DFS NBA FanDuel (02/07/2018): Starting Five Slate

DFS NBA FanDuel (02/07/2018): Starting Five Slate

Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the NBA FanDuel Starting Five Top Plays article here at GoingFor2. For those that are not familiar with the Starting Five format I will provide a quick rundown of the details. Instead of rostering two point guards, two shooting guards, two small forwards, two power forwards and a center, your roster simply consists of two guards, two forwards and a center. The salary cap is the still the same ($60,000), but salaries are scaled up since there are four less players to roster.

Normally Wednesday’s are the biggest night of the week in the NBA, but we only have six games on the slate tonight. With that being said, all six games currently have a projected total over 200 points. Pricing appears to be pretty soft tonight, so we should have a pretty easy time fitting in multiple studs on this slate. Let’s go ahead and dive in to some of my top plays at each position for the Starting Five format tonight.

Guard

At the top end of the salary spectrum at guard, we have James Harden ($15,000). With pricing relatively soft and not many superstars on the slate tonight, Harden is definitely an elite option and someone who I will likely be using in most of my lineups tonight. Victor Oladipo ($14,000) is interesting for GPPs tonight if he does end up playing. Oladipo sat out Monday night’s game against the Wizards with an illness but is looking he is probable for tonight’s contest against the Pelicans. If he does end up sitting again tonight, it will open up some value at other positions for the Pacers.

If we dip into the mid-salary range at guard, there are only a couple of options who are on my radar. Jrue Holiday ($11,000) is priced way too cheaply tonight. At this salary, he really only has to give us 33 FanDuel points which should be no issue at all considering his increase in usage percentage since the season-ending injury to DeMarcus Cousins. Another guy who is on my radar, despite being in a slow pace game is Ricky Rubio ($11,000). Rubio has been outstanding over the past two weeks, averaging 39.2 FanDuel points in six games.

If we dip down into the value spectrum at guard, both Jeff Teague ($9,500) and Andrew Wiggins ($9,500) are in play. Both of these guys have not done a ton lately, but the Cavaliers are in a complete free-fall state right now, mostly because of their ineptness on the defensive side of the court. One final value guy who I love tonight and may fly completely under the radar is Dejounte Murray ($9,000). Murray was outstanding right after the Spurs made the switch from Tony Parker to Murray at the point guard position. However, he has been a little quiet since but tonight he has an excellent matchup against the Suns, who have really struggled against opposing point guards this season.

Forward

The forward position is not nearly as straightforward as the guard position since there are several different directions you can go tonight. If you’re spending up at the position LeBron James ($14,500), Jimmy Butler ($14,000) and Blake Griffin ($13,500) are definitely in play tonight. It will be interesting to see how the ownership percentage shakes up between LeBron and Butler since they are only separated by $500. I do think out of all three of those guys mentioned, I will be leaning Griffin who is in a great spot against the Nets. There definitely should be some slight concern of a blowout here in favor of the Pistons since the Nets are not a very good basketball team and they are playing on the second night of a back-to-back. With that being said, we cannot be too picky on a six game slate.

If we drop down into the mid-salary range LaMarcus Aldridge ($12,000) is my favorite option there. Aldridge has been pretty quiet lately, but tonight he has an outstanding matchup against the Suns who are a bottom five team in the league against opposing power forwards. If we drop down a little more, Nikola Mirotic ($10,000) and Josh Richardson ($10,000). I know Mirtotic probably burnt a lot of people the other night when he was priced at $12,000, but I’ll gladly take the discount tonight in a decent spot against the Pacers. One thing is for sure, the Pelicans have every intention of giving him a ton of minutes considering he has seen 35 and 32 in his first two games on the Pelicans. Richardson should see a slight minute uptick tonight against the Rockets since Kelly Olynyk has been ruled out.

For me, there is not a lot to love on the value end of the forward position tonight. If I had to throw a couple of guys out there, one would be Josh Jackson ($9,500). The matchup is not great against Aldridge and the Spurs, but Jay Triano has taken the reigns off of the rookie and has given him an expanded role in this offense over the past couple of weeks. A second value option on the table for tonight is James Johnson ($9,000) who also benefits from the absence of Olynyk.

Center

The center position greatly depends on how much you decide to spend elsewhere tonight. If you have the salary to spend up here, then it is in your best interest to spend up for Anthony Davis ($16,000) who continues to be the focal point of the Pelicans with Cousins on the shelf for the rest of the season. If we drop down a little bit, Andre Drummond ($14,500) is another elite option on tonight’s slate against the Nets, who have allowed the fourth-most FanDuel points to opposing centers this season. I think both Karl-Anthony Towns ($13,500) and Hassan Whiteside ($13,500) are decent GPP options since most will be on either Davis or Drummond. However, I cannot recommend either of those two guys for cash games since they are both somewhat volatile.

There are also a couple of guys in the mid-salary range who can definitely be plugged in if you want to spend up at both guard and forward. The first one who I have an eye on is Rudy Gobert ($10,500). The matchup is not great by any means against Marc Gasol, but this salary is too cheap for someone who has averaged 37.6 FanDuel points over his past nine games and has scored no less than 29.7 FanDuel points over that same span. The second option in this range is Myles Turner ($10,000). The Pacers are going to need Turner on the floor as much as possible to match the size of Davis. This is definitely more of a GPP option than a cash option, considering Turner only put up 12 and 9.6 FanDuel points in his past two games.

I’m really not a fan of any of the super value options at center tonight. Unless it is a small slate with no elite options at the top, I’m very hesitant to ever go bargain bin shopping at the center position. My logic for this is simply the fact that you can only use one center on FanDuel and the likelihood that none of Davis, Drummond, Whiteside or Towns have a huge game is slim. With that being said, if you want to take big time flier on a cheap guy here for a very large field GPP, then maybe you can consider Bam Adebayo. With Olynyk out, Adebayo could potentially receive a few extra minutes and we have seen a ceiling of 40+ a few times from him over the past month when he does get the minutes.

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