Welcome to Monday! The only fun thing about Mondays is the fact we share the VIP Access with all soldiers within the DFS Army. This is your glimpse into the in-depth stuff that we talk about day in and day out as lock approaches and as player news breaks.

I do want to temporarily blow taps for our friends living in the state of NY as it appears their Attorney General is up to his old tricks again and the major sites have decided to pull the plug on those residents. Personally, I’m a believer these things are temporary and just waiting for regulation of some kind before coming back into the marketplace. I only need cite the Virginia laws now to think I’m on the right track with the long-term future of DFS. But, hey, I’m a chalky guy. I’m not one to make crazy long-shot picks and predictions. I tell you to play Steph Curry……not Ray McCallum. I tell you Victor Oladipo is overpriced and if not touching the ball, is likely to fail at bringing you value, especially in poor matchups. I play Vegas and the odds. I tend not to buck these trends. I’m wrong from time to time, too, but I don’t miss by much often. Now, Keith……..he’s a whole different breed of player. Let’s see who he likes on tonight’s 10-game slate. (I may or may not tell you if I agree or disagree….we’ll have to see how this plays out.)

POINT GUARDS

DJ Augustine – $4600/$4700 – GPP PLAY – DJ Augustine is slowly forging his way into the DEN offense. He has exceeded projections in 9 of his last 10 sporting a log of 30, 29, 32 in his last three games. The matchup could be better, but the price couldn’t.

Kemba Walker – $8600/$8100 – Kemba draws a neutral matchup in a spot where everyone else draws pretty negative matchups. Like a presidential election, sometimes you have to pick the least objectionable option. This is sort of like that, but we know if you can get to the Spurs it’s through their point guards. So, there’s that.

Isaiah Thomas – $7700/$7600 – IT2 has been more involved lately and putting up better production. He has only been under 30 pts once in his last 10. 50 pt upside and he might have the best opponent matchup on the board tonight in what should be a fairly fast paced game.

Kyrie Irving – $7100/$7400 – Solid matchup and immense upside, especially if Love sits, Irving has 50 pt upside in his own right. If Love does sit, he slides to the top of this list as perhaps the best all-round play on the PG slate.

SHOOTING GUARDS

Monta Ellis – $6600/$6300 – SG is a naturally up and down position with a certain degree of risk in it most nights. Taking that generic fact into consideration means Ellis is in play drawing a PHI defense that just gives away points some nights. Ellis is providing a spot of consistency in that he has been in the mid-30s in 6 of his last 7. He’s not likely do dud out on you in this matchup tonight.

Kentavius Caldwell-Pope – $5600/$5800 – This dude’s name is bugging me to type. We’ve featured him quite a bit lately because his price isn’t moving too much and he is continually bringing value for us. At or above projected points, he is at or above that number in 8 of his last 10, which is nice. He also brings us a plus matchup tonight and 38 point upside for a mid-5k price.

Jimmy Butler – $8300/$7700 – We know to target SAC by now. Kind of enough said. Great matchup and he has the upside. Jimmy has been bringing the right production for his price point since coming back from his injury. It may be only a matter of time before he explodes.

Kyle Korver – $3700/$4100 – GPP Play – This one is just a GPP play. He gets a nice matchup, has a great price, and allows you to possible put Curry and Boogie on your roster. That would be the biggest reason to play him tonight when most people won’t.

SMALL FORWARDS

Evan Turner – $5500/$5500 – Turner is hitting all our major trends designed on Fantasy Labs today. Looking a little deeper, we see a plus matchup, an affordable price, 40+ pt upside, and only one dud in his last 13 games.

Andrew Wiggins – $6700/$6400 (SG) – I can’t believe I’m about to say you can trust him in cash, but Wiggins has been pretty consistent lately. He has tremendous upside when his shot is falling, but he has had only one game in the 20s in his last 7. All else have been in the mid-30s. That’s steady enough for cash games, especially in a slightly positive matchup with a very high Vegas total. He should be launching volume at the rim tonight.

Matt Barnes – $6400/$5800 – This is about the only other SF I see tonight worth consideration. I’m going cheaper here than the obvious LeBron, Kawhi, Paul George players because I see more need to spend up at PF and possibly C. I won’t fault you for grabbing one of the above, especially LBJ if Love sits, but I am noticing more roster flexibility by staying in the value range here and unloading in the other spots.

POWER FORWARDS

Kevin Love has been mentioned several times already, but I wanted it clear that he isn’t on my board necessarily tonight as a roster spot. I’m watching his news because IF he sits, Kyrie and LBJ get huge bumps and become great plays.

Draymond Green – $8100/$7800 – Don’t be too terribly concerned about a blowout here because if that does happen, Green will have a lot to do with it. We are looking for a little more production from him of late, but after the rough game with SA this weekend, these guys might just take it out on MIN tonight. He has a hard floor of 35 pts and upside north of 50.

Jared Sullinger – $6100/$5900 – Another player that keeps finding his way into these articles because he is just too cheap. Sullinger is a bit up and down, but he draws another nice matchup and without Crowder, that rotation is a little more dependent on him than before. Until the price adjusts, it’s not a terrible thing to look at him daily.

Taj Gibson – $5400/$5300 – GPP Play – This dude can be all over the place from 15 pts to 40 pts. Obviously we can’t trust the production or the minutes. He had 37 pts vs UTA and only 24 against PHI. You’d think those would be reversed, but with Taj you just don’t ever really know. Hence, the GPP play only…..but, he’s in a good spot.

Zach Randolph – $6900/$6700 – This was a fun discussion with Keith. It was like those old Miller Lite commercials. I’m yelling “cash play” and Keith is yelling “fade”……cash play…..fade……cash play……fade. We both agree on his use, just for different reasons. ZBO is going to be highly owned. He is also in a nice matchup. This makes him a viable cash play as both a scoring opportunity for your LU and a block vs your competition to narrow the choices where you can use your research to beat your opponents in deeper spots. However, it’s a fade in GPPs because his ownership is just high enough you want to bank on most people missing on a bad game should one materialize.

CENTERS

Andre Drummond – $7700/$7600 – The consummate double double machine, Drummond is still underpriced for what he should be doing. I know he hasn’t been great lately, but just because the bread was bad when it was on sale doesn’t mean you stop buying bread. You just look it over a little more closely. MIL’s back court isn’t good, Drummond is the best rebounder in the game, he has 50 pt upside which he has been close to testing in over half his contests this month, his price is actually down, and Vegas likes the game a little just to give it that added boost.

Tyson Chandler – $4700/$5000 – Here is your value if you want to spend up elsewhere. This guy has played very well lately. Only one super crappy game in his last 4, the other three brought you 8X value. I’m not intimidated by the MEM rebounding skillset one bit.

Ian Mahimni – $5000/$4800 – This is Chop’s golden boy tonight, but it comes with reservations. Myles Turner and Jordan Hill are healthy enough to play as well. This puts a slight cap on the upside here, but the matchup is that cherry red camaro again. PHI is league worst vs the C spot. His game logs are crappy in 5 of his last 6 spots, but 25 isn’t a lot of point production for this guy and if he’s ever going to Git’r’dun, tonight would be that night.

Karl-Anthony Towns – $8800/$8400 – GPP Play – KAT likely draws the defense of Draymond tonight with Bogut being out. That’s not something to sneeze at. GSW will likely go small with their offense leaving KAT as the only big man on the floor. Should things bounce his way, he could be in for a big night……but there is significant risk attached.

As always, I 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! Dismissed!

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