NBA DFS: Miles Bridges and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for November 14

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: CJ McCollum (PG/SG). Shout-out CeeJay for becoming Portland’s no. 1 and franchise due over washed-up Dame! Yessir! Nah, that’s stretching things a little too much and pushing the limits further than one should. But hey, at the end of the day CJ is putting up 37 DKFP per game at an average of $7.8K while Dame is dropping 39 FPPG while tagged at a much higher $9.6K on DK slates. I mean, you tell me if a couple of DKFP are worth a freaking $2K... McCollum has gone a little colder of late when it’s come to shooting the rock after a marvelous start, but he’s still dumping 17.5+ PPG per game in November while adding 5+ RPG, 5+ APG, and the odd steal/block. You’re paying a bottom-dollar price right now for McCollum and buying on the low, but you’re getting a guy that was hitting 4+ treys a game nightly for the first nine games of the year (I mean, he dropped 4+ triples in seven of those first nine outings!) Can’t consider CJ’s late performances part of a true slump as his last two games went for 35 and 39 DKFP, which... Dame’s average, anyone?
• Hate: LaMelo Ball (PG/SG). LaMelo is surely the son every father wants, not like LiAngelo. The youngest of the Balls is also a goddam carousel of emotions and fantasy outcomes. Just peep the DKFP scores from his last seven games, all taking place this month: 57, then 38, 50, 40, 69, 38, and finally 58 against the Knicks a couple of nights ago. It’s a goddam mess. LaMelo has been able to put up lines as great as a hard-to-believe 25-15-11-1-1 facing the Lake Show on Nov. 8... as much as he’s been able to put up a dud (knowing and in the context of his upside) of just 15-5-8-4 shooting 35% from the floor against the Warriors on Nov. 3. That’s LaMelo for you, folks. The problem with Ball is that he’s great, yes, and I’m a stan, yes, and I love him, yes, but he’s also coming into Sunday’s festive slate with a freaking $10K bill next to his name. I mean, he’s carrying the sixth-highest salary in DK’s main slate of games, and Charlotte is facing a Warriors squad that gave Ball more than a few problems the last time they met each other. Too expensive of a play for the risks baked into it.

Plays at the Forward positions

• Love: Miles Bridges (SF/PF). Is November-14 Bridges as good as First-Week Bridges? Probably not, but it’s not that he’s tanked his year through the past few games. Bridges was never going to stay as hot as he kicked the year off. In other words, I never expected him to keep up an unreasonable 50%+ shooting from the floor on almost 18 FGA. But that’s not gone down crashing, not even close to it. Bridges’ shooting percentages are on a clear slope (35.7 FG% in November) but he’s still been able to average 18+ PPG while commanding a much lower 22.8% usage rate compared to the higher 25%+ October mark. The rebounds can’t get higher (almost 7 RPG this month), same as the dimes (4+ APG), steals (1.7+ SPG with at least one every game), and blocks (1.1+ BPG). Miles won’t burn your fantasy Bridges with turnovers, either, as he had 4 in a single game against the Lakers and the Heat but other than that he is only gifting 1.2 possessions a pop. Count on some 40 DKFP tonight for a very reasonable and discounted price.

Picks at the Center position

• Hate: Christian Wood (C). If C-Wood hasn’t been the most disappointing player of the early 2022 season then it must have been this close. Wood is playing a more than bulky 34 MPG, he’s hoisting 14.3 FGA, and all he’s doing in that playing time and that high-volume shooting is averaging 39 DKFP and putting up (down?) 45/35/52 splits. I mean, what the hell are those numbers for some who comes attached to a ridiculous $8.6K salary today!? Wood exploded late with Detroit, filled his bag to stay in Houston, and now is having some very pleasing vacations in Texans by the look of it all... Don’t get me wrong, Wood has been definitely good and has reached dub-dub levels of play in 7 of 12 games already, but he’s not really doing anything otherworldly out there. The points have dropped below 10 in two of the past three games, he also missed on double-digit boards in two of those three last matches, and his line against the Warriors just a week ago read 4-1-1-4 in 24 minutes of playing time for a ridiculous 0.55 FP/min average.

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!