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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: Caris LeVert (SG/SF). A couple of games were enough for CLV to ramp up his playing time and hit 30+ minutes running. Most encouragingly, LeVert hasn’t missed a step and has dropped 12+ points in each of the four games he’s played to date while still going through some growing pains in terms of shooting (bouncy FG% ranging from 28.6% to 60%, always on 10+ FGA). The shots are coming in bunches for Caris as he’s attempted at least 18 in the past three outings, he’s barely turning the ball over (just 3 TOs combined in his last three games) and he’s been quite productive assisting teammates (6 APG in Nov.) and good enough on the boards (2.7 RPG in the last three) while showing steady improvement on a nightly basis. The minute he gets his shooting right for good, LeVert will be a serious threat to reach some 40 DKFP no matter the foe in front of Indy. That might start happening tonight, as there is no way in hell he shoots at that putrid 28% in back-to-back games. Cheap play with tons of potential ROI baked into it.
- Hate: Terry Rozier (PG/SG). After playing just 23 minutes back on Oct. 23, Scary Terry is back playing and starting at the SG position on a nightly basis. I said Scary not because that’s Rozier’s nickname, but actually because this fool is scaring fantasy GMs left and right these days... Rozier’s four games since coming back have him on a low pitch count if we take usage rate and field goal attempts as our equivalent. He’s attempting 14 FGA on a not-so-high 21.6 percent USG%. And thank God that’s the case because late results have been horrifying: 2-of-12 for 5 points against GSW last Wednesday and 3-of-14 for 9 facing Sacto on Friday. Yikes. The rebounds and the dimes have yet to come, and you can totally forget about the steals and blocks. The turnovers, though, Terry has not forgotten how to commit: 12 in five games only finishing with zero once his last time out. The true shooting is laughable at 42 percent and Rozier has only scored above a point-per-shot just once in his five games averaging 0.75 PTS/Sht over the five-game sample.
Plays at the Forward positions
- Love: Paul George (SF). The Clips are struggling to keep up a winning record (they are 4-4 so far), but that’s reasonable considering the Clippers squad is made of PG13 and then a bunch of garbag-ish players these days. It is what it is, folks; don’t try to sugarcoat it. Pandemic P, though, couldn’t have been more Pfizer P to start the season. In other words: killer of a solution, this George. Barring a silly outing in which he could only reach 33 DKFP facing Cleveland last week (and he still put up a nice 12-10-1-4 line although he shot 30% with no freebies), George has finished every other of his seven games to this day hitting 41+ FP. Even more, six of those seven saw Paul reach 53+ DKFP. That’s Paul George in a nutshell for you, folks. This man is averaging 52+ fantasy points per game, his per-minute production is absolutely crazy at 1.49 FP/min even with a sky-high 35 MPG, but he’s just bulldozing his way there with a spicy 34.4% usage rate that has gotten into the 36%+ three times and even got to reach a whopping 42.6 mark against Portland—of course, George ate big time that day with a 42-8-2-1-1 line hitting 62.5% of his 4 FGA. Scorching hot is falling short.
Picks at the Center position
Love: Montrezl Harrell (C). It’s funny, this Monty. Harrell got the chance to start for the Wiz this season, back at the end of October, and he did so on back-to-back games putting up fantastic performances to the tune of 25-13 and 20-14 dub-dubs in those two matches. Then he said “ah screw that I’m cool off the pine”, and back to riding the bench and the second unit he went. LOL. Even playing off the pine, though, Montrezl is an absolute menace. If you’re looking for a last-spot filler in your lineup and still need a big man, he’s your boy. The per-minute efficiency is bonkers (1.19 FP/min on the season, only two games below 1.10 FP/min in the nine-games-played sample so far this season). Harrell is a lock to hit 15 points and pull down 10 boards—and that is a worst-case-scenario line for him. The shooting is sublime because he only focuses on the inside, while the free throws arrive on high volume/counts and are scored with ease (73% on 6 FTA a 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!