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

Desmond Bane

This is a weird slate, with what appears to be very limited value across the board. Assuming all goes as planned injury wise, it will be a balanced build type night for me and that starts with plugging in Desmond Bane. Ja Morant is listed as Q to play tonight, though I expect him to be active. He’s not even listed on the injury report — and is good to go tonight in a strong match-up. He ranks second behind only Morant in usage rate on Memphis this season, to go along with over 1.1 fantasy points per minute. I believe he is a strong option in all formats even if Morant is in — but he obviously becomes a lock should he get ruled out. I’ll also note than LeBron James was bumped down to Q today — if he’s our insert Russell Westbrook into this spot.

Russell Westbrook

And just as I finished typing that above, both LeBron James and Keldon Johnson were ruled out. As for the Lakers with no LeBron and AD, Russ becomes a core play for me on all sites. He’s averaging around 1.5 fantasy points per minute with them off the floor this season to go along with a team-high 35% usage rate. On a slate where it was already more balanced anyways, it should be easy to prioritize Westbrook as he is priced below $8,000 on DK.

Value Plays

Malcolm Brogdon

There’s definitely some value opening up with the Lakers — but Brogdon is perfectly priced in the mid-tier and can be used on all sites with Marcus Smart out. Broggy has been over 1.1 fantasy points per minute this season, and will see increased minutes due to Smart’s absence. We have him projected around 27 minutes tonight and I actually really like this individual match-up for him. He’s my favorite mid-tier play on both sites — and plugging him in alongside multiple Lakers will be my go-to build on Monday night.

OwnersBox Top Play

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Thomas Bryant

I already was writing up TB tonight, but the entire Lakers lineup obviously gets a boost with LeBron out. Bryant has been on fire since joining the starting lineup, and has actually had offensive success in his career against Nikola Jokic. He’s been hyper-active on the boards since stepping in for AD and should see a few more shot attempts tonight. Most users will be looking to save at the F spots tonight and getting up to the mid-tier with someone like Bryant is my go-to move. He has shown a ceiling recently and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)