What’s up everyone and welcome to Ben’s Building Blocks! If you’ve never read my content before, welcome. To those that have, welcome back. I truly appreciate everyone that reads and supports during NBA season. This article is designed for me to highlight the top plays of the day. Obviously, things can change rapidly in the NBA with injury news close to lock, so I would be sure to subscribe to our premium package for access to our Final Thoughts cheat sheet, our premium discord channel and my core plays. Our Core Plays product gives you the ability to tail all of our analysts in your contests each night. We do the work for you, and you simply plug and play with our premium Core Plays. With that being said, let’s hop into the plays…
Building Blocks
Kyrie Irving
There are a lot of big-name injuries on this slate, and that’s going to push ownership onto a few teams starting with Kyrie Irving and the Nets. Kevin Durant is out, and Irving has averaged almost 50 fantasy points per 36 minutes with Durant off the court this season. His usage rate jumps from 29% to 36%, and he’s grading out as one of our top values given his price tag on the entire slate. It’s not the easiest of match-ups, but the usage and shot attempts should be there and I expect him to have a great game as long as the game is close. We have him projected for over 30% ownership on Thursday night — and that number should be even higher in cash game formats.
Jrue Holiday
Speaking of teams with guys out — the Bucks will be without Giannis and Khris Middleton tonight which obviously bumps up the rest of the starters. They will also be without Grayson Allen tonight. Holiday gets a massive boost without ABC/Middleton — with his per minute numbers jumping to nearly 1.5 and his usage rate over 34% as well. This isn’t an easy match-up by any means, but if the Bucks are in the game it’s likely that Holiday is heavily involved. We currently have him projected for less OWN% than Irving, but both are must plays for me tonight.
Value Plays
Milwaukee Bucks
With Allen out in addition to the big-two – there’s tons of minutes and usage open for this team. Obviously Pat Connaughton will step into a larger role on offense, but we should see Marjon Beauchamp start as well. Both these guys are priced below $4,000 on DraftKings, and coming in top-six in our current ownership projections. Plugging in 3+ Bucks will be a heavily used build in cash games tonight. I do agree that’s the move, with Bobby Portis projecting well, also, but I don’t think it’s a must in tournaments. Overall, I’m more inclined to take the good value and get different with my spend-ups when building a GPP team on a mid-sized slate like this.
OwnersBox Top Play
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Joel Embiid
I think most people will be looking at Luka Doncic when spending up, and rightfully so given what he’s done on the court this season. LeBron is next-up and correlates with Luka, so maybe we get a bit lower ownership on Embiid in an expected blowout. This is a massive spot for him against a Thunder team that will have no answers for him. He’s been a fantasy monster at home in Philly this season, and we’ve even see him get there in blowouts at times. Overall, if this game stays remotely close Embiid could break the slate but I don’t see him getting overly owned due to the spread + other solid high-dollar players being available to us with all this value.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
