Recap of Last Night
Last night was the perfect example of what I wrote about in yesterday’s article. I had Mike Muscala as a top play all day, but after lock it was announced that Isaiah Roby would start over him. We swapped to him in all of our core plays, and he ended up destroying his minimum price tag. My main lineup scored 268 on DraftKings, which was enough to win all of my double ups. Those points that we gained from Muscala to Roby were the difference in winning and losing, especially when we factor in Roby’s sub-5% ownership.
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Guard
Payton Pritchard- I didn’t think I would be writing up the rookie Pritchard so quickly this season, but he has already started eating into Jeff Teague’s minutes. He has logged 25, 23 and 27 minute totals in the last three games after 13 in the opener. He could be in line for even more run tonight on a back-to-back with Jayson Tatum questionable. Quite a few of his minutes have come alongside Jeff Teague, but it’s clear the coaching staff is already starting to trust the young gun more. Brad Stevens commented how good he was in the PNR to the media yesterday, and I think he will continue to see increased minutes tonight. There is a severe lack of quality value at this moment in time, which is thrusting Pritchard into my cash game pool. If you are looking for a more balanced selection, Tyler Herro is on my radar once again with Jimmy Butler out.
Forward
DeMar DeRozan- DeRo is coming off just 27 DK points against the Pelicans, but there is reason to go back to the well tonight. For starters, LaMarcus Aldridge is listed as questionable, and if he was ruled out DeRozan would be elevated to a must play. Those 27 points also came on a night where he shot just 3-12 from the field and 0-4 from deep. He’s still leading the Spurs with 1.3 DK points per minute, and is tied for the team lead in usage rate at 23%. We have been accustomed to DeRozan being a scoring-heavy DFS player, but he quietly is top-ten in potential assists so far this season. If he’s going to distribute the ball more, it increases his floor and is LMA sits out he would be tough to stomach as a fade.
Center
Bam Adebayo- This is another player coming off a dud in their last game, though Bam’s wasn’t that big of a dud at all. Sure, he ended up with just 27 DK points last night against Milwaukee, but that also came in just 25 minutes of action. He was still slightly above a fantasy point per minute, and I am expecting this game to be closer than the massive blowout we saw last night. We have a large historical sample of Adebayo being around 1.3 points per minute without Jimmy Butler, who is out once again tonight. I don’t see how he is any different of a play than he was last night, when we liked him a lot, and now he is at a slight price discount on DK.
Overview
We are still waiting for news on Jayson Tatum, LaMarcus Aldridge and LeBron James. If any or all end up missing, this would open up some more value and allow a stars and scrubs type build with Luka Doncic or Giannis Antetokounmpo on DraftKings. We will always update our thoughts on injury situations in discord in real time.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
