DFS NBA FanDuel Lineup 4/19/18
I apologize for not being able to get any columns out over the last few days, my day job is entering their “season”, so I’m putting in 12 hour days, six days a week and I’m exhausted. I do, however, have some time tonight to get you some good information on the Thursday slate of NBA games. Before we get to that, I just have a few quick announcements.
1) This one is more for the fantasy football fans, but ClickyDraft and GoingFor2 have joined up to offer a free premium subscription to ClickyDraft to one lucky fan. If you are not familiar with ClickyDraft, you can get more details here.
2) The GoingFor2 App is going thru a minor overhaul currently and we hope to have it submitted to Apple and Android this week. We had been experiencing some lag issues and some refresh issues. The new version will have a few minor tweaks and should improve the overall usability.
That’s it. Let’s get to why you are here…
Point Guard
NBA DFS Legend
| Nothing But Net | My top plays of the night at his position. |
| Dunk | A Dunk is a second or third tier player with the highest upside. |
| Half-Court Shot | Otherwise known as a “punt play.” A Low-priced, high-upside player. |
| Blocked Shot | A player I’ll be avoiding. Otherwise known as “Fading.” |
Nothing But Net | Rajon Rondo $7,000 vs POR
Rondo has been playing like the Rondo of old and not old Rondo. He has flirted with triple-doubles in both games in this series and could easily get one tonight as he tends to play better at home. Game 2 saw him turn the ball over six times, that’s a bit out of character for him so I expect him to clean that up.
Dunk | Goran Dragic $6,300 vs PHI
Dragic is the leader of this team and if the Heat are going to continue to give the Sixers some good competition, he will have to play well. He hasn’t been bad by any means, but he hasn’t been great either. Coming home to Miami will get him back on track and he should put up a good game here.
Half-Court Shot | Ian Clark $3,500 vs POR
Role players tend to play better at home, and Ian Clark is no exception. He likely won’t play more than 20-to-25 minutes, but he can score in bunches. He isn’t afraid to shoot and if he hits a few shots he could easily be the difference maker you need to push you to the top of a GPP.
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Blocked Shot | Damian Lillard $9,600 @ NOP
Lillard could have a big game here, but with the way he has played so far and the fact that his price didn’t drop much, I won’t have any confidence rostering him. I guess you could play the “due” factor, but for $9,600, he’d have to be awfully good.
Shooting Guard
NBA DFS Legend
| Nothing But Net | My top plays of the night at his position. |
| Dunk | A Dunk is a second or third tier player with the highest upside. |
| Half-Court Shot | Otherwise known as a “punt play.” A Low-priced, high-upside player. |
| Blocked Shot | A player I’ll be avoiding. Otherwise known as “Fading.” |
Nothing But Net | Jrue Holiday $8,400 vs POR
Through two games in this series, Holiday is the Pels MVP. He has locked down either Lillard or McCollum, depending on which guy they ask him to cover, and then on the offensive end, everything is running through him, not Anthony Davis. Coming home can only help.
Dunk | Dwyane Wade $4,900 vs PHI
I don’t expect another 43.9 point outburst from him again, but these next two games in Miami could be his last, he won’t want to play bad and then go back to Philly to lose the series. If the Heat can win at least one of these games at home, it will guarantee them at least a Game 6 back in Miami. Wade will do whatever he can to make that happen tonight.
Half-Court Shot | Pat Connaughton $3,500 @ NOP
As we get deeper into the playoffs, rotations get shorter and shorter, so if you want to differentiate yourself from the masses, you are going to have to find that cheap guy that gets 20 minutes and hits a few shots. If you decide that shooting guard is the spot to play that guy tonight, then Connaughton is your guy. He plays about 18 minutes per game and he does a little bit of everything from scoring, assisting and grabbing the occasional hustle rebound. He isn’t going to light it up, but his price tag will allow you to fit the studs that you will need.
Blocked Shot | Klay Thompson $6,500 @ SAS
Thompson has never been as good on the road as he is at home, and with the Spurs heavy-hearted from the death of head coach Pop’s wife on Wednesday, I’d expect them to play some inspired ball and some good defense. Thompson will get his it just won’t be worth $6,500.
