NBA DFS: Christian Wood and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Wednesday, Feb. 3rd

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

• Shout-out to Freddy VanVuckets because he just dropped a franchise-high 54 pops against Orlando, clearing the bar set by DeMar DeRozan earlier. Lowry also posted a trip-dub in which was a night to remember for the Raps.
• Jimmy Butler returned to Miami’s lineup a few days ago, but the Heat have now lost Meyers Leonard to season-ending surgery on his injured shoulder. Sucks. If the NBA grants Miami the DPE that would give the Heat an extra $4.7 million to add another warm body to their roster.
• George Hill is expected to miss a month with injury for OKC. Expect rookie Theo Maledon to rack up minutes going forward, possibly even solidifying himself in the team and making a serious case to stay there even when Hill returns.
• Like it or not, the All-Star game feels on its way to really happen. It was leaked that instead of drafted teams we’ll get back to the East vs. West classic matchup this year. March 7 is the scheduled date for the game. Nothing clear on the Dunk/Three-Point contests, though it looks like there will definitely be a skills competition with it all being packed in a single-night event.
• Everything points to Bradley Beal wanting to stay put in the Capital to win there in Washington. That’s good and all, but the Wiz already tried their luck flipping Wall for Russ, and it is not that they have a ton more assets to bolster their squad... I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how Brad wants to make this word.
• The Wizards are eyeing Masai Ujiri. I guess Ujiri would ponder suicide before committing to the Wiz. Ugh.
• It’s still early to know for sure, but squads are starting to get put together for sure in case the Tokio Olympics truly take place once for all this summer. Featuring for the Aussies: Ben Simmons, Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes, Matisse Thybulle, Matthew Dellavedova, and Patty Mills.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s slate roundup

• If you read the news above you already know about it: Fred VanVleet set a new franchise-high mark on points after dropping 54 on Orlando in just 37 minutes of playing time thanks, mostly, to his 11 treys on the day. FVV reached 77 DKFP in a night for the ages, finishing with a monster 54-3-2-3-3 line shooting 73.9 percent from the floor, hitting all 9 freebies he shot, and turning the ball over only once.
• Not taking anything from the other player to hit 70+ DKFP, Steph Curry and his 73 FP were massive yet couldn’t help GSW beat Boston... Curry got himself a near-trip-dub with a 37-11-8-3 line and hit 7 triples while going 7-for-7 from the free-throw line.
• Two more guys with more than 60 FP, including Harden with 63 fantasy points (23-11-14 trip-dub) and Sabonis with 60 (32-13-5 shooting 86.7%).
• Six players in the 50-to-60 clip: Kawhi (33-5-5-4), Kyrie (39-5) Lowry (14-10-10), Myles (22-11), Vucevic (21-18), and Russ (17-12-10).
• The ROI King award went to... Fred VanVleet! Even while tagged at $7.4K, FVV was far and clearly the best value of the night thanks to his 77+ DKFP against Orlando. The 54 points set a new Raps-high in franchise history scoring, and FVV hit 11 triples while contributing all across the board with 3 boards, 2 dimes, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. Mental game by FVV. Plumlee, Royce O’Neale, Myles Turner, and Gary Trent were other great values.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Kevin Durant! Definitely not the worst DOTS of the year, but KD could only get to 39 DKFP while carrying a $10K+ price yesterday. On much more affordable prices, Siakam, Morant, Gobert, and Wiggins were horrific.
• There were eight dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Ibaka and Theis missed by one and two pops, three guys by a single board) and none between points and assists (three players put up a trip-dub relying on dimes, though).
• Three triple-doubles yesterday, which was magnificent, and which was possible thanks to Harden (23-11-14), Russ (17-12-10, and Lowry (14-10-10. That was great, but it could have been even better had Curry dished out two more dimes.
• More silly numbers: five kids (Lowry, McConnell, Kawhi, Powell, Delon Wright) with 4 steals, and a clear (and boring) shot-blocking leader in Myles Turner with 5 swats.

What’s cooking? Statistical trends from Week 6 (Jan. 25th to Jan. 31th)

