**We are writing this early in the morning since Chop needs to leave town for Easter. As of now, Kawhi Leonard, Patty Mills, Boris Diaw, and Danny Green are all sitting for the Spurs. Myers Leonard just broke news with season-ending surgery.** I’m sure other news will break. So, stay tuned for all the pivots as lock nears.

In case you didn’t see the Morning Briefing, we had a huge winner last night in NBA over on DraftKing’s Sharpshooter. @frasig drug down $10,000 on a $3 entry. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of steak dinners for awhile. So well done, it deserves another golf clap in this forum, too!

Here are your positional player picks for Friday’s 9-game slate…

POINT GUARDS

Ricky Rubio – $7100/$6900 – With a solid matchup and being paced up, we know this suits the game of Rubio well. His idol is Rajon Rondo in that he leads his own production through peripherals, which gives him a solid floor. He has brought you the coveted 5X in 6 of his last 7 games as well, so we know he’s on his game of late.

Kyle Lowry – $8900/$8400 – Lowry has 50+ point upside and draws HOU and their sketchy defense. Another peripheral guy when he’s on his game, Lowry also has “active hands” which will add some steals into the mix as well. HOU is playing decent recently and Lowry is going to be heavily involved for this game to remain close and competitive throughout.

Brandon Knight – $7200/$7500 – Knight is another distribution guy, but he has some scoring punch, too. With a matchup against SAC, you should see his ceiling tested before his floor tonight. He also allows a nice hammer to drop in the late games.

Rajon Rondo – $7800/$7800 – The quintessential peripheral “floor guy,” Rondo had a nice game his last time out. Drawing PHX is a good thing, and this sets up the ping-pong hammer on top of everything. With Boogie to toss too, we know this adds to the Rondo floor.

SHOOTING GUARDS

Devin Booker – $6500/$6600 – Another solid spot for a Suns player, Booker and Knight did a fair job of bringing some value to LUs last time out. Another hammer game, and it looks like Knight and Booker have their roles figured out. If I’m stacking a hammer, this isn’t a bad way to spend 14k of my cap. Despite our next guy, this is the best matchup of all SGs….hands down. SAC can’t guard them.

DeMar DeRozan – $8000/$7800 – DeRozan has drawn himself the matchup of all matchups with James Harden’s #JHZDP. It’s cherry red camaro time! DeRozan is one of the most “peripheral friendly” of the SGs night in and night out. He might not have been playing well as of late, but he’s seen a price drop lately you can likely take advantage of, too.

Josh Richardson – $4400/$4400 – Cheap player for relief if you choose to exercise it here. Only one dud in his last 14 games and testing his upside 75% of the time……meaning exceeding projections. Today, he is projected at 18 pts….so, tempered expectations, but you could do worse.

Lance Stephenson – $6600/$5800 (SF) – GPP PLAY – Risky because he’s been bouncing between the 1 and the 3 spot lately. If he handles the ball, he can really jack up some points for fantasy purposes. If not, his price is dicey at best. He’s a great tourney play because of the upside and fear factor he’ll put in the dfs world, and he’s a better bargain on DK where he’s not only cheaper but also a SF.

SMALL FORWARDS

PJ Tucker – $4800/$4700 – Targeting SAC once again. PJ has the best matchup on the board for SFs tonight. Tucker has also brought value to your LU in 4 of his last 5 games……one of which to the tune of 47 pts. A great matchup and playing well lately is a great combination. Toss in the hammer effect, and you had me at hello.

Marcus Morris – $5500/$5100 – Morris should have a good game today because he just watched his Jayhawks beat the Terrapins last night. This should serve to rekindle his glory days. And, if you roster him on this alone, my whole write-up is completely worthless. You roster Morris because he sits in a decent spot and has produced at 6X in 3 of his last 4 outings. Toss in 40 pt upside and you have a reason to roster a guy that weighs more than whatever bullshit Chop just tried to sell you about his Jayhawks…..it’s Boomer Sooner year. Bite me, Choppo.

Rudy Gay – $6400/$6200 – GPP PLAY – It may look good on paper, but after his horrid performances lately (including ones where Boogie has sat out), Gay has been crazy bad and really dumped on some LUs. He hasn’t scored over 30 since March 15th. His upside is there, and he could break out, and this is the spot we might see it…….but he’s just too risky for cash games.

POWER FORWARDS

Paul Millsap – $7700/$7800 – Targeting the MIL front court with the artist formerly known as Mr. Consistency. This is such a great matchup, I don’t have any issues just blindly tossing Millsap in there. As of this writing, he is the top rated PF on three sites I’m checking.

LeMarcus Aldridge – $7600/$7100 – If you can’t go Millsap, take a peek at LMA. MEM is a bit of a trainwreck too since being riddled with injury. Granted they have ZBo back in some capacity, but LMA has been playing well lately…..to the tune of 8 in last 11 games bringing over 30 pts.

Dirk Nowitzki – $8000/$7200 – Old man Dirk saddles up with a fine spot tonight. The pace and point total alone warrant a look. He might hit 45-55 points of production on the Vegas lines alone. He is a better play on DK for sure. I might lean Millsap or LMA on FD.

Mirza Teletovic/Jon Leuer – GPP PLAY – A couple of mid-range plays at the position here, but better served for GPP purposes. Leuer feels a bit like point chasing, but if he gets the usage again (and he might with Chandler already being ruled out), this might be a solid spot to use either one. Teletovic needs his outside shot to fall, and if it does against the SAC defense that leaks points to all positions, you might have yourself a low-owned GPP play capable of hitting 30+ pts of upside.

CENTERS

Nikola Jokic – $6200/$5900 – Minutes aren’t as much of a concern as a reason to not play the guy. It’s more his foul trouble and the fact NO ONE is getting 30 min in the DEN front court right now. However, it doesn’t take big minutes for Jokic to hit value. His last three games alone have been 36pts in 27 min, 24 in 23 min, and 35 in 25 min. Case and point.

Al Horford – $7100/$6700 – Horford is one I always brag about being under-owned, but I still don’t play him as often as I should, either. His price point is always a bit awkward for roster construction, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a great play. He has a great matchup tonight vs the MIL front court. And, he has 4 performances over 40 pts in his last 7 games.

Greg Monroe – $6100/$6500 – Greg hasn’t been on our sheet for awhile. He hits it today, though, in a pointed up and paced up matchup that shouldn’t scare anyone. This rebound battle between him and Horford could go either way the roundball bounces. His price has dropped with his role from the bench, but he carries the same upside as Horford tonight. If you want to save a little quan, this could be where you find it.

Hassan Whiteside – $8200/$8000 – A good matchup and if ORL decides to run small, the full on Block Party might just show itself tonight. Whiteside has 55 pt upside on any night, but this positive matchup leads me to believe it’s a little more likely tonight than most. The only true center where blocks are predictable and could really bring his upside on a good night.

Once again, pay attention in slack since this is coming out so early, as injury and rest news could render a lot of this moot by noon. But, Chop’s wife is climbing his rack about getting out of Dodge so we have to roll with this today. Have a great Easter, everyone. Let’s get after it and tip a beer back after we’ve crushed our leagues and GPPs!

Google Sheet’s Version