Thanks for reading today’s edition of Ben’s Building Blocks. For access to our Discord and our Core Plays/Final Thoughts for every main slate click here!
Guard
Luka Doncic- We have a star-studded 10 game slate tonight, with plenty of value opening up to spend on whichever studs we want. When speaking about DraftKings, Luka Doncic jumps immediately off the page as the best overall play to me at $10,800. Coincidentally, he is our Projections Portal’s top projected player today (58.3 DK points) with the second-highest value score. Both the Mavs and Hawks struggle defensively, and I think we see a back and forth game, as evidenced by the 1.5 point spread. Dallas in particular has been reeling, and it’s only a matter of time before we see Luka take over even more than he has been. He’s second to only Nikola Jokic is DK points this season. Early ownership projections have Giannis around double the projected ownership as Doncic, but I prefer Luka tonight. It’s likely my optimal build consists of the Thunder value guys, see below, and Doncic.
Forward
Jayson Tatum- Most will flock to Domantas Sabonis at only $8,300 here, and while I think he is a great play, I want to focus on Tatum for right now. As I noted with Luka, the value is going to be there today so the extra few hundred to jump up to JT won’t be an issue. One of the injury situations I haven’t discussed yet is the Boston Celtics, who will be without Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, and Payton Pritchard tonight against the Kings. The Kings defense has improved immensely over the last two weeks, but with these key players out for Boston it should be the Tatum and Brown show on Wednesday night. Tatum has the largest sample on the team with these three off the floor this season: 73 minutes resulting in a 37% usage rate and 1.55 fantasy points per minute. I also think that Smart’s absence should loosen up Boston’s defense a bit, and we could see a more back and forth game. For tournaments, I like the idea of stacking Tatum and Brown with De’Aaron Fox.
Outlook
It’s a ten game slate, and the injury news is flooding in fast and furious. We already have value with the Thunder, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and George Hill are both out. We also have Russell Westbrook, John Wall, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Rudy Gay all out. These situations are opening up value by the minute and we are awaiting news on Andre Drummond, Steven Adams, D’Angelo Russell, and maybe more. Be sure to stay tuned to Discord and my Final Thoughts sheet, as this slate could change in a hurry with one news alert.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
