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
Chris Paul + DeAndre Ayton
The big news on Tuesday’s slate is that Devin Booker will be out tonight for Phoenix. This is a huge bump to both Paul and Ayton — and it has them ranking out two of the top-five overall values on tonight’s slate. Paul is actually averaging over 40 fantasy points per game without Booker, and will dominate the offense as expected. Ayton isn’t someone you would think would get a massive boost — but his per minute and usage rate numbers both rise with Booker off the court. If we isolate just this season with no Booker, his per minute production is almost 1.5 points compared to his season rate of 1.21. Couple the offensive spikes with a tasty match-up against the Rockets and you can see why they are must plays for me and starting points in my lineups.
Alperen Sengun
Sengun seems to be back in the Rockets good graces, coming off 30, 29 and 27 minutes over his last three games. Phoenix has actually been one of the worst defensive teams in basketball against centers this season, and Sengun leads the entire team in fantasy point per minute output. He correlates well with the Suns guys we will be stuffing in, and I think he’s viable in all formats. I will note that he is typically a better tournament play than cash, so if he ends up being high-owned I’ll try to come in underweight.
I’ll also add that if Dario Saric is starting for the Suns, he would be a lock for me in all formats.
Value Plays
Malcolm Brogdon
We definitely have value on this slate, but no super cheap guys stand out as must plays unless we get news that Saric will be starting. Brogdon is priced close to the mid-tier, so I’m wondering if he ends up a bit lower-owned than expected if we get some cheaper guys opening up an easier path to stars and scrubs builds. Broggy has smashed this season in games that Horford has missed, and I like the individual match-up against the Lakers tonight.
OwnersBox Top Play
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Zion Williamson
I doubt I’ll be able to get any cash game exposure to Zion tonight, but we have to pay attention to what he’s been doing. This is a strong match-up against the Utah Jazz, and Zion has essentially averaged 50+ fantasy points with Brandon Ingram out. He’s been completely taking over on offense, and has actually reached upper-30’s in minutes which is the only thing holding him back. He has one of the higher ceilings on this slate if he can hit 36+ minutes, and he’s one of my top-overall targets on Tuesday night.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
