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
De’Aaron Fox
Most people will be spending up on Damian Lillard tonight, but I love Fox and he’s coming in decently low-owned as well. He’s been on fire topping 50+ DK points regularly over the last two weeks and being ultra-aggressive with the ball in his hands. He’s gotten to the free-throw line double-digit times over his last three games — and his drives per game are up to 19 per game over that span. Domantas Sabonis has struggled offensively as of late, and Fox has completely taken over especially in the second-half of games. His salary increase is causing him to come in outside the top-seven in our PG ownership projections despite owning a top-five ceiling on the slate. Overall, I prefer him to Lillard for less money and will be taking a stance with Fox on Tuesday.
Derrick White
White has been absolutely balling over the last few games for the Celtics and that shouldn’t stop tonight with both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum out. White has put up 40+ DK points in three of his last four games — including a 64 DK point game and the underwhelming performance being 36 fantasy points. He takes on a bigger role with these guys out — ranking second on the team in usage rate (28%) and first on the team in potential assists. Over his last three games, he’s second behind only Jayson Tatum with 11 potential assists per game — a number we expect to rise even further with Tatum’s 12 exiting the lineup. His price is up, but that’s warranted with his recent play and I like him in all formats on Tuesday night.
Value Plays
Payton Pritchard or Grant Williams
Sticking with the Celtics, Prichard is set to be one of the highest-owned value options tonight. He’s been playing over 20 minutes regularly, and that number could rise even further tonight with Grant Williams also questionable. Our Projections Portal has him projected for around 25 minutes tonight — I will note that if Grant Williams suits up he will be one of my favorite plays and it would render Pritchard more “okay” than a must-play. So, Williams is in I’m using him, if out I like Pritchard a bit more.
Matisse Thybulle
Thybulle is projecting as the highest-owned option tonight due to his minimum-salary price tag. Portland is already thinner in the front-court, and will likely be without Jerami Grant due to a concussion. If Grant is out, we expect Thybulle to start and be a top value play. I will note that this isn’t the type of player I like rostering at high-OWN% so if he is confirmed starting, he will be tough to avoid in cash games/single entry contests but I won’t consider him a must play. Everyone will be going stars/scrubs builds again tonight so I think pivoting and building balanced in GPPs is a strong move.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
