NBA DFS: Khris Middleton and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Sunday, Feb. 14th

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 on top of that, I’ll bring you some statistical trends from the past week of games!

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

• Love: Delon Wright (PG). The Detroit Pistons are in the freaking middle of the desert, walking their way through a rebuilding effort that has pretty much just started. That’s why guys like Delon are thriving there, in a squad barren of talent. It’s been quite a year for Wright so far, even more, if we count from Jan. 6 onward—the day he started at the point for the first time this season, which he hasn’t stopped doing ever since. Wright’s strung four games of 32+ minutes and is averaging 31 MPG since that day. In games played in the last month (15 for Wright) he’s putting up above-average per-minute FP at 1.02, and looking back at games played in the past two weeks (six for Wright) he’s posted 1.15+ marks three times. Easier to digest content: Wright’s average line on the last four is at 18-4-7-1-1. And he’s not even tagged at $8K. Bargain.
• Hate: Kyle Kuzma (SF/PF). Kuzma told press the other day that he’s cool with his current role in the Lake Show. I mean, I would too if I was warming the bench, then hopping into the court for a bunch of minutes, doing little, and getting some deep playoff runs and rangzzzz because a certain LBJ carries my butt. Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it? It’s been two games in a row in which Kuzzy has played 32+ minutes, and that had not happened even once prior to Feb. 10. And it probably won’t happen again soon, because Kuz is what Kuz is. Forget about this guy having a heavy role against Denver in a game where LBJ and AD will eat minutes and opportunities. Project some sort of 24-minute, 10-5-1 performance at best. That, for the third-most-expensive Laker of the day, and 9th overall. LOL
• Love: Khris Middleton (SG/SF). Do you know what the best thing about Khris is? He just doesn’t need a ton of minutes to produce, with an average of 1.21 FP/min through his 26 games. Sure, he’s not as productive on a per-minute basis as the likes of Jokic, James, or teammate Giannis, but he’s one of the best out there handing out a huge bang for the buck nightly. Don’t be scared of tonight’s matchup against OKC thinking he will hit the pine often, though. Khris has played 35+ minutes in his past three games, is averaging a healthy 33 MPG on the year, and it’s been two dub-dubs for him in that span. Midd’s February: 18-4-7-1 baseline, which is great, but the best of all is his mighty 55% shooting from the floor and his rising usage rate, going from around 20% to almost 26% in the past three games.
• Hate: Mason Plumlee (C). Gotta hate Plumlee going against the beasts that are Zion and Stevie Adams in the paint. Detroit sucks as we all know, and Plumlee is always going to eat basically because the Pistons need to feed someone nightly. That being said, and as good as Plumlee has been (10-9-3-1-1 on the season) the truth is that he’s been the ultimate bouncy fantasy player. Plumlee’s last six games: 36 FP, 12, 41, 22, 39, 50. Oh, and he needed to play 47 and 38 minutes in the last two to reach those season-high marks, just saying. The usage stinks. If you’re happy with a 12-10 performance, then Mason’s a good play. But for his salary of $8K you can do much better.
• Love: Kawhi Leonard (SF). Let’s make this simple. Cleveland’s second-worst defense against the Clips? Check. Kawhi not getting short runs no matter the opposition? Check. Leonard averaging a stupid 1.36 FP/min and 49 DKFP in February? Check and check. The price is low for what this man provides, seriously. Fourth-highest projection of the slate (50 DKFP), and second-best projected ROI only behind Giannis—but at some $1.2K cheaper tag.

What’s cooking? Statistical trends from Week 7 (Feb. 1 to Feb. 7)

• Finally, Steph claimed his throne for a week. Curry played three games during the past seven days and finished with the highest DKFP average at 63.3 per game. That’s just bonkers, and his 1.75 FP/min is the highest mark among players with 3+ games played, even those with much smaller MPG averages. Somehow Curry dropped 41 PPG to go with 5+ RPG, 6+ APG, and 1+ SPG while shooting 57.1% from the floor and hitting 7+ 3PG.
• The closes player in PPG to Curry, Joel Embiid, could only score 34.7 pops per game. Fox, Doncic, and FVV were the only others to score 30+ through at least three games played.
• No player was able to close the week averaging a trip-dub in 3+ games, although James Harden was the closest clocking in with a 22-8.7-12 per-game line with a steal to spare. Butler was close too at 19-9-8, and Draymond was his usual frustrating self with a stupid 5-8-12-3-2 stuffed line.
• Although FVV finished with the sixth-highest DKFP per game mark (53.8), he was also the most bouncy player among all with 3+ games played, logging a DKFP-deviation of 23.9 FP. Reasonable, considering he alternated a career-night (77 FP) with a resounding dud (30 FP) and a good-not-great game sandwiched in the middle (53 FP).
• Josh Jackson keeps rebuilding his image in the L, and he was the best sixth-man of the week to the tune of 36.9 DKFP with an average 20-6-3-1-1 line in three games. Haliburton put up 34.6 DKFP also off the bench in all of his four games, although LaMelo was the clear Rookie of the Week thanks to his four starts and 41.3 DKFP average on those.
• Silly cheap values: Toscano-Anderson, Bazemore, Kenrich Williams, Monk, Patrick Williams, Valentine, Favors, Muscala, Kaminsky, Forbes, Roby
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Draymond, Boucher, Josh Jackson, Horford, Josh Richardson, Tristan Thompson, Portis, Diallo
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Anthony Davis, Beal, Russ, Wood, Drummond, Middleton, Oladipo, Brogdon, Booker, Morant
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Monk, Forbes, Patrick Williams, Payton, Milton
• Cheap threes: Monk, Forbes, Shamet, Danny Green, Snell, Bullock, Danuel House, JJ Redick
• Cheap boards: Tristan Thompson, Hart, Whiteside, Giles, Toscano, Kleber, Favors, Kaminsky, Pat Williams, Willy Hernangomez, Gafford
• Cheap dimes: Satoransky, Augustin, Rondo, Bembry, Payton, Milton, Brunson, Bane, Anfernee, E’Twaun Moore
• Cheap steals: Layman, THT, Roby, Moore, Iggy, Danuel House, Favors
• Cheap blocks: Roby, Favors, Len, Eubanks, Gafford, Whiteside, Bitadze
• Cheap FG% (min. 9 FGA): Forbes, Pat Williams, Korkmaz, Valentine, Nowell, Bullock, Bane, Bacon, Monk, Milton, Payton, Rodney Hood

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!