Ok we back from Atlanta! It was a wild weekend to be there - the SEC championship game was Saturday afternoon. The whole city was crawling with Georgia and Alabama fans, at least 10% of whom actually have been to Athens or Tuscaloosa before. A very high rate for these two schools to be honest.
Tompa Bay was also in town to play the Falcons, and boy oh boy did their “fans” show up. We rode the airport tram with a fellow wearing a full Buccaneers tracksuit and replica Super Bowl ring. I didn’t know team staff had to fly Southwest. Anyway most of them were pleasant enough, and could name like two Tampa players besides Tom Brady.
That wasn’t the whole trip though - We visited the Coke museum and saw some wild wild stuff. A Coca-Cola Christmas dance was the real highlight. No idea what the story was but there was a lot of dancing; wedding like procession of each pair of characters; a 12 foot polar bear that drinks cokes, and only cokes. Oh and there was this thing:
As for the real reason you’re here, well we have a lot happening on that front this evening. Out of ten games this evening, only GSW/Orlando, and Milwaukee/Cleveland are currently without a significant contributor missing, but Giannis is questionable with right calf soreness, so we get to 9/10 in short order. The result is lots of decent value options around the slate. Our goal will be of course to find the guys who should stay relatively under the radar, and its with this in mind that I picked our favorites for today, so lets take a look!
FanDuel Favorites
Kelly Oubre, $5800, pOwn: 28%, Target Rate: 26%, Value Rate: 50% - LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier are both out for the Hornets tonight, and some new folks are gonna have to shoot the ball. And the former Kansas man, and current fashionista, sure does like shooting the ball - we have seen him score 37 off the bench already this year. He doesn’t contribute a ton in the other categories, but his positional eligibility (SG/SF) and price mean we don’t need a 60 piece from him.
Darius Bazley, $4600, pOwn: 13%, Target Rate: 25%, Value Rate: 46% - With SGA still out tonight, my natural inclination was to roll Josh Giddey back out here, and you best believe I’ll have plenty interest in having him in my lineups, but for value leverage, Bazley is better tonight. OKC is light on basically everything an NBA team needs to succeed, including NBA players, and Bazley is capable of contributing across all categories, we just need him to add a few more shots to the box score tonight, and for a few of them to go in.
Tyus Jones, $5900, pOwn: 8%, Target Rate: 18%, Value Rate: 42% - Starting in Ja Morant’s stead, Jones has posted 34 minutes each game the Grizz haven’t eviscerated their opponents, so against MIA tonight, we should expect 34 minutes. It isn’t even close to a strong matchup, but honestly that’s part of the appeal, as it will help keep his ownership in check. The former Dukie gets steals and assists a plenty, and has a famously low turnover rate - if he can just can a few threes tonight, we should be in business.
DraftKings Favorites
Norman Powell, $5000, pOwn: 19%, Target Rate: 29%, Value Rate: 66% - Portland is having difficulties getting everyone healthy, and night to night a new guy seems to pop from this situation. Powell’s abilities, game situation, and price/pOwn aren’t really matching up at the moment. Portland needs players to create offense - CJ McCollum is not a Russell Westbrook, 50% usage rate type of player, and we have yet to see Nurkic get the heavy minutes load we might expect with Lillard out. No one else on the team is capable of creating a decent shot. Powell has a very high floor and ceiling combo.
Cody Martin, $3900, pOwn: 27%, Target Rate: 33%, Value Rate: 70% - Theres lots of options to choose from on Hornets tonight, but on DK, Ish Smith looks like he is going to take the ownership crown. Thats why we turn to Martin. Not quite as close to drop-dead minimum as Ish, but close, and at half the ownership. Oh, and he is G/F eligible with comparable Target and Value rates.
Nikola Jokic, $12000, pOwn: 7%, Target Rate: 24%, Value Rate: 61% - Yes, he is going to stretch our salary budget, but we have plenty of value to work with tonight, and his ownership price is just right. Jokic has a tough matchup tonight against the Bulls to be sure, but this game should be close, and he should get plenty opportunity to rack up fantasy points. He has the top floor, mean, and ceiling projection on the slate. Sometimes you just need to play the best players!
Thats all for today. Make sure you check out the daily thread later this afternoon. You can find it here:
And don’t forget to subscribe and share!