NBA DFS: Julius Randle and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Wednesday, Jan. 6th

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

• Luka Doncic is the 4th fastest player in NBA history to reach 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 1,000 assists. Kudos to the once-just-a-chubby-prospect Don.
• In other Euro news, Jokic keeps putting up impossible nightly performances.
• The Pistons are not going to make a run to the postseason, but nobody around the franchise is going to like watching their young assets missing reps due to injury. Such is the case with Killian Hayes, who might be off for a long period after sustaining a hip injury.
• Speaking of injuries, Dante Exum is expected to miss one-to-two months with a calf injury. Tough news for an overperforming team that not only will regress but also miss some production in Exum’s absence.
• Isaiah Thomas keeps trying to find a path toward an NBA return, and he has parted ways with his agency. We need this man back on courts asap.
• LeBron seemingly wants to buy a WNBA franchise. He threw a tweet, and that’s pretty much it, but if this man puts that idea in his mind you better be sure he will end pulling it off.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s slate roundup

• Luka reached 71 fantasy points two days ago... and it was Jokic who did so yesterday with 70+ DKFP to the tune of a 35-15-6-3-1 stuffed line, a 60% shooting accuracy from the floor, 10 freebies, and a triple to put the cherry on top.
• There was a 12-point distance between Jokic and the next highest-performer of the slate... who was no less than Good Loser D’Angelo Russell. DLo put up a 33-3-11 dub-dub and reached 58+ DKFP on another losing effort by the Wolves.
• Five more guys were able to close their nights in the 50-to-58 clip, including Anthony Davis, Kawhi, Jarrett Allen, LeBron, and Kyrie.
• The ROI King award went to... Juan Hernangomez! Gotta love some good old revenge game, don’t you? Juancho put up 46+ DKFP yesterday playing 34 minutes as a starter for a putrid Wolves teams. Juanito dropped 25 pops on Denver, paired those with 8 boards, and also dished out a couple of dimes, stole two rocks, and blocked a shot. Incredibly efficient shooting performance hitting 71.4 percent of his 14 FGA. Beverley was close to being our ROI King as he got two more FP than Juancho, but at a slightly more expensive price. Shouts out to Jarrett Allen, Mills, and Batum too.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... DeMar DeRozan! No real stinkers at the super-top of the salary leaderboard, although already at $7.9K DeDe was rather unworthy reaching a measly 22 DKFP against the Clips. DeRozan could put up double-digit numbers in any cat, finishing 6-5-6 with a block and shooting a horrid 33% from the floor on just 9 FGA. Murray, Conley, and Schroder all were tagged at $6.5K+ yet none bested 22 DKFP.
• There were nine dub-dubs via points and rebounds (with Keldon Johnson missing on it by a point and Batum by a rebound; Otto Porter and Jusuf Nurkic were the cheapest players to achieve the feat) and two between points and dimes (DLo’s 33-11 and Kawhi’s 30-10).
• No trip-dubs yesterday, even though Jokic played basketball.
• More silly numbers: as many as 10 (!!!) players stole three balls, while Anthony Davis was the only player to block 3 shots.

What’s cooking? Statistical trends from Week 2 (Dec. 28th to Jan. 3rd)

• Nobody has been able to keep up a 60-DKFP average through last week. That being said, Jokic closed it on Sunday with a 59.1 fantasy-point average in four games played. Four more players in the 55/56 clip (Curry, Westbrook, Harden, LBJ) with three more at 50+ (Giannis, Durant, Tobias).
• The algorithm has yet to catch up with Tobias’ exploits, though, as his 50.1 DKFP per game are the most for anyone averaging salary tags below 8.9K compared to Harris’ 7.1K price on average.
• Perhaps it’s time for the Hornets to put LaMelo in the starting lineup? Ball is averaging—by far—the most fantasy points among bench-players with 37.8 per game in three matches this week. The second-best player without a start this past week (min. 3 games) is fellow Hornet Miles Bridges already down to 29.3.
• Silly cheap values: Brunson, Dieng, Roby, McGee, Olynyk, JaMychal Green
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: LaMelo, Tobias, Michael Porter, Jamal Murray, Seth Curry, Tyler Herro
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Luka, Dame, Drummond, Booker, Siakam, Butler
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Brunson, Avery Bradley, Carmelo, Monte Morris, Bryn Forbes
• Cheap threes: Saddiq Bey, Avery Bradley, Powell, Kleber, Connaughton, Bane, Wesley Matthews
• Cheap boards: McGee, Ed Davis, Carter-Williams, O’Neale, Jaxon Hayes, Dieng, Marc Gasol
• Cheap dimes: Killian Hayes, Brunson, McLaughlin, Monte, Konchar, Pritchard, Patty Mills, McConnell, Thad Young, Reggie Jackson
• Cheap steals: James Johnson, Layman, Justin Holiday, Teague, Pritchard, Derrick Jones
• Cheap blocks: Eubanks, Olyny, Robert Williams, Theis, Noel, Jaxon Hayes, Alex Len
• Cheap FG% (min. 9 FGA): Avery Bradley, Monte, McGee, Bacon, Bane, Brunson, Powell

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

• Love: Julius Randle (PF/C). I would understand you making a point about Randle not being worth as much as his price speaks of, but Randle is far from a scoring/rebounder biggie this season. He’s playing point-forward for the Knicks, handling the ball a ton, and putting up a dud-bud (22-11) with 7.4 APG on top of that. That’s bonkers. Ranlde is doing it all, and to put the cherry on top he’s shooting 51/40/76 on 15.7 FGA per game. As if that wasn’t enough, Dr. Julius has left his Mr. Randlewus persona behind and is facing a not-so-adaptable big in Rudy Gobert. There is no chance GobGob follows Jules around, and that’s already a win.
• Hate: Jaylen Brown (SG/SF). The campaign is riding a high wave for Jaylen as MVP. LOL. No, I’m kind of joking, but I’m kind of not. Beantowners are for some reason labeling Jaylen as the King to Come over Jayson Tatum, which... smh. Brown is having quite a start to the 2021 season, sure, but that’s it. Of his eight games played, Brown has finished above 42 DKFP four times, and below 34 in the other four. The randomness is a little bit wild for my liking, and his four games shooting .600+ are just absolute outliers that won’t hold. Brown is growing into a star, but that only guarantees 35-to-40 fantasy points per game if all things click for him. There will be explosions, but Tatum is the real guy you want to pay for.
• Love: Andre Drummond (C). Another biggie to love today. Dr. Dre is facing a Magic team that isn’t anything out of this world. Drummond is also experiencing a little slump which has dropped his salary a bit. Even though his averages have dropped from 20-15 to 11-12, Dru is still posting nightly dub-dubs going seven-for-seven this season so far. The Cavs were and are not going to keep winning games, but Andre is a lock to keep putting up spicy numbers no matter what. Two days ago against the very same Orlando squad, Drummond bounced back a bit with a 10-14-4-1-1 stuffed line even though he shot just 33% from the floor, which should positively regress tonight.
• Hate: Christian Wood (PF/C). It is hard to hate on a kid that came out of nowhere last season, played an incredibly great ball in a putrid Detroit environment, filled his bag in moving to Houston, and has yet to drop fewer than 20 pops in any single game this year. Indiana might be a little too much for Wood to overcome, though. Portland and Denver have some interior presence, but Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner pairing should be the toughest opposition he’s faced all season in the paint, and both can move enough to cover vasts areas of the court. Not only that, but Indy ranks 6th-best on fewer fantasy points allowed, which doesn’t bode well for a big man playing next to two ball-hoggers in Wall and Harden. Not liking this one.

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!