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
LeBron James
LeBron turns 38 years old today, and it’s pretty incredible that we are still locking him into our DFS lineups at a high price tag with him being this age. This is one of those classic, NBA play whoever you want slates, with loads of value across the league. Given that we have so much value, stuffing LeBron with the birthday narrative into our main build will be fairly easy. He will continue to dominate for the Lakers with Anthony Davis out – and we don’t hate the match-up against the Atlanta Hawks either. He sees major spikes in his rates without Davis on the court- including a 4% usage rate increase to 35%. His $10,100 price tag on DK is actually pretty low for the per minute numbers we see without Davis — and I think you can consider him a top spend-up and value on Friday night.
Orlando Magic
The Magic and Pistons both will be dealing with suspensions following their scuffle a few nights ago – and that will present with us with clear plays in the DFS space. They will actually be down to the minimum number of players tonight, and that makes playing 3+ Magic players a viable strategy on both sites. Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are the main beneficiaries, and can be considered two of the best overall plays on the slate. Both have usage rates over 30% with the players missing off the court, and should be needed to do it all offensively. We also have Markelle Fultz stepping into a larger role, priced at only $6,000 on DK. Everyone will be plugging in Orlando guys tonight, picking the right ones will be key to winning.
Value Plays
Alec Burks
Burks is a relatively easy value tonight, he started the second-half for Killian Hayes the other night and is expected to start in his place against the Bulls. He’s a point per minute player, and we have him projected for 30+ minutes. We also have him projected as the highest-owned player on the slate, but it’s easy to understand why with that type of salary for the minutes we have him playing. Overall, I don’t think he’s a must-play in tournaments, but he’s a lock and load for cash games and one of the best point per dollar options on a huge Friday night slate.
Bol Bol
Bol Bol is the clear top value play for me tonight, and I would go so far as to call him the top-overall play on the slate. Orlando is down so many bigs tonight, that we actually have him projected for 35 minutes tonight. He’s been around a fantasy point per minute player this season, and I think he has upside for even better rates than that with some of these guys off the floor. He’s going to be massively owned, but I view him as good chalk and would have him in 100% of my lineups if only making a few teams on Friday.
OwnersBox Top Play
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John Collins
Collins is someone that I really like tonight, but I’m not sure if he fits the current build path on other sites. Getting some exposure to him on OwnersBox is a priority for me in this spot against the Los Angeles Lakers. Overall, he’s been much better offensively over the last week and a half and will continue to be in a better fantasy position with Clint Capela out. Los Angeles has been going super small with Davis out, and I think that boosts the match-up for Collins as well. I think he has definite double-double potential tonight.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
