After glancing at the Morning Briefing, I hope you have some targets picked out that appear to be in successful fantasy producing spots. Let’s roll out the position picks for each position, along with some bonus picks at the end. These are picks Keith likes for a variety of reasons. They are not necessarily the “top option on the board,” “chalk options,” “highest scoring,” “GPP only,” or whatever other moniker you want to assign. These are Keith’s favorite options when combining all of these factors….

The graphics you are looking at is a rolling 30-day snapshot indicating average performance above/below expected points along with a percentage of times said player has exceeded projections. The blue line indicates fluctuations in salary over the same 30-day time frame. The bar graph shows how far above/below a particular date resulted vs expected production.

PG – Jrue Holiday ($7800) –

Jrue might be coming off the bench, and his price might still be rising, he is averaging 1.24 fantasy points per minute across his last 15 games. Even though he’d be lucky to play 34 minutes a night, he has shown he doesn’t necessarily need a ton of minutes to reach 45-50 fantasy points. Going against WAS and facing John Wall, he will still see an uptick in pace in what should be a close game that has realistic chances at hitting overtime. Over his last 10 games, Holiday has exceeded expected point totals (based on his salary) by over 7 pts per game. 15 gm slash line – 36.7 FD pts – 19.4/3.7/7.5 and 1.8 steals.

SG – Victor Oladipo ($6800) –

Even though Scott Skiles can give us ulcers at times, Oladipo’s numbers appear as solid as they can get in the ORL rotation. “Dipo” has responded with back-to-back games over 40 FD pts coming out of the break. Despite his floor near 20, his ceiling of 45+, a positive matchup while playing well up in pace, Oladipo is as close to a sure thing as we can get tonight. All this at a position that almost always leaves something to be desired on most slates. 15 gm slash line – 31.7 FD pts – 17.8/4.8/7.5 with 1.6 steals.

SF – Danilo Gallinari ($7100) –

By far Denver’s most reliable scoring option, Gallinari is averaging close to 37 minutes the last 13 games. He has an uncanny knack to get to the charity stripe and we always love it when our players can score when the clock is stopped. Gallinari is playing in the highest total of the night, has a plus matchup going against Rudy Gay and Omri Casspi, and his price has actually dropped over the past 10 days. 15 gm slash line – 31.4 FD pts – 22.2/3.9/2.4

PF – Derrick Favors ($7400) –

Going against the likes of Clint Capela, Josh Smith, and playing close to 35 min/gm, Favors gives us enough to take a deeper look. However, pacing him up almost 6 extra possessions this game will allow him to grab a few more boards and allow for some easy putbacks, which raises his floor to among the highest at the position tonight. With Harden driving as much as he does, Favors and Gobert also have an increased opportunity for blocks until HOU starts settling for jump shots. 13 gm slash line (missed a couple due to injury) – 31 FD pts – 16.5/8/1.8 and 1.8 blocks.

C – Brook Lopez ($8600) –

Brook has exceeded 50 FD pts in 5 of his last 15 games, and has exceeded 40 FD pts in 8 of his last 15. He is a player that doesn’t have to score 30 pts in order to have a good game because he fills the stat sheet in many areas. However, if his shot starts falling, he has easy 50 pt upside. With Cousins and Vucevic on the slate, we could be looking at a lower owned player with the ability to exceed expectations. POR will play up in pace, but that should not be an issue being that Lopez matches up against Mason Plumlee, whom BroLo has dominated in the past. 15 gm slash line – 38.1 FD pts – 22.2/8.1/2.1

Stud of the Night – DeMarcus Cousins (C – SAC)

There are not a lot of great matchups tonight at the Center position. Cousins’ price has dropped $300 over the last 10 games and with his upside, in a positive matchup, anything under $11,000 can be seen as a bargain.

Value of the Night – Gary Harris (SG – DEN)

If I told you that you could play someone under $5000 that has been playing between 35 and 40 min/nt, is right at about 10 shots/nt, and matches up vs the worst team in league against SG, would you do it? Well, that’s your spot for Harris tonight. No brainer.

GPP of the Night – Omri Casspi (SF – SAC)

I believe he will be severely overlooked coming off “dental work” and missing the last game. He’s also in the 2nd latest game of the night, so there’s the possibility nobody will know his status thereby lowering his ownership. He has legit 35-40pt upside and should see 30+ min of work. He has the capability to get white hot behind arc and we know DEN isn’t good at defending 3pt line. Everyone will be focused on the other Kings tonight for good reason allowing you to grab a low-owned player from the game no one else happens to be looking at rostering.

And your…………. “Brass Balls” Fade of the Night is……

James Harden (SG – HOU)

No need to “fear The Beard” tonight. James Harden is playing IN Utah, and even though the total is over 204, I wouldn’t be shocked if this game hits the under. I’m not spending 11k in salary for someone paced down AND going against a plus defensive team when I have other options on this slate.

As always, Keith will be available in the Slack VIP Channel to update you on injury news, and how to pivot if need be….make sure to join in the conversation. He’s always open to answering questions, but if you are going to ask if you should play “Player X” over “Player Y” make sure you check the rankings on the cheat sheets before asking unless news has come out that could possibly change the situation. Thank you!

Cheat Sheets are condensed….remember, there will be players that are not on this sheet that go off. The goal here is to not overload you with a lot of combinations. Sure, I can put in 15 PG’s and 10 PF’s. And then say, “the winning lineup was on the Sheet” but that doesn’t help us. I’m giving you options at varying price points, so you can build varying types of lineup. I feel the last two months of the season, we will have better success by choosing from a smaller pool. LET’S MAKE THAT MONEY!!!

You can get a Google Sheets version here, or download an Excel or PDF version below.

NBA Cheat Sheet DK PDF

NBA Cheat Sheet FD PDF

NBA Cheat Sheet