NBA DFS: DeMar DeRozan and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Tuesday, Feb. 9th

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

• Giannis and Fox were named Players of the Week fro their respective conferences. Not bad, but as always haters will keep finding shortcomings on those selections weekly...
• Coach Vogel said there is “nothing to really be concerned about” with AD’s injury. He was out yesterday as a precautionary measure, but the Achilles seems to be alright and not giving the Lake Show any real concerns.
• Brad Beal stated that “Zach LaVine should hands down be an All-Star.” Is someone here letting some franchise know that he might be interested in getting there via trade? Hmmm...
• Another endorsement: Steve Kerr called DeRozan a surefire Hall of Famer under his view at least. Thanks for that, Kerr, because DD definitely deserves the call.
• We all knew about Lonzo and JJ being available in trade talks, but the latest news are adding more info to those reports saying that NOLA is seemingly looking to part ways with other players attached to Redick if they move him.
• Now that the Knicks have landed Derrick Rose and their backcourt is kinda clogged, a “secret” contender has shown interest in Elfrid Payton. Ian Begley reports that the Knicks are far from done in the trade market, so expect more about this in the next few days/weeks.
• The Nets added another warm body to their squad: Noah Vonleh is now in Brooklyn and he could be the best backup-big of the team these days, which tells you everything you need to know about the Nets paint-game.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s slate roundup

• LeBron is definitely determined to snatch that MVP trophy and grab his fifth overall. Another night, another game played, another 42 minutes of playing time. This guy doesn’t know how to rest, and LeBron led the slate with a monster OT-facilitated 74 DKFP to the tune of a 28-14-12-2-2 trip-dub in a W against OKC. It’s absolutely crazy what this man is doing at a freaking 36 years of age.
• Five players with 60+ DKFP, which was great to see. The best of them? Kristaps Porzingis (LOL). Porz put up 63 DKFP in just 31 minutes thanks to a ludicrous 27-13-4 line to which he somehow added 6 (!!!) blocks against the midgety Wolves.
• The other four were Middleton (29-8-12-3), Dejounte (27-10-4-8), Jokic (35-12-6), and Valanciunas (27-20-3-1-1 shooting 66.7%).
• There were as many as eight players with 50-to-60 FP in yesterday’s slate, headlined by Shai’s 29-7-10 and LaMelo’s 24-7-10 with 7 treys.
• The ROI King award went to... Dejounte Murray! On a night in which he played 36 minutes, Murray dropped 27 pops on GSW, handed San Antonio the W, and not happy with that he also contributed 10 boards, 4 dimes, and some freakish 8 (!!!) steals. The discount was very real, as Murray’s 62 DKFP were the fourth-most yesterday. Malik Beasley, Valanciunas, Bazley, and Monk were other valuable plays.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Gordon Hayward! I was this close to picking Luka, but at the end of the day he hit 42 FP so it’s not that bad. Hayward, though, stopped his count at 31 DKFP even though he reached 33 minutes on the court, finishing with a complete-and-good-but-definitely-not-great 19-5-4 line shooting a putrid 36.4% from the floor on 11 FGA. Luka, Lowry, Morant, and DLo sucked too.
• There were 14 dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Toscano missed on it by two points, Draymond by three, Avdija by four, ; and Giannis/Beasley by a board) and four between points and assists (FVV and Ja needed one more dime). Dray also put up the rare rebounds-dimes dub-dub with a 7-10-10-1-2 stuffed line.
• One triple-double yesterday, obviously from the very own LBJ in an overtime game. The line finished at a mighty 28-14-12-2-2 with Bron shooting exactly 50% on 22 FGA, hitting 4-of-5 freebies, and logging a below-30% usage rate. Another day in the office, that was. Shame on Dray for his stupid 7-10-10 line.
• More silly numbers: Dejounte found a way to steal 8 possessions, while Kristaps swatted a slate-leading 6 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: DeMar DeRozan (SF/PF). Second-leg of a back-to-back in the SAS-GSW mini-series tonight. Nothing is telling us DeDe won’t be there on the court, so given his absolute bargain of a salary and how he’s been performing of late we must go with him today. DeMar dropped 44 DKFP yesterday to the tune of a 21-6-10 line against this very same team, and prior to that he had reached 48 and 50 last Saturday and Wednesday. The ROI he’s providing to his fantasy GMs of late is absolutely insane, and it should stay as high or get even higher today if all works as it should on paper. Must-play.
• Hate: De’Aaron Fox (PG). The Kings have righted their wrongs and found a way to stay on the winning side of things more often than not lately. Led by Fox, they’re pretty much thriving all things considered. Now, the problem tonight is that Sacto is facing a Philly squad that is not handing point-guards that many fantasy goodies. Sure, there are the unstoppable guys that will always put up numbers, such as Harden or Brogdon, but in the past two weeks those are all starting PGs that have crossed the 40 DKFP mark. Players at the position are averaging just 35 DKFP against the Sixers, and although Fox is averaging 46 DKFP in that same two-week span I’d rather look elsewhere tonight to fill my lineup’s PG slots.

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!