NBA DFS: Bradley Beal and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Monday, Feb. 8th

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

• Aaaaaand it happened. Rose is a Knick, with Dennis Smith Jr. now a Piston. Win for Thibs, who gets to reunite with his basketball son. He now has Taj Gibson and Rose in tow, with Noah, Deng, Korver, and Hinrich probably getting to Manhattan next.
• More guys dropping the hammer on the whole NBA-AS drama: Beal, Russ, Giannis...
• Austin Rivers seems to be the odd man out after Derrick Rose’s acquisition by New York. With the guard position now featuring Rose, IQ, Payton, and Ntilikina, Rivers might see himself moved before the deadline with some contenders already showing interest in the vet. Another potential trade-target, Kevin Knox, is reportedly going nowhere with the Knicks not interested in moving on from him.
• Good news for the Wolves and KAT, who was upgraded to “doubtful” for tonight’s game against the Mavs after being out for a while fighting COVID. Here’s hoping he can get back basketball courts, put on some shows, and forget about everything that he’s had to go through during the past few months.
• De’Andre Hunter has been magnificent for the Hawks this season and has taken quite a leap, but he will miss at least two weeks undergoing knee surgery. Expect an update after that period, and then some more time out for what could add up a month-plus of absence.
• Larry Nance Jr. will be out for four-to-six weeks after fracturing a finger in his left hand. Another blow for another player who had looked great so far this season. Yikes.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s slate roundup

• In a slate that shared the spotlight with the Super Bowl, odds were we wouldn’t watch any super flashy performance as only five games were played. That was in fact the case with only four players reaching 50 DKFP led by Donovan Mitchell and his 57 FP against Indiana in another W for the Jazz. DoMi put up a near-trip-dub 27-9-11 line and he racked up fantasy points in an actual night to forget with a putrid 36% shooting from the floor and five turnovers. What could have been...
• Julius Randle was just one FP short of Mitchell with 56 DKFP and a sweet 26-13-7 line, while Fox reached 54 and Bam 50.
• Only six players in the 40-to-50 clip yesterday, including Booker (18-7-11), Butler (17-10-9), Gobert (16-16), Russ (12-11-9), Tatum, and Sabonis.
• The ROI King award went to... Reggie Bullock! A day for celebrations in New York... had it not been for the fact that they ate an L. Rose was acquired, and Reggie started at SG and became the best value of the slate to the tune of 38 DKFP with a 21-3-2-4 stuffed line and 7 treys on the day. Lou Williams was another great value for cheap, while DoMi and Rozier also became very valuable players.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Kawhi Leonard! While Chris Paul was much worse, Kawhi’s 36 DKFP at the fourth-highest salary among eligible players just sucked. Even though Kawhi put up a 20-10 dub-dub that’s all he did in his 35 minutes of playing time, which was way short of the expectations given his price tag. CP3, Brogdon, Hayward, and Herro were other lineup-killers.
• There were 10 dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Harrison Barnes needed 6 more points, Tristan Thompson 4, Bagley one; and four more players finished one board short) and two between points and assists (DoMi’s 27-9-11 and Booker’s 18-7-11).
• No triple-doubles yesterday, with Russ (12-11-9), DoMi (27-9-11), Jimmer (17-10-9), and Randle (26-13-7) all getting super close but not quite pulling the feat off. Shame on them. Also, not a trip-dub related thing, but what the hell is Kaminsky doing with a 9-9 line. Damn.
• More silly numbers: Reggie Bullock led all players with 4 steals, while Rudy Gobert was the only fool able to swat 3 rocks.

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

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

• Love: Bradley Beal (SG). Russ is resting this one out, which means 1) Beal will have to carry the Wiz, 2) nobody will eat from Beal's dose of possessions, 3) it’s Chicago at the other end, and 4) Beal comes from two kinda-stinkers given his baseline abilities. In the last two games against Miami and Charlotte Beal has played fewer than 30 minutes each time, has finished with lines of 7-3-3-3 and 31-6 and although he’s kept his shots up he’s only hit 12 of his 36 total FGA in those two games. Could that happen again? Sure. Is it reasonable to expect? No way, Jose. Beal has posted the virtual-worst two games of his season on back-to-back performances, which was just stupidly improbable. The two other times Beal fell below 40 DKFP he went on to bounce back with scores of 48 DKFP in 28 minutes and 50 DKFP against Brooklyn. A lock to get a minimum 30-5-5 line tonight, Beal is a must-play asset.
• Hate: Victor Oladipo (SG). There has been an incredible comeback story going on in Houston... and it’s not about Victor Oladipo. Dipo has been great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s been Wall who has really captivated minds and souls after being out for two years and coming back with everything he had to offer in the past as fresh as he’s ever had it. Vic already played on the season’s tip-off but was also coming off health issues (he only played in the Bubble-segment of last season), and ultimately got traded to Houston in exchange for Caris LeVert. The problem with Dipo is that he’s been rather bad for the past two weeks going back to Jan. 22. Since that game against Detroit, Oladipo has only topped 31 FP twice, and his best fantasy tally in February came against OKC... with a measly 31+ FP score. Just last Saturday against San Antonio in his last game he couldn't even reach 10 points on a night in which he shot 28.6 percent from the floor. Not liking Dipo these days, who should ramp up his efforts going forward if he wants me to reconsider his value.

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!