The Locks
Russell Westbrook- Once again we have an extremely chalky slate on tap for FanDuel given the ridiculous inability to price player’s accordingly. That means we are going to have room for two or three high-priced players in our lineups, and I’m starting that with Russell Westbrook tonight. Westy is going after history tonight looking for his tenth straight triple-double, and he’s topped 50+ FD points in all but one of those nine games. His price isn’t too high at $12,1000, and I love locking his floor into my lineup to kick things off tonight.
Jabari Parker- Let’s take a look here…Saturday night, Jabari Parker is priced at $3,900–90+% owned–40 FanDuel points…as a result of this he remains $3,900! I don’t even want to play him tonight, but he’s going to be over 90% owned again and there’s literally no reason to fade him in cash games. Eat the chalk and move on.
Dennis Smith Jr- At least FanDuel decided to move Dennis Smith Jr up to $6,900, but even at that price I’m willing to pair him with Westbrook in cash games. Since joining the Knicks, DSJ is right at a 30% usage rate and 30% assist rate, more than 5% increases on his rates in Dallas. It never feels good trusting Fizdale, but the matchup with the Cavs coupled with the usage is just too good to pass up, and he’s been well over a FPPM over the last week and a half.
Secondary Options
Mason Plumlee (IF Paul Millsap out)- I’m a tad worried that we won’t get this news before lock, but should Paul Millsap miss again Mason Plumlee becomes the clear top center for cash games. Millsap has missed the last three games resulting in minute totals of 32, 28 and 36 for Plumlee with 30+ FanDuel points in every game. He remains under $6,000 and we just need to get that Millsap notification to lock him in.
Chasson Randle- This really has nothing to do with Chasson Randle, but more of the fact that he’s $3,500 and Tomas Satoranksy is out for the Wizards tonight. Randle will move into the starting lineup after playing 25 minutes on Saturday night, and on FanDuel we now have the ability to lock in two sub-$4,000 players and maybe not even expect either of them to be our low score drop at the end of the night…this is a stars and scrubs slate to the max.
Blake Griffin- Since we have that salary available, I like going back to the well with Blake Griffin at $9,000 in a matchup with the Wizards. I love that we are still getting him at a $600-700 discount, and the only thing that prevented him from a massive output on Friday was the blowout– he only saw 28 minutes of court time resulting in 36 FanDuel points. The Wizards are a horrible rebounding team, and with juts a 5.5 point spread we can hope this one stays more competitive.
GPP Plays
Karl-Anthony Towns- KAT actually has the ability to be moved to the cash game range, if we get news that Paul Millsap will play. Should that happen and we scratch off Plumlee, I have no issues attempting to jam in Russ/KAT and Blake given the value we have present on this slate. He will benefit from the increased pace of the Clippers and remember this is a team that has bled points to opposing centers all season long.
Collin Sexton- I tweeted out today how Collin Sexton has been much better than everyone seems to think, and it’s important to remember how hard it is to be a rookie point guard in the NBA. He’s fourth among all rookies in points per game, and he’s been finding his groove over the last few weeks. He gets a fantastic matchup with the Knicks opposite Dennis Smith Jr, and presents a solid discount at only $5,400. He really is cash playable to me, but I would feel better about getting up to DSJ and then pairing the two together in GPPS.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
