NBA DFS: Trae Young and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Friday, Jan. 29th

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

• LeBron is definitely taking the season seriously because that MVP trophy looks closer than ever to him since forever. That’s good and all, but the truth is Detroit got W yesterday against the Lake Show. Props to Motown. The Clips defeated Miami, so both LA neighbors swapped places in the standings with the Lakers now at the third seed and the Clippers at the second—yes, Utah is the no. 1 West team.
• Speaking of LA... looks like both teams are after Bradley Beal, though it’s crazy to think about how they could land the disgruntled Baby Beal. It’d have to be through draft picks, but neither franchise has a lot of them, so odds are Beal ends in another place around the American landscape.
• That is according to Woj, who also reported that Washington’s FO is still reluctant to trade, while Beal and his agent are spreading the word that the guy wants to win as a Wizard and that’s why he signed the extension to remain there not long ago.
• Coach Pop has got his dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Good grief we’re in for 20+ years of this man on basketball benches, bet on it.
• The league is discussing the possibility of adding an 18th roster spot. That’s cool and all, but what would you prefer, play a game with scrubs—including your 18th-best player—or have that game postponed and face the opposition later down the road with a full-strength squad. You know my opinion and why I’m in favor of no more roster spots being open, folks.
• The Wiz are getting some warm bodies back in those of Hachimura, Bertans, and Mo Wagner with them clearing COVID-19 protocols. They’ll definitely need that and then some to right their wrongs, though.
• Steve Kerr is not committing to Wiseman’s role being set as a starter/bench-player going forward, which is definitely making no favors to the rook’s fantasy GMs.
• Norvel Pelle is officially a Net. LOL

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s slate roundup

• Pretty bad slate of four games, with multiple of the best teams playing missing top-tier guys. Only LeBron topped 50 DKFP and he did so to the tune of a 22-7-10 line in a Lakers loss... to Detroit. WTF. That’s correct, and that L paired with the Clips win against a depleted Miami squad that welcomed Herro back amounted to LAC taking on the no. 2 spot with LAL dropping to the no. 3 seed.
• Dame, Bam, and Dipo were the only other three players to close yesterday’s slate with 45+ FP. Lillard hit 5 treys while dropping 30 pops on Houston (4 boards, 9 dimes), Dipo scored 25 while pulling down 7 rebounds and dishing out 5 assists, and Adebayo put up a 16-13-7 dub-dub.
• Three more on the 40-to-45 clip: Kaminsky (12-13-8 off the bench), Wood (22-12 shooting 66.7%), and Herro (19-10-5).
• The ROI King award went to... Frank Kaminsky! If you’re going to come to me to tell me you predicted this, you’re lying to yourself, bro. Frank the Tank put up a monster game and near-trip-dub with a 12-13-8 line including a theft, no turnovers, and no personal fouls either coming off the bench for the Suns. Phoenix demolished GSW and Kaminsky contributed his sweet 44 DKFP on the lowest salary of the slate. Gabe Vincent (a Miami Heat, just in case), Kuzma, and Plumlee were three more great values.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Jerami Grant! The Pistons pulled off the upset beating the Lakers, but it is not that Jeremi Grant did a lot to help in the effort. Grant played 37 minutes at a high $8.4 salary tag yet he could only get 28 DKFP on a 14-3-6 performance in which he could only log an 18.9% usage rate. Chris Paul also sucked, same as Cousins (hello Wood!).
• There were nine dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Crowder missed by one board, Melo by 4 pops and 1 rebound, and Marc got 9 rebounds yet no points at all...) and one between points and dimes (LBJ’s 22-7-10, with Lillard just one dime short).
• No triple-doubles yesterday, with Kaminsky (yes) getting the closest to it thanks to a 12-13-8 line. Bam was right there at 17-13-7, with LBJ, Reggie Jackson, and Delon Wright also getting close.
• More silly numbers: Draymond Green and Amir Coffey stole 3 rocks each, while Derrick Jones Jr. was the only player to swat 3 shots.

