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
LeBron James
There’s so much value available to us on Friday evening, spending up on studs won’t be a problem and I’m siding with LeBron against the Grizzlies. He continues to post fantasy point per minute rates over 1.5 with Anthony Davis off the court — and he’s been crushing in fast-paced match-ups as of late. Memphis and Los Angeles are both top-three in pace, resulting in a slate-high 244.5 O/U. Bron has been more aggressive offensively taking 23+ shot attempts in each of his last five games and logging monster minutes in close contests. The spread on this game is at 6 — and I think James is headed for another huge workload on Friday night.
Josh Giddey
Giddey has been crushing for the Thunder over the last two weeks and is up to almost 1.3 fantasy points per minute. He’s topped 50+ DK points in three of his last five games, and he fits perfectly into the expected pace of this game. Both of these teams are top-five overall in pace, which is why the O/U is coming in at a massive 242.5. Giddey’s game suits well with a track meet environment and the individual match-up is strong as well. He’s been more aggressive with the ball in his hands as of late, and if that continues I feel like this price-tag is a discount for his overall ceiling. I could see him getting pretty high-owned tonight, but I love the spot.
Value Plays
Ty Jerome + Isaiah Hartenstein
We have two very strong min-priced plays tonight which is going to allow us to spend up on whoever we want at the high-end prices. Golden State is resting their entire team tonight, which results in Jerome catching a 25 minute projection in our Portal. He should see solid run regardless of the score of this game and it’s hard to see him hurting your roster much at this price. As for Hartenstein, he will likely start in place of the injured Mitch Robinson tonight. He has struggled this season, but historically he’s been an elite point per minute producer when handed a larger minutes load. We have him projected for mid-20’s minutes tonight, and like Jerome, it’s hard to envision him hurting you for his salary.
OwnersBox Top Play
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Jordan Poole
Poole is going to be a tough fade in any format on Friday with the entire Warriors team out. He’s going to start and completely command the offense, setting him up for 20+ shot attempts easily. He will likely lead the team in usage rate by a wide-margin and I don’t think he will see a super limited role in the event of a blowout due to the lack of bodies available for the Warriors. Typically, he needs a hot scoring night to hit his ceiling but with all these guys out on Friday he’s a top play on all sites.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
