Welcome to our NBA DFS Building Blocks article! Each day, we will dissect injury news and breakdown our favorite plays at each position. We also provide Core Plays nightly for our subscribers, as well as projections and a premium discord channel. You can sign up for access to today’s Core Plays and projections by clicking HERE — and can get access to a single day pass for just $5 HERE. Now, let’s get into today’s slate…
I’ve got a severe case of March Madness. This is the first year I’ve had access to mobile live betting during the tournament and it’s really a game changer. I was throwing out bets all day yesterday as you can get a bit of an edge with some of these in-game bets. Kentucky I had a lot of money on so that did not go well. Thankfully, we have a big NBA Slate tonight to get my mind off the tournament as DFS seems to be a much more profitable endeavor for me. Tonight we’re going to have a ton of basketball with NBA and the Tourney so buckle up, sit back and grab a cold one (hopefully everyone’s bankrolls are ready for this).
Injuries
- Lebron – Q
- Joel Embiid – Q
- Jimmy Butler – Q
- Trae Young – Q
- Ja Morant – Q
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – Q
- De’Aaron Fox – Q
- Seth Curry – Q
- Jae Crowder – Q
- PJ Tucker – Q
- Eric Gordon – Q
- Danilo Gallinari – Q
- Devonte’ Graham – Q
- Chris Duarte – Q
- Jose Alvarado – Q
- Talen Horton-Tucker – Q
- Goga Bitadze – Q
- Zeke Nnaji – Q
There’s a lot of injury news on this slate so we’ll need to be dialed in to keep track of it all. At the moment there’s almost no sub $4K value to feel confident in on Draftkings, but there’s a lot of injury news yet to drop that should open up some value later in the day.
GUARDS
This is another loaded slate with tons of great spend-up options at Guard but not much cheap value. At this point I’m leaning towards a mid-range build but as value opens up this makes the spend-up options easier to get to. My favorite play at Guard is Jordan Clarkson who can fill either guard spot, which makes him that much easier to fit into lineups. Clarkson is priced at $5,800 and gets huge bumps in minutes and usage with Bojan Bogdanovic and Donovan Mitchell off the floor. Over the past 2 years Clarkson is at 1.15 fantasy points per minute and 31% usage with both Bojan and DMitch off the court. I’m expecting Clarkson to start tonight and play upwards of 30 minutes with Utah so short-handed. Clarkson will be one of the first pieces I lock into cash games tonight. The other Guard that’s just too cheap tonight for his role with Chris Paul off the floor is Devin Booker. Booker has put up 3 straight games of 50+ fantasy points and has taken 20+ shots in all 3 of those games. I’m expecting a competitive match-up with Chicago which means Booker could approach 40 minutes of playing time. At a $9,100 price tag he provides a little salary relief off the $10K plus options, which is much needed with so little value on the slate. For GPPs on the cheap end I like Nickeil Alexander-Walker priced at almost the stone minimum on Draftkings. His last game he played 22 minutes and put up 26 fantasy points off the bench. Utah traded for him a month ago but haven’t given him much playing time over the last month. Look for that to change with Mitchell and Bojan out as I see Nickeil being the first guard to play off the bench. Also, I think there’s upside in the playing time for Nickeil and if he gets up to 25 minutes he can smash, as he’s typically close to a fantasy point per minute producer. I’m writing this early in the day but Nickeil currently looks like the best sub $4K value on the slate with some major upside.
FORWARDS
Forward has a ton I want to spend up on but nobody I like in the cheap range. I like a lot of spend-ups here and plan on mixing and matching spend-up Forwards in my GPP allocations. Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant and Pascal Siakam all stick out to me as great plays at their respective price tags. Tatum gets a fast paced match-up with Sacramento and for some reason Draftkings reduced his price to $9,500. Tatum’s been taking over the offense of late at Jaylen Brown’s expense. He’s gone over 50 fantasy points in 6 of 7 games and gets the nut match-up with Sacramento. I’ll be playing a lot of Tatum tonight for a change. My next favorite spend-up at Forward has to be Kevin Durant. He disappointed in his last game versus Dallas but that’s a tough match-up so I don’t mind going right back in a game against a terrible Thunder squad. There’s some blowout risk here but we have to think if Brooklyn blows out OKC it’s because Durant is going off. I didn’t mention RJ Barrett but he’s another play I don’t mind going back to in a match-up with the Wiz. Just so many good spend-ups at Forward that it’s hard to go wrong. I suggest just picking whatever fits best in your lineups. At this point in the day I plan on spending up at Forward with little to no value currently.
Center
This slate has a lot of the same plays I like from Wednesday night’s slate. I had a profitable night Wednesday so I don’t see a reason to change things up. I’m sure your all sick of me writing up Nikola Jokic, but he’s again on the slate and again projected for the most fantasy points in my model. We also get a bit of a discount at a price tag of $11,500 on DK. If we get value that opens up I always try to prioritize Jokic in GPPs and cash games. The crazy part is Jokic seems to always be under-owned. I’m guessing this is because there are always so many great Center plays and we only have 1 Center spot on DK and Fanduel. As we go down the pricing spectrum at Center, Gobert sticks out at a $7,400 price tag on a short-handed Utah team. However, Gobert’s rates and minutes don’t change much with Bojan and Mitchell out but the price tag is just too cheap for Gobert’s role. One of my favorite GPP plays on the board (again) is Andre Drummond. I recommended him on Wednesday and he smashed putting up 39 fantasy points. I just assumed he played big minutes but he actually only got 22 minutes of playing time. Drummond is producing at close to 1.3 fantasy points per minute with Kyrie off the floor, so even in limited minutes he can smash, especially in a match-up with a G-League team (Portland Trailblazers). DK actually reduced Drummond’s price by $200 this slate and there’s immense upside here. Should Drummond see 25+ minutes he can break a slate. Early ownership projections have Mr. Drummond at 5%, which is much too cheap for his upside. I’ll be getting well overweight in my GPP exposures this evening.
This is shaping up to be another really fun Friday night slate. Hopefully we get some news as this slate is starving for value. I’ll be out playing golf this afternoon but will be back in time for lock. Enjoy all the basketball this evening/weekend.
Cash Plays: Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum
GPP Plays: Andre Drummond, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Kevin Durant, Pascal Siakam
Max
