Nearing the final week of the regular season, I will be leading this section off every day with PAY ATTENTION TO LATE BREAKING NEWS. You guys know this, but newer folks might not. Much of this write-up can be rendered worthless by 6pm EDT. We have to be ready for this and understand that these are currently the players we like. But, we are watching for value to open up and that often times dictates to us we need to head in a different direction. That’s what Slack is for. Get in there and ask questions.

Anywhoooo, here are the current players we think are in the best spots to succeed…..

POINT GUARDS

Raymond Felton/JJ Barea – With Deron Williams out, there is no problem here playing either one, or both, especially in tourneys. They have shown they can easily pay off their salaries and they are both going to get run like a Kenyan in a marathon.

Damian Lillard – Here we go again……PG vs SAC defense. Add in the fact we have a premium PG and this situation is sweet as momma’s apple pie.

GPP Ping-Pong – Chris Paul/Isaiah Thomas – Both have been playing well and we love when two great PGs run up against each other. They tend to make the other better. Last time they played on Feb 10, BOS beat LAC 139-134, so we had a close and high scoring game. CP3 went for 66.5 pts and IT2 went for 57.3. It’s risky, hence the GPP play, because BOS is the best in the league at defending the PG. But, the upside is most certainly there.

Ricky Rubio – Another cherry red camaro matchup vs PHX tonight. PGs have brought value in this spot time and time again. I expect Rubio to outperform his idol Rajon Rondo (easy to do now that I just got word Rondo is out as I write up SFs) tonight and at a cheaper price. We have seen a very steady mid-30s score from him with upside to 45-50 if he’s hunting a triple-double.

SHOOTING GUARDS

Lance Stephenson – Still handling the ball quite a bit. Since he’s going against the Spurs, he will be low owned. In a middling sized GPP, Keith had him a 0.5% owned and he went off for 28 pts at $6600. This may look bad to you, but every point he scores at this ownership moves me up the leaderboard AND gives me enough diversification in a unique LU that I can play chalk the rest of the way and I can climb a leaderboard faster than my competition, which is what wins GPPs. I would rather have Stephenson at .5% owned than a guy at the same price getting 40 pts with 70% ownership. With everyone already going to be playing LeMarcus Aldridge from this game, you are definitely going to need someone low-owned to offset that chalk. Enter Lance Stephenson.

Jonathan Simmons – $3600 on FD – With everyone going to Danny Green since all the Spurs are sitting tonight, Simmons becomes a great pick. He will still get 30 min at a cheap price, and is more offensively minded than DannyG. Simmons is more active on the glass (albeit not going to blow out away with mad skills) and he will grab a couple assists here and there. At near minimum salary, he doesn’t need to do much to help your team, so we can afford to get off the herd with this pick, too.

Zach LaVine/Devin Booker – Ping Pong – LaVine has the floor and that’s undeniable. Booker has the upside comparatively, and it’s not close. This is a pretty simple ping-pong play to give both some floor and some upside, but ultimately is affordable and safe.

Seth Curry – Now, FIRMLY in play with Rondo, Gay, Belinelli and Cousins announced as sitting (yes, I had to come back up and write this in…). Cheap price, all the run you can handle. This is beginning to feel like Russian Roulette as we write these now.

SMALL FORWARDS

$$ Make no mistake, Kevin Durant is more chalky than a teacher’s eraser. He has the most upside across the position BY FAR tonight. The CHOP CHALK special of the day right here! $$

PJ Tucker – Sac Targeted!!! We’ve pounded this one for months. Just repeat…..repeat….repeat.

Omri Casspi – Totally playing off the SAC sitting news. Casspi might get all 48 minutes in a spot like this. It’s hard not to bring value with no one else around you, all the minutes you can handle, a little bit of talent, a bump in usage, and a price point $4500. 22 pts gets you home, and we have upside well over that in this spot.

Maurice Harkless – Not only will he be lower-owned than Ryan Anderson, but he is the better play period. In his last three games started, he has avg’d 27 fantasy points, played 28 minutes, and is only $4000. He has upside at this price that can reach 10X.

POWER FORWARDS

Jared Sullinger – The last time the Celtics played the Clippers, Sully basically not only went HAM….but threw the eggs, cheese, and bacon in there as well!

LeMarcus Aldridge – Another Chop Chalk Special…..just not as strong as KD. Aldridge will be the only usual starter suiting up tonight. This game might be lower scoring, but these points have to go somewhere. This is one play you fade at your own peril given where everyone else will be schooling in cash formats. Under normal circumstances, we would fade him in GPPs, but we just don’t have anyone to fade him in favor of because we can still get Kevin Durant in LUs and Boogie is sitting…..and we have min-sal players everywhere else. Again….fade him at your own peril tonight.

Gorgui Dieng – This is a 3rd player, arguably in a better spot than the others. People are talking about getting off him tonight to boot. Any combo of Sullinger/Dieng with LMA is a fine play tonight.

CENTERS

Rudy Gobert – LA Lakers targeted! Lakers are terri-bad vs centers and we’ve been targeting this for awhile. Gobert is solid in floor and may test his upside in a spot like this one.

Mason Plumlee – Going against the less than stellar Koufus’ #ZDP, it might be the contrarian pivot off Boogie being out since all the safe cash-gamers are going to gravitate to Koufus……..leaving Plumlee wide open under the rim for an easy dunk.

Kosta Koufus – This is the current “ZOMG Boogie is out” pivot. Yes, it’s chalky, but we’ve seen what it’s done the past 3 times this has happened. Solid and safe play here.

Hassan Whiteside – a total center spot regular right now. Block Party waiting to happen. Fair price that can be exceeded. Bonus tip – If you have all the other value in your LU and you need to literally find a place to spend money, no longer look at who can get you 5X. Start looking for who can simply bring you the most points. This was a concept that took me awhile to learn, but if a guy costs 2k more but will bring me 10 more points……..provided I have the 2k to burn……..I’m an idiot for not spending it on a 4X player that will net me a higher score.

Google Sheet’s Cheat Sheet! You can watch me edit as I go!

Check into Slack as you build your LUs and remember to ask questions. We are not in the business of selling you LUs. We ARE in the business of helping you make the decisions and creating your own. Tweet your #300Club LUs to @ffootballgeek or @dfsarmy_matt so it can get re-tweeted as we wage war on the industry and prove we are the most informed, most successful group out there from top to bottom!