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
Jalen Brunson
Brunson is my second-favorite spend-up on the slate tonight behind Bam Adebayo – in a strong match-up against the Detroit Pistons. Everyone knows how bad the Pistons are – they ran basically dead-last in all defensive stat categories and they particularly struggle to defend scoring guards like Brunson. Typically, Brunson is more of a boom/bust scoring dependent player but that hasn’t been the case with Julius Randle and OG Anunoby out for New York. He’s topped 40+ DK points in 11 of his last 12 games — a number that jumps to 45+ in each of his last 4. Overall, this is a smaller slate and I think Brunson has one of the higher ceilings among all players. There’s legit 35+ real point upside against the Pistons and as long as the game is remotely close he should crush.
Delon Wright
Miami and New Orleans got into a fight in their last game resulting in multiple players earning suspensions. Miami in particular will be without Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier tonight. This should result in a major load for Wright, specifically when it comes to ball handling duties. Wright is not a major point per minute producer, but we have him projected for 28 minutes tonight at the minimum price tag on DraftKings. He will be one of the higher-owned options on the slate, but this is likely value that we can’t pass up on Monday.
Forward
Scottie Barnes
Barnes should check in relatively low-owned tonight, but with the amount of value already present I think jamming him in alongside both Brunson/Bam is a fine strategy for tournament contests. He’s taken a huge leap for the Raptors this season, and continues to fill up the stat sheet nicely. This match-up against the face-paced, defensive-inept Pacers fits his game perfectly — he is someone that thrives in faster-paced games and it’s noteworthy that he posted nearly 60 DK points against them in their previous match-up. We currently have him projected for just 20% ownership which is not a huge number on a four game slate.
GG Jackson
Jackson is another one of the quality value plays available to us on Monday. He’s been a pretty volatile player, but has still logged 14+ shot attempts in four of his last five games and scored 15+ real points in four of those five as well. Memphis has struggled mightily with injuries this season, which has allowed Jackson to take on a larger role and he one of the higher-usage options for them on offense.
Center
Bam Adebayo
As I noted above, with those three key players out for the Heat we should see a much bigger role thrust onto the players they do have available. Bam will actually likely run the offense tonight with these players sidelined, and we’ve seen him post monster games on short-handed teams before. Miami matches up with Sacramento tonight — who plays at a top-ten pace and should allow for plenty of opportunities to stuff the stat sheet. This game features the second-highest total tonight (224.5) and Adebayo owns a big-time ceiling for his sub-9K salary on DK.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
