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…
Injury’s to Monitor
Steph Curry/Klay Thompson/Draymond Green/ Andrew Wiggins (out)- All healthy bodies get a bump here but Jordan Poole will likely be the highest-owned player on the slate
Anfernee Simons/Jusuf Nurkic (out)- Simons was leading the team in usage rate over the last few weeks – bump to all starters
Jalen Brunson (out)- Biggest bump will go to Spencer Dinwiddie
Devin Vassell/Lonnie Walker (D)- I think Keldon Johnson gets the biggest bump but we should see a start from Josh Primo with some extra minutes for Josh Richardson
D’Angelo Russell (Q), Pat Beverley (Q), Anthony Edwards (D)- KAT is the winner with no Edwards, and Beasley/McDaniels would get bumps if Pat Bev sits again
Rudy Gobert (Q)- Obvious bumps to both Azubuike and Hassan Whiteside
Nikola Vucevic (Q)- Tristan Thompson would be in line for as many minutes as he could play in a tough spot vs Embiid
Denver Nuggets (potential rest)- Barton is already Q, and Gordon/Joker played massive minutes last night + GSW are resting everyone…tough spot but I think we see a few Nuggets guys sit
Guard
This is a typical March NBA DFS slate, with stars across the league out tonight and minimum salaried players likely filling up our lineups. Point Guard is dominated by these cheap plays – with the likes of Jordan Poole and Brandon Williams projecting for over 40% OWN% each according to our Projections Portal. Poole has over a 100 minute sample with the expected resting Warriors players off the floor, resulting in a 33% usage rate and over 1.3 fantasy points per minute. Both FanDuel and DraftKings seemed to not care about the Warriors news when it dropped over the weekend, leaving him and the other Dubs players way too cheap. They will be massively owned for good reason and tough to avoid on this Monday night slate.
As for Williams, he will likely step into the starting lineup for the injured Anfernee Simons, who has been taking over in the absence of Damian Lillard. Williams has been just south of a per minute fantasy producer this season, and is coming off a game on Saturday in which he posted a solid 27% usage rate. He’s even cheaper than Poole, and projecting for over 30 minutes resulting in that big OWN% number. Per usual, cash game / H2H rosters are going to be very similar across the industry and you’re going to have to simply plug and play some of these cheap guys.
Forward
Forward is more of the same, with the thin rotations of the Blazers and Warriors pushing ownership onto their remaining players. The already thin Warriors just listed Juan Toscano-Anderson and Otto Porter as questionable to play tonight. It should be a big night for both Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga. Our projections have Kuminga projected for slightly more, while Moody is $1,000 cheaper on DraftKings. Both are viable in all formats tonight. As for the Blazers, Josh Hart is in line to return and he should be a focal point for their offense tonight. He’s much more expensive than anyone else on their current roster, but we have plenty of value around him and he is currently projected as the highest-owned option at his position.
Outside of the obvious plays, someone I like a lot tonight is RJ Barrett. Barrett has been flourishing for the Knicks, averaging 45 DK points per game over his last five games. Furthermore, he is top-five in the NBA in drives per game since February 20th, speaking to how aggressive he has been recently. This is one of the best possible match-ups for him against Sacramento, and our Portal has him at 14% in projected OWN%. He is one of my favorite plays on the slate, and I will be forcing him into my early builds.
Center
Given the plethora of value, C is the best position to spend up and that starts with Joel Embiid. Embiid has a fantastic match-up regardless of who starts opposite him for the Bulls. Chicago is one of the worst teams in the NBA in terms of opponent points allowed in the paint — while Embiid is top overall in paint points per game at 29.5. We also have Karl-Anthony Towns who averages over 1.5 fantasy points per minute with Anthony Edwards off the court this season. There are more blowout concerns for KAT rather than Embiid — but both are arguably the highest-ceiling plays on tonight’s slate and I would be building my lineup around one of them. My initial lean is Embiid.
Main Lineup Musts: Jordan Poole, Brandon Williams, Joel Embiid, RJ Barrett
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