• For the first time this year we have a fantasy leader not named Luka... yet we’re still stuck in the Euro-beat as it is Giannis who’s at the top this time. The Greek played 3 games this past week and all he did was average 67.6 DKFP to the tune of a 32-15-7-1-1 line. Not bad, as he even logged a seemingly impossible-to-reach-in-Milwaukee 38 MPG and still put up a 1.78 DKFP/min mark. Only Dr. Dre was able to average more points per minute at 1.81 among those playing more than four minutes per game.
• Giannis’ 32 pops a game were good, but the leader on the scoring department was no other than Brad Beal. Beal keeps building his case for a trade although he won’t admit his desire, and he did so in his four games played through the last seven days putting up 35.8 PPG. Beal is shooting a freaking ton of shots (28.5 FGA), which is why he’s not even close to the highest-scoring efficiency (1.26 PTS/shot). Trae Young led the week there with 1.73 PTS/shot among players attempting 15+ FGA per game.
• One thing is not the same as the others in terms of MPG. As many as 11 players have been on three games this past week while averaging at least 37 MPG, but it was quite surprising to find Gary Trent Jr. tied-second in the leaderboard with a monster 38 MPG on the week. That didn’t quite work for his fantasy upside, though, as he averaged the fewer DKFP (31.9) per game among players with 35.5+ MPG last week...
• Silly cheap values: Kaminsky, Zeller, Maledon, Whiteside, Nader, Watanabe, Anfernee, Baynes, Bacon
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Reggie Jackson, Anthony Edwards, Lonzo, Trent Jr., Hield, Alexander-Walker, Kanter, Jeff Green, Haliburton
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Sabonis, Curry, Randle, Irving, Capela, Vucevic, Porzingis, Jerami
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Anfernee, Rivers, Maledon, Diallo, Ingles, Nader, Nowell, Pacon, Whiteside
• Cheap threes: Anfernee, Maledon, Ingles, Muscala, Forbes, Rivers, Monk, Korkmaz, Connaughton, Finney-Smith, Timothe, Watanabe
• Cheap boards: Zeller, Baynes, Howard, Birch, Tristan Thompson, Poeltl, Kaminsky, Iggy, Looney, Whiteside, Robert Williams
• Cheap dimes: Monte Morris, Ingles, Iggy, Kaminsky, Wanamaker, McLaughlin, Zeller, Looney, Alexander-Walker, Okoro, Lonnie
• Cheap steals: IThybulle, Alexander-Walker, Bacon, Stanley Johnson, Garrison Mathews, Campazzo, Rivers
• Cheap blocks: Alexander-Walker, Poeltl, Robert Williams, Pokusevski, Dwight, Birch, Bitadze
• Cheap FG% (min. 9 FGA): Rivers, Anfernee, Miles Bridges, Nowell, Nader

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

• Love: Christian Wood (C). For such a stud as Wood is proving to be, his salary makes little sense for tonight’s game. The Rockets are going against the Thunder, and while OKC has the fifth-best defense when it comes to limiting fantasy points from the opposition, odds are a do-it-all biggie like Wood exploits the Thunder. Like he did just two days ago, I mean, in just 26 minutes of playing time... That’s all of the run Chris needed to log a dub-dub to the tune of an 18-11-1-1-2 stuffed line that included 2 treys and no TOs on the day. Now entering the second leg of this mini-series, Wood is in a position to have his eight 40+ DKFP game in a row, adding to a season that is seeing the freshest Rocket put up a serious case up to snath the MIP award come season’s end.
• Hate: Paul George (SG). The Clips faced Brooklyn yesterday and PG13 played more minutes (35) than he had for the past two weeks going back to Jan. 13 match against NOLA. On top of that, George has only played in one back-to-back this season, which happened in the 2020 calendar year from Dec. 29 to Dec. 30, and finished with Portland on the second leg of that double-nighter. I’m not saying Paul is not going to play, but if he does he will probably see his minutes cut down a lot, and even though he’s been a super-efficient player all year long (1.28 FP/min) odds are he doesn’t cross the 35-FP barrier. The algorithm doesn’t have a clue about that, of course, tagging George way above expectations. Let Pauly marinate for a couple of days before getting back to rostering him.
• Love: DeMar DeRozan (SF/PF). Memphis stifled the Spurs to keep up a magnificent run, and truth be told DeRozan couldn’t do a lot in his 25 and 29 minutes played on back-to-back games against the Griz. DeRozan comes from scoring 5 and 14 pops in those two, logged season-low usage rates that averaged to just 17.4 percent, and attempted 18 shots combined while getting only 6 total boards and 7 total dimes. That sucked. What doesn’t look like sucking is tonight’s game in which I’m expecting a big rebound from DeDe. The Wolves are by far the worst team around the Association, have nothing to be proud of on either offense or defense, and DeRozan should plain eat against Minny. This guy is putting up 1.14 DKFP/min, averaging a 19-5-6 line, and shooting 49/35/88 on the season. Oh, and his salary today is below $7K. Must-play.
• Hate: John Collins (PF/C). Has Collins’ lost his mojo? These are the five-last fantasy scores by JoCo: 45, 39, 37, 27, 31. All of those games took place in the past 10 days, John never dropped below 30 minutes of playing time, and his average time on the court was actually up to 35 MPG. Even then, though, Collins has been on a steady regression to the ground in terms of per-minute production, finishing those five with FP/min marks that have gone from 1.24 to 1.14, 0.96, 0.90, and lastly 0.89 in the game against the Lake Show two nights ago. The points have stayed relatively up nearing 20 per, but the boards are a tad down and even though the shooting has risen a bit, that’s all because Collins hasn’t attempted as many treys as he had done earlier this year. Not the brightest of plays, 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!