My Core
Trae Young + Jabari Parker- We have a light six game slate on Monday with a ton of injury news up in the air. I’m going to start my builds on both sites with two Hawks…Trae Young and Jabari Parker. For starters, this is my favorite game of the entire night, both teams rank bottom-three in the NBA in defensive efficiency and this game features the second-highest total on the slate at 222. The Hawks in particular have the second-highest implied team total on the slate at 114, and Young and Parker are the main contributors on offense with John Collins still out. The Warriors have allowed the highest three-point% in the NBA this season to opposing teams, which plays right into Young’s strength of getting hot from deep. Parker is averaging over 1 full fantasy point per minute this season, and is the only other Hawks starter with a usage rate north of 20%. This is a tremendous game stack in tournaments, but for my main team, I will be plugging these two in first and moving on.
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Domantas Sabonis- Sabonis is one of my favorite players to roster in DFS, and tonight seems like a good time to jump on him in a pace-up spot against the Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis ranks 6th in pace this season compared to the Pacers who are outside the top-20, and they also rank inside the bottom-ten in defensive efficiency to Sabonis’ position. He is always good at stuffing the stat sheet, and he leads the Pacers in rebound% at 18.6%…faster pace = more shot attempts = more rebounding chances! He should crack my main build on both FanDuel and DraftKings.
Note: I will be including Giannis Antetokounmpo in my core on FanDuel where it appears relatively easy to jam him in alongside Trae Young.
Value Plays
Dillon Brooks + Grizzlies- The Grizzlies are the top place for value on this slate with all of Ja Morant, Brandon Clarke and Kyle Anderson out, while Jona Valanciunas is questionable with an illness — missed yesterday’s game as well. Before I get to Dillon Brooks, I want to note that Tyus Jones is probably the top overall value play on FanDuel at $4,000, whereas he is just a tournament play on DK at over $5,000. Brooks is one of my favorite mid-tier plays on the slate today if Valanciunas misses, he sees a 5% usage hike with Morant and Val off the floor, posted the highest usage rate on the team yesterday and chucked up almost 20 shots.
We also have Bruno Cabolco who is min-priced on both FanDuel and DraftKings if Val is out, he is a fantasy point per minute player and would step into a mid-20 minutes role after dropping over 30 fantasy points yesterday. Finally, both De’Anthony Melton and Grayson Allen will be needed for bigger roles tonight as well. Both played well yesterday and ended up playing late in the game over Tyus Jones. Melton in particular was able to eclipse 30 fantasy points while shooting just 2-10 from the field.
Dennis Smith Jr- We already know that both Elfrid Payton and Marcus Morris are out similar to yesterday’s game, but the thing of note here is that Frank Ntilikina exited the game early on Sunday due to a back injury, allowing DSJ to play 38 minutes. His price hasn’t moved today, while Ntilikina is slated as questionable. Should he be out, Smith Jr would become one of the top value plays on the slate, but would be better suited for DraftKings in my opinion where you can roster more than two Point Guards.
Robin Lopez (FanDuel)- I don’t think Lopez is at all a must play on DraftKings, but FanDuel foolishly left him at minimum price which should send him to the top of the charts in projected ownership tonight. Brook Lopez is out for the Bucks tonight, which happened on Saturday, Robin stepped into the starting lineup in place of his brother and topped 30 fantasy points. Those points came on the back of 5-9 shooting and a career-high three 3 pointers made, but at min-price, it’s hard to envision him not beating salary-based expectations.
DeAndre Bembry- The Hawks are still really banged up — Kevin Huerter is out, Allen Crabbe is doubtful and Cam Reddish is questionable. If Reddish is unable to go, Bembry should easily be able to reach or exceed his 25 minute projection, and at 0.8 fantasy points per minute this season he would become a strong value play in all formats, specifically on FanDuel where you have to roster two Shooting Guards.[/restrict]
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
