The Core
Luka Doncic- Doncic was featured in this article on Wednesday, and will probably be a staple for me again this season as long as he is priced lower than the “top tier” studs. He is set to dominate usage and looks on this Mavericks team again this season and has a dream matchup with the Pelicans who were not only bottom-five in defensive efficiency to opposing guards last season, but also are going to play at an extremely fast-pace this season. He’s neck-and-neck with KAT as my favorite play on the slate (again).
Karl-Anthony Towns- It’s clear that Towns is on his way to a massive fantasy season after casually dropping in 70+ fantasy points on Wednesday. There is nobody else on this team to stop him from doing whatever he wants, and to top it off, he gets a matchup against the Hornets who will be without Cody Zeller. This will result in Marvin Williams playing a lot of Center tonight, who I don’t think has any shot of actually being able to guard Towns. I’m simply plugging in Luka + KAT tonight and going from there. Note: For what it’s worth, Lauri Markkanen logged roughly 11 minutes at Center in their Overtime game against the Hornets (with Zeller in) and put up over 1.6 fantasy points per minute in that span.
Value Plays
Kings- The Kings are one of the biggest places we will look for value tonight with Marvin Bagley out. It has been announced that Nemanja Bjelica will start, which would leave Richaun Holmes to backup Dewayne Dedmon. Both of Bjelica and Holmes are exceptional value plays, and both can be used together in one lineup. Bjelica was just south of a point per minute when Marvin Bagley missed a season ago, and Holmes has pretty much always been a fantasy point per minute guy, who should be locked into over 20 minutes of action tonight. Dedmon himself is a fine play, but Holmes/Bjelica stand out as two of the top overall value plays on this slate.
Celtics- Enes Kanter is sidelined for the Celtics tonight, giving us tons of value in the frontcourt, particularly with Daniel Theis and Robert Williams. Theis has been a near fantasy point per minute guy and is expected to start at center, while Williams has flashed big upside in limited minutes before. I think both are in play in all formats, but if Theis starts he will certainly be higher-owned — I do feel as if Williams has higher upside personally.
Marvin Williams- Williams is expected to log a lot of time at Center tonight in an attempt to guard Karl-Anthony Towns. While I don’t think that Marvin Williams can guard KAT at all, I do know that means he should be on the floor a lot and he is under-priced for the expected bump in playing time. He is SF/PF eligible on DK and PF eligible on FanDuel, making him a solid value play in all formats.
Tournament Plays
Julius Randle- As long as Mitchell Robinson is out again (monitor news), Randle will fly under the radar again with everyone looking to save money at the F/C spot due to all of the value.
Kelly Oubre- The offseason reports of Oubre held true, he led the Suns in usage and jacked up over 15 shots. He did see a nice price hike, but I love him as a GPP play tonight on both sites — DK in particular he is still under-priced.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