What’s cooking? Statistical trends from Week 5 (Jan. 18th to Jan. 24th)

• As many as 105 players logged four games played during the past seven days. Do you know who led them all in DKFP per game? No shit, Luka. Seriously, what does this guy eat for breakfast? Doncic closed last week at 48.8, just above Randle’s 48.3 score also in four games. Luka’s averages on those four matches: 22-8-10 shooting 41.5 percent from the floor, 80.2 percent from the line, and putting up 1.43 FP/min trailing only Steph Curry there (1.44) among players with 4+ GP.
• Lowering the threshold to three games played, though, is when we arrive at the true Beast of the Week: Clint Capela and his 64.5 DKFP per game. Things got real for the Cap. Clint’s line was bonkers and hardly believable: 21-20-1-1-6. No. Freaking. Joke. Both Embiid and Trae finished second to Capela with 59 DKFP/G each, with Embiid edging Caplea 1.84 to 1.83 in DKFP/min.
• Kevin Durant is playing off an Achilles injury. Do you know what KD did last week? He played three games and an average of 40.3 MPG scoring 33 PPG and blocking the second-most shots at 2.7 BPG. WTF.
• The trade did wonders for Harden, who is doing it all in BKN. Four games, 41+ MPG, and 21-7-11 on the week for The Beard who seems to be more concerned with letting others splash the ball by dishing out dimes than hitting buckets himself. Not bad for a start in this new Big 3 environment.
• Keep an eye on Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker, Rudy Gobert, Andre Drummond, and Collin Sexton because all of them posted more than 1.35 DKFP/min while playing fewer than 30 MPG last week. Bulk those ticks up a bit and we might be watching explosions all around the L.
• Silly cheap values: Kendrick Nunn, Taurean Prince, Devin Vassell, Wayne Ellington, Thad Young, Rudy Gay, David Nwaba, KCP.
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Hunter, Capela, Smart, Theis, Sexton, Kemba, Jrue, Burks.
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Curry, Sabonis, Drummond, PG13, Ingram, DLo, Brogdon, Booker, Zion.
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Nunn, Ellington, Monte Morris, Lamb, Brunson, Quickley, Jeff Green, Gary Harris, George Hill, Prince
• Cheap threes: Ellington, Nunn, Jeff Green, KCP, Gary Harris, George Hill, Prince, Quickley, Cam Johnson, Reggie Bullock, Devin Vassell, Valentine
• Cheap boards: Zubac, Noel, Thad Young, Favors, Birch, Poeltl, Nunn, Ed Davis, Baynes, Isaiah Stewart, Jeff Green, Connaughton
• Cheap dimes: McConnell, McLaughlin, Rondo, Nunn, Brunson, Thad Young, Prince, Lou, Monte Morris, Cam Payne
• Cheap steals: Iguodala, McConnell, Nwaba, Okogie, Nunn, Vassell, Thad Young, Prince, Okoro
• Cheap blocks: Okongwu, Josh Jackson, Noel, Poeltl, Stewart, McDaniels, Gafford, Gasol, Zubac
• Cheap FG% (min. 9 FGA): Nunn, Ellington, Monte Morris, Jeremy Lamb, Brunson, Gary Harris

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

• Love: Trae Young (PG). For some reason I can’t explain, the algorithm is giving Trae just the 10th-highest salary of today’s slate. Yes, that’s a top-10 price, but it is still at just $9.1K and the Hawks are facing the freaking Wizards, which don’t know how to defend to save his life. Trae has got everything right of late after a slight slump a couple of weeks ago, and he’s just not looking back. Just peep at Young’s six last games: 50, 55, 66, 56, 49, and 56 DKFP are the marks; 31.1 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 9.7 APG are the averages; and Trae is playing 37+ MPG and getting average usage shares at 35% in that span. Bonkers is falling short. Young is doing it from three, from the free-throw line, from the point dishing out dimes, and he’s even stealing possessions and pulling down boards. I mean, come on.
• Hate: Julius Randle (C). Contrary to Young, the algorithm lost it with the Randlewus. Dr. Julius is tagged with the 8th-highest salary yet I’m betting on Mr. Randle making an appearance today against a paint-packed Cavs team that has one of the strongest defenses on the L this year and bolstered its rotation since the last time Jules met it back on Jan. 15 with the addition of ‘Fro Allen. Randle has lost his early-season mojo and while he’s still great he’s not that valuable. Randle's last 9 games: 44 DKFP per; the 9 prior to that: 51. Again, not a really high difference, but enough to not make it worth the risk while paying top-money for him. The assists are down, the same as the shooting percentages.

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!