Adam Strangis NBA DFS: Gems with Ghost and Adam 2/9
It’s been a little while since the NBA has had a small slate and tonight is not that different as we have six games in front of us. On the surface, this is somewhat of an easy slate because we have a lot of teams on a back-to-back and that includes teams that made trades yesterday. Let’s get into that and more in the NBA DFS: Gems with Ghost and Adam 2/9 and carve our paths to green screens again!
One thing I want to clarify based on the questions I have received over the past few years is that I will never list a player under the $5,000 price tag simply because I use the projection model to identify all targets in this range and below. While there are often plenty of options that I like at $5,000 and less, since I often find myself with not only one – but multiple – in my NBA DFS lineups, you all have access to the very model I use to make my own selections, so when asking yourself: “Should I use player X or player Y?”, make sure to check the model because that is how I make all of my own decisions and I truly ride or die by it on a daily basis.
Before running to the DraftKings, FanDuel, or Yahoo lobby to construct your NBA DFS lineup after reading this article, please make sure to utilize the abundance of tools we have at Win Daily:
Lakers at Blazers
Lakers – I wouldn’t be overly shocked to see LeBron James or Anthony Davis sit tonight, but the flip side of that coin is the Lakers sit ninth in the West before the action started Tuesday night. They were only five games ahead of the Blazers for 11th and 4.5 games ahead of the Pelicans, who think they can make a run. Even if LeBron and AD both play, I’m more inclined to play either since they are under $11,000 and Russell Westbrook is an afterthought. Both Bron and AD can hit 60 DK points in the same game at any juncture right now and Davis has really been playing some strong basketball since he’s come back from injury. Portland should still be short-handed tonight and was already in the bottom five in defensive rating while the Lakers are a top-five team in pace and AD and Bron are over 1.31 FPPM on the season. There is potential to just double-up and play both but there are other players at the high end of the pricing grid that have my interest to be sure.
Blazers – This is being written before the Blazers play Tuesday but we do know that their starting lineup was Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkic, Justise Winslow, Ben McLemore, and CJ Elleby. While DK technically did raise the prices of the cheap guys, it’s not likely to be enough as the Lakers are still a bottom 10 team in defensive rating. On top of that, they may have just eight or 10 players again tonight so they will be the main source of value and I’m likely to follow the same formula of having at least 2-3 Blazers in every lineup tonight.
Wolves at Kings
This game should look familiar because they just played last night and the Kings are going to be my main focus. As things stand, the big three for Minnesota are all active in Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell, and Anthony Edwards, and when that is the case, I typically lean toward the cheapest player and that’s D’Lo tonight. The $7,000 salary is incredibly interesting against the Kings for a player that has the highest assist rate on the team at 32.4% and has a higher FPPM than Edwards by 0.05.
The Kings side is more interesting since they should be without their new teammates tonight and that’s likely going to leave De’Aaron Fox and Davion Mitchell with a ton of usage to eat up. It hasn’t been a large sample but when Buddy Hield and Tyrese Haliburton have been off the floor, Fox has a 29.3% usage rate and 1.22 FPPm and the man is under $8,000. Mitchell is only at 0.69 but he’s also sporting a 36.2% true shooting rate in that sample and that’s not where his talent level is. Both teams are in the top eight of pace this year and since they faced each other the night before, defense might be optional. My goal is to have at least 2-3 players from this game and the Blazers game as things stand right now.
Honorable Mention – Bulls at Hornets
Teams To Monitor
Warriors – Klay Thompson is sitting this one out so Steph Curry is absolutely a strong option at his salary and is in the running for one of the best on the slate. He’s barely over $10,000 but the shot has been iffy at best lately and the floor is absolutely there. Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole are much more intriguing than normal tonight and if Kevon Looney sits out as well, the opposing big man could be of interest.
Jazz – Rudy Gobert is still out and I’ll be interested to see if Udoka Azubuike draws a start again even with Hassan Whiteside active. Azubuike is still very cheap and put up 30 DK in 27 minutes played last game and if Looney is out along with Draymond Green still being out, the interior for the Warriors is dicey at best. Oh, and Donovan Mitchell popped off for nearly 60 DK and somehow is still just $8,600 if you’re into that sort of thing.
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