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
Tyrese Haliburton
Haliburton is one of my favorite players to use in DFS, and I was all-in on him on Wednesday night. He had what I would consider a bad game by his standards and still managed over 40 DK points. His potential assists were over 20 on opening night despite ending up with just seven of them. He didn’t contribute anywhere near what he can peripheral stat-wise and this is a fantastic match-up against a fast-paced, bad defensive Spurs team. I was pretty shocked he was only around 30% owned on Wendesday and if he comes in at that number again tonight I will be super excited. This is a ceiling-type spot for him in my opinion.
Keldon Johnson
After loading up on Spurs players on Wednesday, they’re right back in play tonight against the Indiana Pacers. I love the correlation between some of the Spurs paired with Tyrese Haliburton — and this game is expected to be competitive with the Pacers favored by just 1.5 points and it featuring the highest O/U tonight at 232.5 points. Johnson has historically not been a high-ceiling player, but he is one of the focal points of the current Spurs roster. He put up over 1.5 DraftKings points per minute in their first game and has a strong match-up tonight against a lackluster Indiana frontcourt. He will definitely be owned, but I like him in all formats on Friday night.
Value Plays
Devin Vassell
Sticking with the Spurs theme once again, Vassell disappointed on night one but it was a good process play. He led the Spurs in usage rate, and simply couldn’t get it going shooting the ball, ending just 3-15 from the field. He has just as good of a match-up as Keldon, and is still underpriced across the industry. We currently have him projected as the highest-owned option on tonight’s slate, but this is good chalk in my opinion and he will be a staple of my lineups in all formats.
Bones Hyland
This one isn’t a confirmed play yet, but Jamal Murray is listed as questionable and I believe he is likely to sit out tonight’s game on the front-end of a back-to-back. This would allow Bones to slide into the starting lineup at Point Guard, priced at just $4,000 on DraftKings. Bones has point per minute ability, and will likely be low-owned due to the uncertainty of Murray’s status at lock-time. Overall, I’m not sure if I’ll be building around him in cash games but he becomes maybe the best value play on the slate if Murray is ruled out.
OwnersBox Play
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Zion Williamson
Zion looked like a potential MVP candidate in the Pelicans first game against the Nets, and it was super promising to see him log 30 minutes. Charlotte historically has a weak frontcourt defense, and this could be another spot for him to pop off on Friday night. He was getting to the rim a ton and I don’t think we’ve seen anything close to his ceiling. This profiles as one of the best potential match-ups for him and I thin he is viable in all formats. He may come in a bit lower-owned as well, which is even better.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
