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

Julius Randle

I think most people will be building around Giannis Antetokounmpo tonight but I can’t overlook this spot for Randle. He’s historically crushed his former team, and now gets a spot at home in the Garden on national TV. Randle leads the team in usage rate and point per minute production — while the Lakers have struggled defensively especially against opposing big-men. The return of Anthony Davis will certainly help, but Randle has averaged over 20 FGA per game over his last four games vs his former team. I’m expecting him to be chucking early and often, and with just a 1.5 spread, this game should be competitive throughout leading to big minutes.

Jamal Murray

As long as Murray is ruled in, this should lead to pretty high-ownership tonight against the Pelicans. Denver has one of the highest totals on the slate at 119 points and Murray is projecting for around 30% ownership. He’s been extremely consistent as of late topping 36+ DK points in each of his last six games, and New Orleans has been vulnerable to guards more so than big-men. Nikola Jokic is going to get his regardless, but Murray could be one of the top mid-tier plays if he’s ruled in. Like Randle, I don’t think he is a must play on any site but I like the match-up and price point. This slate is shaping up to be pretty spread out ownership-wise unless some late injury news breaks.

Value Plays

Cheap Bucks

With only a five game slate and limited injuries to siphon through, the value pool is severely condensed on Tuesday. This is going to force ownership onto some mediocre spots, which should help in tournaments because we can make pivots to higher-ceiling options at similar price points. Regardless, it appears that the Bucks are the best spot for value right now with both Pat Connaughton and Grayson Allen popping in the projections. Allen is projecting for over 20% ownership, while Connaughton is expected to be one of the highest-owned plays on the slate. It’s a pace-up spot for the Bucks against the Hornets — and both guys are expected to log 28+ minutes with Bobby Portis still out. I don’t think either are must plays in GPPs, but you can do worse in cash games especially when it allows you to spend up for Randle or Giannis.

Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)