We had a bit of a mixed bag last night. On the one hand, I had plenty of Jae’Sean Tate who scored 70 FD points because why not its the Rockets, on the other, Nikola Jokic decided not to play the second half of his game sinking his Pts/Reb/Ast prop, and like half my FanDuel lineups with it. Next time.
Our other two props didn’t hit either - Christian Wood left the Rockets/Thunder game mid-way through the first quarter with just one block, and SGA mustered only one solitary block. Lucky for you all I’m traveling today so no props.
Speaking of traveling, we won’t have a thread today, but still want to share a few favorites and thoughts on the slate. Lets take a look!
FanDuel Favorites
Anfernee Simons, $5200, pOwn: 33%, Target Rate: 41%, Value Rate: 56% - Damian Lillard and Nassir Little are already ruled out tonight for the Trail Blazers, with Norman Powell questionable after missing the last game as well. CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic are also both excellent plays tonight, but they are garnering more ownership, and are significantly more costly both in salary and positional opportunity cost. IF Norman Powell doesn’t play tonight, I assume Simons’ ownership will explode so we’ll have to keep an eye on that situation, as well as other leverage opportunities.
Dejounte Murray, $9800, pOwn: 25%, Target Rate: 12%, Value Rate: 36% - On a short slate with very few stars, we are a bit starved for ceiling that won’t be owned by half the entrants in our contests. In steps budding superstar Dejounte Murray against the same shorthanded Blazers team filling our rosters. Murray hasn’t yet cracked 30 real points this season, but has consistently posted 50s and 60s with a healthy dose of rebounds, assists, and steals.
Isaiah Stewart, $5000, pOwn: 14%, Target Rate: 25%, Value Rate: 39% - LeBron’s new arch-enemy is not necessarily exciting to roster, but he is cheap at a position we may have trouble filling tonight. We can count on 30 or so minutes tonight, and for him to post a very strong score a quarter of the time. Just cross your fingers he doesn’t try to fight Chris Paul.
DraftKings Favorites
Giannis Antetokounmpo, $12000, pOwn: 20%, Target Rate: 25%, Value Rate: 62% - Yea he is really expensive, but he is going to post the highest score on the slate at least 50% of the time, and if his pOwn stays this low, we’ll figure out how to fit him in. The Raptors are a well coached team with lots of good players, who should compete for play-off spot if everyone is healthy, but as we said before, they don’t employ anyone over 6’9”, and those guys are like 190 pounds. Giannis could have a quintuple-double tonight. Sadly they bonuses stop at triple-doubles.
Jusuf Nurkic, $7000, pOwn: 25%, Target Rate: 21%, Value Rate: 58% - We don’t have any premium center options tonight, and Nurkic has about as much ceiling as anyone else, with a much higher floor due to the Blazers’ absences. He doesn’t play a ton of minutes each night, but he uses those minutes well. The last time he cracked 30 minutes, he scored 59 points. Here’s hoping!
Gary Trent Jr, $5600, pOwn: 15%, Target Rate: 25%, Value Rate: 53% - He is currently questionable for tonights game against the Bucks. Assuming he does go, he has a price, projection, pOwn, and positional eligibility we should love tonight. Toronto has some long-term injury issues that pretty much lock in Trent Jr’s minutes if he does play, and he isn’t shy about letting it fly. Lets hope they fall tonight!
Ok that’s all for today! Good luck tonight in your contests. If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to the newsletter, and share this thing far and wide!