NBA Fanduel Lineup and Advice for 2/20/15

Wow, what a day yesterday was. That was the craziest NBA trade deadline I can remember, and really shakes up the Fanduel landscape. I’m still trying to sort through it. A lot of players gained value, and just as many lost value. I’m not going to get much into the trades here, other than to say, anyone who was traded yesterday I’m avoiding in my lineups tonight.

I doubt any of them will play tonight, and if by miracle they do, they won’t play much nor be effective. Now on the other hand, there are some guys that gained in value because the player they were competing for minutes against was traded. A lot of these guys will be on my lists today, and in my lineups.

So HUGE slate tonight. I actually started my research for tonight’s slate a few nights ago, that’s how big it is. Narrowing down my top plays, and deciding on my dunks and passes was very difficult. So here we go..

TODAY’S TOP 10 PLAYS

10) SG Giannis Antekounmpo $6,700 Man I hate putting him in my blog, not because I don’t like him, but because I hate spelling his name. Normally I don’t go this low in terms of price to pick my top plays, but at that price, he might be too good to pass up. His baseline is at 30 Fanduel Points, a total he has reached 6 of his last 8. Most of those 6 were in the high 30’s and one over 50! Combined that with a good matchup with Denver and that’s why he checks in at number 10 today.

9) PF David West $6900 Another player that doesn’t typically make my Top 10, especially on such a large slate, but his production lately has been elite level lately. His baseline is at a merger 31, and with a matchup versus the 76ers, you can’t pass him up at a sub 7K price tag.

8) C Joakim Noah $6800 Not sure why I’m stuck on these sub 7K guys for my Top 10 today, and I didn’t even realize it until now while I writing this. Noah has been very up a down over his last 4 games with two 10.4 Fanduel Points games mixes with 2 mid 30 games, so why did I put him in my Top Ten? Rest and matchup. Detroit is bottom 5 versus center and not any better versus power forwards, and you combined that with more than a week off, I expect Noah to come out strong. Admittedly this is more of a gut call, but you can’t always go strictly numbers when picking your lineups.

7) SF Rudy Gay $7200 A very up and down player over his career, George Karl will either be really good for him, or really bad. I’m predicting good. With the pace that Karl likes to run his teams, even if Gay doesn’t get more efficient, he’ll still increase his production based on volume alone. With a baseline at 32 he is a risky play. I’d use him more in GPP’s the cash games, based solely on his ceiling. He is capable in Karl’s offense to get 50, and he has a great matchup with Boston, that’s the icing on the cake that makes him number 7 today.

6) PF Josh Smith $6500 Wow, I really expected Josh Smith’s price to go over 7K after the All-Star break, but here he is at 6.5K. With baseline at a lowly 29, he should have no problem reaching that number. Then again, he is Josh Smith so you never know, but he is worth the 45 Fanduel Point upside.

5) SG Eric Bledsoe $8400 Listed as a SG he is really running the point, and with the exit of Goran to Miami, Bledsoe is the unquestioned floor general even with the addition of Brandon Knight. Especially for tonight, which I’d expect Knight to be unavailable or see limited minutes. His baseline is pretty high at 38, but with a trip to Minnesota, he should be able to easily reach that number, barring a blowout.

4) PF Pau Gasol $9700 The first 9K+ guy to crack the Top 10, Gasol makes a good case to be number 1 on most nights. With 13 games tonight though, tonight isn’t most nights, so he checks in at number 4. As I mentioned with Noah, Detroit can’t guard bigs. Bottom 5 versus PF and C, the Bulls bigs should be in for a good night. His baseline is at 43.5 but I’m expecting him to flirt with 50.

3) PG Steph Curry $1000 Curry makes for a top play pretty much any night, but I especially like him coming off the All-Star break, at home, with the Spurs on night 2 of a back to back. I doubt Pop will rest anyone after such a long break, so I expect them to be able to hang with Golden State, at least through 3 quarters. The Spurs will lose their legs in the 4th and Curry will bury them. His baseline is at 45, but he could get 60, I’d be happy with 50 Fanduel Points.

2) SF LeBron James $10600 An eastern conference power stuggle game, I expect LeBron to show up and put the Cavs on his back. He scored 55 Fanduel Points the last time he played the Wizards and I expect similar results, especially if Love can’t go, or is limited. He hasn’t had less than 35 Fanduel Points since coming back from his 2 weeks off, and he won’t disappoint again tonight.

1) SG James Harden $10800 Putting Harden at number 1 overall might be looked at as a cop-out on my part, but I’d like to point out that for his last game versus the Clippers, I left him off my Top 10 list altogether, and he proceeded to have one of his worst outings in recent memory. The game before that, I had him at number 1 and he had 70 Fanduel Points. Take that how you will, but Harden will be in all my lineups. Playing a Dallas team on a back to back, Harden will run circles around them.

TONIGHT’S DUNKS AND PASSES

DUNKS

• PG George Hill $5500 No more minute restriction, on a team that lacks scoring options, a matchup with the 76ers, and a sub 6K salary, where do I sign up? Baseline at 25 but should be good for 30+.
• PG Jerryd Bayless $4100 Should benefit, at least for this game, by the trade of Brandon Knight. At $4100 he is a must start.
• SG Tim Hardaway Jr. $4500 This is a “someone has to score” player. No Melo. No Amare. Say it with me. “someone has to score”
• PF Jason Smith $5100 **DUNK OF THE NIGHT** Stop me if you’ve heard this before “someone has to….oh, you’ve heard this already”. His baseline is at 23, but he should get 30+ easily. His value will start to go up quick, use him while you can.
• PF Brandon Bass $4600 No Sullinger. No Olynyk. Plenty of minutes for Bass. His baseline is at 21, be should get 30+ minutes and give you high 20’s low 30’s in Fanduel Points.
• C Rudy Gobert $5700 Will benefit greatly by the departure of Enes to OKC, he should easily reach his baseline of 25.5.

PASSES

• SG Klay Thompson $7200 One big reason Klay is on the Pass list tonight, Kawhi Leonard. I’m assuming Leonard will match up with Klay most of the night, and Klay will still get his, but not enough to justify spending the money. There are better options.
• SF Gordon Hayward $8400 No real statistical reason to have him here, I just think he is due to screw Fanduel owners like he has been known to do.
• PF Kevin Love $8400 **PASS OF THE NIGHT** Mr Pass List himself is back here again. 84 hundred? No thanks.
• PF Tim Duncan $7700 Back to back game and a tough matchup, I’m benching Mr fundamental tonight.

That’s wraps up my analysis for today’s games, but I’m still tinkering with lineups. Check back later today and I’ll have it up. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for any last-minute update.

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TONIGHT’S STARTING 9

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