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
Anthony Edwards + D’Angelo Russell
Minnesota looks to be the chalkiest spot on Monday’s afternoon slate and I really can’t argue them being good plays. We know that Karl-Anthony Towns has been out, but now all of Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and Taurean Prince are listed as Q to play today. I think that Edwards will play, but Gobert’s status looks up in the air. If he gets ruled out, both Edwards and Russell are virtual must-plays and both feel priced too cheap across the industry. I believe these two to be in play, however, regardless of Rudy’s status due to their price tags. They should both cost $400ish more in salary which is why they’re picking up such heavy ownership projections. It’s also a very strong match-up against the Utah Jazz. We will need to monitor this news post-lock, but for now both of these guys can be labeled as cash game building blocks — especially if Gobert ends up missing.
Steph Curry
Early ownership projections actually have Curry coming in low-owned, which I would absolutely love. We currently have him projected for the most fantasy points on today’s slate, as well has the highest ceiling, but he’s coming in around 15% ownership due to roster construction. It’s a great spot for him — Klay Thompson is out for the Warriors which allows even more shot attempts for Curry. His usage rate jumps from 29% to 35% with Thompson off the floor this season, and this is a great match-up for him. Washington is a bad defensive team, and the Warriors actually carry the highest team total on the slate at just below 120 points. Overall, on a mid-sized slate like this I’m going to prioritize the best projection especially when he isn’t carrying a massive ownership number. I’m all-in on Curry today.
Value Plays
Taurean Prince
Prince is priced at the minimum of $3,000 on DK — which is why we have him projected for over 30% ownership on this slate. I noted above that he’s listed as Q, so we will need to confirm he’s in with no limitations before confidently playing him even at this sort of value. If he’s out, we can bump up guys like Kyle Anderson and Jaden McDaniels in all formats. I also want to note that if Rudy Gobert is out — we can lock in Naz Reid in all formats and he would instantly become the top point per dollar play on the slate.
OwnersBox Top Play
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Julius Randle
Randle is another player that has a super-high ceiling on a smaller slate like this, but isn’t going to catch much ownership due to his match-up. Toronto is a good defensive team, but this is a match-up that Randle has already cooked in this season and it could be due to the under-sized front-court of the Raptors. We have Randle with the second-highest ceiling projection today but coming in below 10% in ownership. Getting some exposure to these high-upside low-owned options is a priority for me on a medium-sized slate.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
