Welcome in to a new year of Spike’s NBA DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings and FanDuel! In this article, I will highlight my favorite NBA DFS plays at each position for small-field tournament formats. If you’re interested in signing up for premium access, which grants you Core Plays for every slate, projections, Final Thoughts player pool + expert picks and our premium Discord click HERE. You can also sign up for our plethora of AI-driven sports betting tools and access to my weekly betting card by clicking HERE. Let’s get into some plays…
Guard
There isn’t a ton of news we are waiting on today which is shocking but also a very good thing. Derrick White has already been ruled out and on the other side of this game we have Claxton, Johnson and Simmons who have all been ruled out as well. De’Aaron Fox is going to miss another game so Davion Mitchell should grab the start again. Brandon Ingram is a game time decision so be on the lookout for that and Tyrese Haliburton just popped up as a GTD which isn’t surpriing given the back to back coming off an injury.
In terms of chalk — Payton Pritchard should be the highest owned player on the slate and I don’t think that will change barring unforseen news. On the other side, Dennis Smith is projecting to get the start in Brooklyn so I would expect to see some high ownership here as well.
For tournaments, I really want to get expsoure to this Hornets/Pacers game. It should be fast paced and high scoring which is what we want from a DFS perspective. I expect Lamelo Ball to play 35+ mins here in a comptetitive game but this Haliburton news is going to affect the game overall. If Haliburton is out we can expect Nembhard or McConnell to step in and play heavy minutes. Coby White is also worth rostering with Ayo out again tonight.
If you’re someone whos likes to game stack, ATL/NOP could be a sneaky game. Second highest implied total on the slate and both teams aren’t great on defense either. Trae Young verses CJ McCollum should be fun to watch.
Forward
We should see Bruce Bown garner some ownership here as he is just a guy who contributes in every stat column on a daily basis. Cam Reddish is in a decent spot tonight as well and is looking like strong value early on.
If you’re looking for some low owned gems I would look into DeMar DeRozan and Kristaps Porzingis. Currently looming around 5%-8% ownership and can take over any game when they want to.
Houston usually plays at a faster place and they play another fast paced team in Sacramento tonight. Jabari Smith and Dillion Brook are in solid spots to put up big numbers here and could be low owned as well. I also have zero issues going back to John Collins as he has been solid to start the year and I think this game will be closer then Vegas suggest.
Center
All signs tonight point towards Myles Turner. Even if Haliburton is out, it doesn’t affect Turner as much as you would think. Charotte has been atrocious to centers for a couple years and it isn’t slowing down now. Currently projected for 30%+ ownership but it is well warranted tonight. It is also worth seeing what Brooklyn does for it’s Center spot tonight without Claxton so we need to keep an eye out for that.
Outside of Turner, taking shots on Anthony Davis or Christian Wood is a solid idea with Wendell Carter ruled out. Rudy Gobert makes a lot of sense as well but he is projecting for high ownership currently (25%). To be fair, he is a walking double-double either way and of course Nikola Jokic is always in play when starting.
Written by Spiked (Follow @Spikedprops on Twitter)
