Welcome to Tristan’s NBA Game Theory (1/26)! In this article, I’ll outline my favorite cash game and GPP options at each of the positions. I’ll utilize our Projections Portal when making decisions about what types of leagues specific players are best suited for. You can get all of my Core Plays along with our Cheat Sheets, projections, and Premium Discord channels with our Premium NBA Package.
| Guards | Forwards |
Centers | Game Stacks |
| J. Harden | C. Johnson | B. Biyombo | SAC/ATL |
| C. Levert | T. Mann | N. Jokic | CHA/IND |
| D. White | K. Porzingis | R. Holmes | DEN/BKN |
| P. Mills | O. Brissett | P.J Washington | MEM/SAS |
| L. Kennard | D. Vassell | H. Whiteside | PHX/UTA |
*If you don’t already play 3 max entry contests daily, try using the teams provided in the stacks above to maximize upside and correlation in your NBA lineups.
A ton of news to get through tonight in a 10 game slate so please please please, don’t forget to check for updates either on Twitter or in our discord channel where news updates are posted and in our premium channel, breakdown of the news! With that out of the way, let’s get to it.
Guards
Cash
First guard I’m looking at for both cash games and GPPs is my man James Harden, who will be playing AGAIN without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. He is basically the main guy for the Nets handling the ball a ton, with a usage rate of 36.7 yesterday against the Lakers. He had a 3×2 as well which definitely helps in DK scoring. He is going to be looked upon to keep the Nets in the game against a Denver team who isn’t great at guarding guards, as well as historically bad against Harden himself. Not much more to say besides that, great cash game play and will be highly owned today seeing that it’s a big slate with a ton of value should guys sit out.
I keep looking at the guards and I honestly can’t find any player I like else for good cash without any news (seeing that a ton of players are still questionable) so I will go ahead and list players in the GPP section with what news will benefit them.
GPP
Buddy Hield – if Fox is out
Gary Trent Jr – if FVVandScottie Barnes out
Luke Kennard – definite GPP play
DeAnthony Melton – if Desmond Bane out
Forward
Cash
Cam Johnson is going to be locked for me in cash games with there being so much indecision and question around so many players today due to their availability, but we do know that Cam Johnson will play a vital role in this game due to the amount of players out for the Suns tonight. DeAndre Ayton, Jae Crowder, Javale McGee, Cameron Payne, are all out tonight vs the Jazz and they literally just played this team a game ago where Cam Johnson had 35 DKP shooting 5-8 from 3. He is going to play near 38 minutes again with the injuries to this roster and seeing that this should be competitive, he will continue with his role.
Patty Mills will be my other cash play here as of now just because we know he’s going to get 30+ minutes and should see 15+ shots. Yesterday against the Lakers I honestly think he could’ve had more shot attempts but the thing that was hindering him was that the Lakers were BLITZING him off of the PnR everytime so he couldn’t reposition to get open for a shot OR when he tried to drive off a pick he would get blitzed and double-teamed, forcing him to pass. It’s crazy how he even got 14 shots off against that sort of defense seeing that it was made to shut him down. He should see a ton of easier looks tonight and should be in the exact same role as last night, their 2nd option. He’s also SF eligible on DK
GPP
Kristaps Porzingis is the man I’m looking at in GPPs at 7.6k in a good match-up vs Portland. Last game he got ejected but shot 15 times in 25 minutes, which bodes well for his upside. He also had 41 DKP in 26 mins against Memphis the game before yesterday with an upside of 6 blocks!! Obviously that’s hard to reproduce but that gives him that ceiling there even if he shoots awful from the field or gets into foul trouble. Honestly I think that foul trouble might stop him here but if not he has good upside in this match-up vs Portland who isn’t great at defending bigs. Shooting 1-7 from the 3PT last game isn’t ideal either, he should definitely bounce back from that.
Center
Cash
Bismack Biyombo is someone I’m looking at in cash games because we did get news that not only DeAndre Ayton is out, but Javale McGee is out as well which means all center minutes should go to Biyombo and we might finally see Jalen Smith again on the court. Biyombo has been getting more minutes than McGee anyways, so his minutes are even more secure and we could see big minutes from the man today. He just put up 50 DKP the other night and with all these players out, they will be looking to him for screen setting PnRs which Chris Paul loves, and to rebound the ball aton against Hassan Whiteside who is going to be playing in the paint a ton.
GPP
In GPPS, I’m looking at.. PJ Washington off of an ejection last game, now facing an Indiana D that is missing their biggest guys inside. I don’t think they will need Plumlee anymore for this match-up so PJ should see more minutes here in a decently paced matchup. His price is a little high than I want it, but he has 30 DKP potential here if he can get 25+ minutes. Matches up well and they don’t need Plumlee to guard Bitadze since he is somewhat of a threat from the perimeter as well.
Follow Tristan on Twitter (@SrirachaDFS)
