The Locks
Kevin Durant- We get a huge 11 game slate tonight to close things out before a small slate tomorrow and then the All-Star break! Our first injury news to dissect is Boogie Cousins who will sit out for the Warriors tonight on a back-to-back, and that results in some of the Warriors being under-priced, specifically Durant. Durant is priced at just $9,900 on FanDuel and that simply doesn’t account for Boogie being off the floor, for reference, KD sees a +7% usage bump with Cousins off the floor as well as increased rebounding. I fully want to take advantage of the price decrease, and Durant will be the first player in my lineups tonight for cash games.
Kevon Looney- Our second mis-priced Warrior is Kevon Looney, who finds himself under $4,000 on both FanDuel and DraftKings. He’s less of a “must” on FanDuel where you can only play one center, but on DK with MPE he is a really strong play in all formats. He has flashed fantasy point per minute ability this season and with Boogie out he should see around 24+ minutes minimum against the Portland Trailblazers.
Marcus Morris- Yesterday, Morris was a lock for me, and with his price barely budging we will be going right back to the well tonight with Kyrie Irving out again. Morris doesn’t see a huge minutes bump with Irving sidelined, but the usage increases well above what his price-tag is worth and he responded with 29.7 FanDuel points last night in 33 minutes of action.
Secondary Options
Point Guard- So, last night was a mess with Mike Conley getting ruled out late before lock, and tonight we have Kyrie Irving and Terry Rozier looking unlikely to play, and Kris Dunn slated as questionable. I need to wait and see if Dunn ends up playing, but PG seems pretty clearly like somewhere we want to save tonight in cash games. With Irving/Rozier both potentially out, we can look at Brad Wanamaker for min-price on FanDuel and if Dunn gets ruled out that gives us both of Shaq Harrison and Ryan Arcidiacono. We also have a cheap Tyler Johnson, who is questionable but becomes a great play should be be confirmed in. Steph Curry and Damian Lillard are great spend-ups, but probably better for tournaments for me as of right now.
Celtics- With Irving/Rozier out, we are going to interested in more Celtics than just Marcus Morris– Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward in specifics. On FanDuel, locking in two of the three in addition to Morris for cash games would make sense to me and I would rank them how I have them listed above. Overall, I think it’s pretty chalky for a 11 game slate making this a great tournament slate with some big prize pools available across the industry.
GPP Plays
Karl-Anthony Towns- I think a lot of people will be focused on spending down at center with Looney, and that gives us KAT who is back under $11,000 on FanDuel in a matchup he has owned throughout his career. Towns has averaged over 50 fantasy points per game against the Rockets in his career, and Houstons has been decimated by centers without Clint Capela in the lineup.
GSW/POR game stack- One of my biggest ever NBA DFS GPP wins was a game stack of these two teams, before Durant was there obviously, but it always sticks out to me and now we get an 11 game slate, with this as the late night hammer and a 234 O/U (3 point spread). I love locking in Curry, Durant, Looney, Dame and Nurkic and going from there and if you can mix that in with some strong secondary plays you should be sitting pretty when the late games roll around.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
