Welcome in to Ben’s NBA DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings and FanDuel! In this article, I will highlight my favorite NBA DFS plays at each position for small-field tournament formats. If you’re interested in signing up for premium access, which grants you Core Plays for every slate, projections + expert picks and our premium Discord click HERE. You can also sign up for our plethora of AI-driven sports betting tools and access to my weekly betting card by clicking HERE. Let’s get into the plays…
Guard
Darius Garland
Yesterday I wrote up Evan Mobley seeing that he was underpriced for his role now that he’s off a minutes restriction – and the same can be said for Darius Garland. He was limited upon his return from his broken jaw, but is ready to roll post-ASB and posted an 18/10 double-double in 37 minutes last night. I think he’s a fine play for his price regardless, but Donovan Mitchell was listed Q to play tonight on a back-to-back and Garland would become one of the top-overall plays on the slate should be get ruled out. Garland sees the biggest usage rate increase on the team with Mitchell off the floor — seeing around a 4% increase.
Forward
Kevin Durant
Durant is coming off a down game in which he was berated by local Dallas podcast hosts before the game. Tonight is a much better spot for him — Brad Beal and Jusuf Nurkic are both unlikely to play and he’s been the biggest winner in terms of production this season with Beal off the floor. He’s priced under $10,000 in a great match-up against the Rockets and actually grades out as a top-three value on the slate in our Projections Portal.
Jalen Williams
Williams has quietly been ascending for this young Thunder team as of late, and now draws a fantastic match-up against the Wizards. He’s topped 40+ fantasy points in four of his last five games – while WAS has basically been the most giving fantasy defense over the course of the season. Washington plays at the fastest pace in the league, which fits into Williams’ playing style and it’s noteworthy that this game has the second-highest total (242) on the slate. Williams is my favorite mid-range option on Friday and can be used in all formats on both sites.
Center
Evan Mobley
Mobley was featured in this section yesterday and absolutely stuffed the stat sheet against the Magic posting a 14-8-6 line in 34 minutes. I’m not expecting any minutes limit for him on the B2B and he is once again too cheap for his role as long as he is logging 32+ minutes. This is actually a better match-up on paper against an Embiid-less 76ers front-court and I once again believe him to be a top point per dollar option given his ceiling. He would also get a boost should Mitchell miss — despite not seeing a major usage increase he actually sees the biggest spike in DK points per game on the Cavs with Mitchell off the floor.
Drew Eubanks
Eubanks is priced at $3,700 on DK and will be a no brainer value play should Jusuf Nurkic (doubtful) get ruled out. I obviously would want confirmation that he’s starting prior to the game — but this slate was lacking strong value and the Suns will move to the front of that conversation for now. With so many teams on back-to-backs expect more value to open prior to lock.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
