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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, and players to target/fade if you want to win tonight’s slate of games!
Gotta Win The Day: Best/Worst DraftKings plays for tonight’s slate
Picks at the Guard positions
- Love: Jordan Poole (PG/SG). Shout-out to the man of the moment! And shout-out to the algorithm for not catching up to the excitement! Poole played five games this past preseason, which is a large enough sample to take the numbers from them with some 10% confidence or so. Thing is Poole played 22.7 MPG in those five dropping 21.8 PPG while at it, which means he scored a freaking point per minute. LOL. That’s not very convincing, he thought, so he went on and added 3+ RPG, 3+ APG, and 1+ Stocks per game in those five while shooting a ridiculous 50.6% from the floor on a more than healthy 15.8 FGA a pop eating 32.1% of all Warriors offensive possessions when he was on the court. Poole played Kay’s role starting at guard next to Curry last Wednesday, and he put up a sound 20-2-3-1 line shooting the rock a stupid 18 times already... and hitting 44.4% of those including 4 treys. This man.
- Hate: Delon Wright (PG). I mean it’s all good with hyping free agency signings and all, but are we sure Delon Wright should be carrying the 12th-highest salary of tonight’s slate of games? What are we doing, folks? Wright, who is a basketball player who plays his best basketball from the point, is going to face stiff, established competition in Atlanta with Trae Young and potentially Bogdan Bogdanovic taking the ball for the longest spans. And you, my dear algorithm, are telling me this no. 2 PG (if not no. 3) is worth paying the 12th-highest salary of tonight’s slate of games? Get the FOH.
Plays at the Forward positions
- Love: Jimmy Butler (SF). The Butler came in time so we’ll be served a good chunk of fantasy-point steak to eat while enjoying the Heat feasting on the Bucks. (Maybe that won’t be pinpoint accurate by the end of the night.) Anyway. Jimmy is going to put up numbers whether you or him want it or not. It is what it is. Butler is playing under a real Butt-GOAT point-guard for the first time in years after Kyle Lowry joined #heatculture this summer, and that can only do wonders to Jimmer’s game. Butler, in a couple of pre outings playing 20+ MPG put up a 17-3-2-1 line shooting some tasty 52.4/50.0/84.6 splits on a usage rate five percentage points behind team-leading Bam. Not bad if you ask me.
- Hate: Paul George (SF). No Kawhi, no party. Call me crazy, but PG13 is just not what I love the most these days. I’m not a hater, I’m just saying his preseason line was blatantly bad (7-3-3) even pro-rated to a 36-minute basis ( 15-6-6) for the salary he comes attached to. The Clips are also facing the Warriors, and the Warriors are this team that you don’t know how because you have no explanation for it, but always screw with you. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned the 33/20/100 shooting splits. Either Pandemic P makes a living on freebies, or I’m not buying the ROI.
Picks at the Center position
- Love: Clint Capela (C). Captain Cap is one of my favorite players doing it in the L. He’s also Superman. Check this out even if you don’t believe it. Capela this preseason: one game, 12 minutes played, below-average usage rate of 18.8%, otherworldly 10-10 dub-dub. Yes, I typed otherworldly. If Capela borders on playing 36 minutes tonight—he shouldn’t drop from 32 or 30 at most, worst-case scenario—we’re talking about a 30-30 double-double, 25-25 if you don’t want to go that high. The most incredible thing? Capela already has one game above that 25-25 baseline. I’m not making that up, folks. Cap put up a 27-26-2-1-5 line last January. Jesus Christ.
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!