One of the best things about DFS is that there is no sure fire way to get to the right answers we are looking for on the nightly puzzle that is our lineups. There are plenty of wrong ways IMO but not a right way. There are a ton of tools out there that we have available to us and I encourage you to use the ones that work the best. There is a ton of information out there and you have to decide what works best for you. I like to keep things simple. I look at numbers for the matchups, but I don’t need to look into 500 different stats to figure out who a good play is. As you grow in NBA DFS you will start to learn what a players skill set is. I’m going to steal a line from Matthew Berry of ESPN. “In Fantasy Sports you are trying to figure out what is MOST likely to happen. If you do this, you will compete MOST of the time.” I love this for two reasons, first, we have to be able to look at what could happen more times than not to be able to consistently compete. Second, we can use this to help us project ownership percentages in the NBA. Look at the matchups, listen to the chatter, and start to write down ownership projections in your notes. Go through your games after they tip and see how close you are. You will find that as you start to really pay attention to these things, you will begin to to get closer and closer. Which in turn can help you start to gain an edge in GPP’s.

Ok, on to the good stuff!

Point Guard

Tyreke Evans: Tyreke with Anthony Davis is always an interesting play. He has the second highest usage rate on the team and get’s a to go against the Lakers tonight. If you don’t know, the Lakers are BAD against the PG position. Tyreke WITHOUT Anthony Davis is what makes this situation absolutely fantastic. Evans has had over 40 fantasy points the last two games. If you are running out multiple teams in tournaments tonight, Evans makes for an interesting fade due to the high projected ownership percentage i’m expecting tonight.

Ricky Rubio: The Wolves are going to need offense tonight and I think that Rubio is a great pairing if you are deciding to pay up for Russell Westbrook tonight. In the NBA, I pay really close attention to players facing off against eachother and if you went that way with the Westbrook/Lillard combo Sunday, it should have paid off nicely for you. The Thunder do not play good defense against the back court and that means that Rubio should be able to fill up the stat sheet. Since he’s one of the streakiest shooters in the league, if his shot is falling tonight, he could return 7 times his salary.

Shooting Guard

Devin Booker: Booker is one of the most popular value plays on the board tonight. The pairing of him and Brandon Knight could be an interesting tournament combination tonight. Booker should be extremely highly owned and even though we don’t predict blowouts, if this game happens to turn into one, he should still be playing. He is a 19 year old kid that has all the promise in the world. He get’s a very poor on ball defender in Montae Ellis which means that if Booker were to get in a little bit of a rhythm, Ellis could start to chuck up shots as well.

Lou Williams: I really hope that people read this wrong tonight. The “crowd” is torn on Sweet Lou because Kobe Bryant is up in the air for tonight’s game. If we get word that Kobe is out before roster lock, we should see Williams ownership percentage go up. If we don’t receive word or if we do that Kobe will be playing, his ownership will drop. We don’t have to worry about Kobe in my opinion on what type of game Williams could have. Kobe played against OKC a couple games ago and Lou had 44 points. He won’t give you a lot of the secondary stats we need for him to exceed value if his shot isn’t falling, but he’s a great tournament play tonight.

Small Forward:

Kevin Durant: If I was only making one lineup today, Durant would be the one I would go with over Russell Westbrook. Not that I don’t think that Russell is worth it, but since Durant is cheaper, I like the lineup I can put around him tonight. Durant is a top 5 player in the game today and there is no reason to think that he could get close to 50 fantasy points tonight. With a lot of players going back to James Harden against the Grizzlies, and Lebron, I think KD could be lower owned tonight than normal. He’s playing 35 plus minutes per game and he should dominate the matchup between him and Andrew Wiggins.

Carmelo Anthony: Carmelo has contributed more in the secondary stats than what we are used too. In my opinion, he’s playing the best he’s played game in and game out since he has been in New York. I think he’s going to be low owned tonight. Now, I don’t normally pick on the Boston Celtics since they play great team defense, but Carmelo’s usage rate is so high that it doesn’t matter. Anthony has 5 double double’s in his last 9 games and the last game against Boston he put up 29 points and 10 rebounds in 35 minutes.

Power Forward:

Kristaps Porzingis: Kristaps is BACK! He’s passed that “Rookie Wall” that everyone was talking about about two weeks ago. Porzingis is the ultimate GPP play since his floor is 12 and his ceiling is 50. I think when Carmelo and Porzingis are working together they both help themselves and boost each other’s value. If we look at what he does, he allows Anthony to work with more space which allows Porzingis to work with freedom. I’m serisously considering pairing up both Knicks tonight as a unique way to attack tournaments.

Zack Randolph: There aren’t a lot of times that I will recommend using someone that is coming off the bench as one of my Baller’s. Z-Bo though has thrived in this role now. He is still playing starters minutes and they are now starting to get into a little bit of a groove. Randolph used to be Mr. Cash game at one point where he was averaging 19 points and 9 rebounds a night. His price has not yet caught back up to the struggles of a couple weeks ago so I think we can still “buy-low” for possibly another week.

Center:

Greg Monroe: Monroe might have the slowest feet in the NBA at the center position no named Roy Hibbert. I honestly don’t know how Milwaukee is only middle of the pack in rebounding percentage with all the length they have. It’s been a really good year so far targeting Center’s against the Bulls, and I’m going to continue that trend again tonight.

Andre Drummond: This is the ultimate contrarian move of the night for me. I have no problem targeting Tim Duncan tonight at the Center position. This is strictly a GPP play but as long as Drummond doesn’t commit some stupid early fouls, he should be able to dominate this matchup. He doesn’t have to have the ball in his hands to be productive. He gets a lot of put backs shots to go where he get’s the rebounds and the points. He also works very well with Reggie Jackson in the Pick and Roll game which is a play where the Spurs have shown to be vulnerable on occassion. This will force you to have a different roster and will allow you to get an edge on the field in tournaments.

Here are your NBA Projections

Here is your Cheat Sheet! Starting tomorrow, there will be a specific one for DraftKings and FanDuel.

NBA Cheat Sheet

NBA Cheat Sheet pdf

Good Luck tonight Everyone!