Small Forward
NBA DFS Legend
| Nothing But Net | My top plays of the night at his position. |
| Dunk | A Dunk is a second or third tier player with the highest upside. |
| Half-Court Shot | Otherwise known as a “punt play.” A Low-priced, high-upside player. |
| Blocked Shot | A player I’ll be avoiding. Otherwise known as “Fading.” |
Nothing But Net | Kevin Durant $11,000 @ SA
Durant by default gets the top spot, but he hasn’t been great in this series. Then again, he hasn’t needed to be great. Tonight, he will need to be great.
Dunk | Andre Iguodala $4,600 @ SA
Raise your hand if you saw Andre Iguodala playing point guard coming before the series. I don’t even know if Iguodala saw it coming, but he has played very well in the role and his price is till low enough to warrant rostering him.
Half-Court Shot | Maurice Harkless $3,600 @ NOP
What 10-game layoff? Harkless picked up where he left off after missing his last 10 games. With Evan Turner likely out for this game, Harkless should see an uptick in minutes from the 27 he saw in Game 2. At $3,600, playing 30-plus minutes, you can’t pass that up. He will likely be very high-owned, but you are going to have to have him in your lineup.
Blocked Shot | Robert Covington $7,100 @ MIA
Covington is way to streaky for me to play in DFS. He is a “GPP only, hope I get him on a good night” type of play.
Power Forward
NBA DFS Legend
| Nothing But Net | My top plays of the night at his position. |
| Dunk | A Dunk is a second or third tier player with the highest upside. |
| Half-Court Shot | Otherwise known as a “punt play.” A Low-priced, high-upside player. |
| Blocked Shot | A player I’ll be avoiding. Otherwise known as “Fading.” |
Nothing But Net | Nikola Mirotic $8,000 vs POR
Today’s contest will be won or lost by whoever you take at power forward. This is truly the only position where you have a ton of options. Mirotic has been playing at an elite level for over a week, and even though he had a bit of a down game in Game 2, he still hit five-times value. His price tag is still at the mid-range and allows you to do a lot of things with your roster. He may not have the most fantasy points at the power forward spot tonight, but he will give you the most bang for your buck.
Dunk | Al-Farouq Aminu $5,500 @ NOP
I’m expecting the Blazers to be without Jusuf Nurkic for this game, leaving Aminu as the most physical player on the court for Portland. He put up a monster double-double in Game 2 with Nurkic missing the majority of the game.
Half-Court Shot | James Johnson $5,400
Johnson turned back the clock to….2017. Game 2 were the types of games he had with regularity last season, and if he can capture that magic again for Game 3, he will more than pay off his $5,300 salary.
Blocked Shot | Ersan Ilyasova $6,600 @ MIA
For $200 less I prefer Dario Saric who is getting more minutes, more usage and is a more complete player than Ily.
Center
NBA DFS Legend
| Nothing But Net | My top plays of the night at his position. |
| Dunk | A Dunk is a second or third tier player with the highest upside. |
| Half-Court Shot | Otherwise known as a “punt play.” A Low-priced, high-upside player. |
| Blocked Shot | A player I’ll be avoiding. Otherwise known as “Fading.” |
Nothing But Net | Zach Collins #3,500 @ NOP
Center is the ugliest I’ve ever seen any position, ever, I all my days of daily fantasy. With Joel Embiid doubtful, Nurkic iffy at best, and JaVale McGee also nursing an injury, this will be the position to save money because you literally can’t pay up, even if you wanted to.
Dunk | Zaza Pachulia $3,500 @ SAS
If McGee is out, Pachulia will likely have to pick up all the center minutes, which for the Warriors could be only 10, but McGee was seeing 16-to-18 per, that could mean Zaza gets the same.
Half-Court Shot | Meyers Leonard $3,500 @ NOP
This is more of a full-court shot than a half-court one. With Nurkic likely out and the Blazers on the ropes down 0-2, they may have to resort to desperation to find something, anything, that works. That could be stretching the floor with Leonard, who can knock down threes. Maybe pulling Davis away from the rim will help Dame and McCollum get easier driving lanes.
Blocked Shot | Hassan Whiteside $5,500 vs PHI
The only real question with Whiteside is, “Why is he still $5,500?”.
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