-Walker, Gabe Vincent, McDermott, Quickley, Marcus Morris, Lu Dort, Caldwell-Pope, Kennard
• Cheap threes: Isaiah Joe, Marcus Morris, Dort, Caldwell-Pope, Kennard, NAW, Vincent, Redick, McLemore, McDermott, Trent Jr., Knox
• Cheap boards: Achiuwa, Bruce Brown, Biyombo, JaMychal, Jaxon Hayes, Zubac, Poeltl, Roby, Birch
• Cheap dimes: Iguodala, Tate, Quickley, Aaron Holiday, Vincent, Kennard, Caruso, DJ Augustin
• Cheap steals: Okoro, Tillman, Dort, Vassell, Connaughton, KCP, Sumner
• Cheap blocks: Noel, Gasol, Poeltl, Biyombo, Tate, McGee, James Johnson, Favors, Pokusevski
• Cheap FG% (min. 9 FGA): Bruce Brown, McDermott, NAW, Marcus Morris, Trent Jr., Redick, Okoro, Quickley, Bacon, Dort

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

• Love: Rudy Gobert (C). Gobert just can’t stop putting up dub-dubs these days. It’s been four in a row, and facing the Warriors tonight odds are he gets his fifth consecutive one without much effort. Wiseman is a rook, and Draymond is a great D-man but not what you’d call a tower of a man. Gob is a lock to give you 37+ DKFP on any slate, something he’s done in his last four matches going back a week, and the 13-13 line is pretty much a sure thing. Not only is that good, but Gobert has been able to avoid turning the ball over more than twice per game in his last five, and has 13 blocks in his last four matches combined. Can’t get this one wrong.
• Hate: D’Angelo Russell (PG/SG). I don’t really know if I will ever come back to hate on DLo, because you don’t beat a dead horse. Look, Minnesota is years away from contending whether they think they are, or they don’t think so. This squad stinks, is missing his best player on KAT, has a no. 1 pick coming off the bench and doing... well, not a lot. DLo should be carrying the team on his shoulders at least a bit, but he’s absolutely balking on it with just two 40+ DKFP nights in the past seven games he’s played going back to Jan. 7th... Russell will score his 20+ points, sure, because he gets to use north of 30% of Minny’s possessions, but he can’ stop turning the ball over to save his life, and although he’s shooting almost 20 FGA per game he’s averaging a paltry 0.96 points per shot... Seriously, fade Russ now and forever, no matter what.
• Love: Tobias Harris (C). Tobi started the season on pure flames, logging four 38+ DKFP games from Dec. 27th to Jan. 2nd. He has cooled off a bit lately, but he’s still putting up more than 30 fantasy points per game nightly, and his minutes have been ramping up steadily. Tobi is never going to be a ball hogger, a possession hoarder, or anything like that (22.7% usage rate on the season) but he’s efficient and you can count on him to score on über-efficient levels (1.25 pts per shot, 15 FGA per game), to put up mental percentages (55% from the floor on the season, 68.1% in his last two games both against BOS), and to pull down 5+ rebounds more often than not (6.8 RPG this season).
• Hate: Anthony Davis (PF/C). AD is only “probable” for tonight’s game, although that has been the case in virtually every game the Lakers have played this season. Let’s say LA just plays the safe game. Anyway, both LBJ and AD always end playing... only on something resembling limited minutes. AD comes from logging a season-high in that cat with 37:48 minutes of run against Milwaukee just a couple of days ago. The last time he logged near 38 minutes he then proceeded to play 31 in the following match. Tonight, against San Antonio, the Lake Show won’t probably need an otherworldly effort from LBJ nor AD, so they will stay on that 30-to-32-minute diet. Davis is a super-efficient (1.37 DKFP/min) player, don’t get me wrong, but for his price, he’s just not very valuable even if he ends with 40+ DKFP on the day.

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!