Richard Masana NBA DFS Picks and Pivots: 8.24
Welcome back NBA DFS fans! I’m Adam Strangis and I’ll be covering NBA DFS Picks and Pivots for Brian Tulloch for the next couple weeks. After months of being on pause, the league is back and so is DraftKings with big prizes pools to take down so let’s get started with our top NBA DFS Picks and Pivots: 8.24!
For those of you new to Picks and Pivots, the goal of this NBA DFS article each and every day is to provide you a “First Look” overview of the slate where we use DraftKings pricing as a baseline to help us get started. Rather than simply write out the “top plays,” this article will focus on slate strategy and roster construction with a GPP mindset to help you get started on your initial builds. Without further ado, let’s dive into today’s slate!
NBA DFS Picks and Pivots: Slate Breakdown
Even if the Magic are without Aaron Gordon for the fourth consecutive game, pricing is tight on this slate to my eyes. It’s a little difficult to pull off a true game stack and get two studs, but I do see one route that could be a little fun. When we look at the players above $10,000, they all have massive upside. My belief is that Giannis Antetokounmpo will be the most popular. Even in 30 minutes, he seems like a stone cold block for 60 DK. We can look at a game stack from the first game with a late night hammer we all know and love.
Main Stack
I will say that if we combine the Orlando vs Milwaukee stack with the Los Angeles vs Portland stack, there’s no room for James Harden. He’s shot terribly from deep in this series (11-37, 29.7%) and that will level out at some point. That scares me and if you run multiple lineups, you owe it to yourself to get Harden shares. My main focus will be cobbling a stack of the two highest over/unders on the slate.
We’ll start with the Magic, who I’m going to assume will still offer us value. You can certainly turn to Nikola Vucevic who has flashed considerable upside in this series. Mainly, I’m going the cheap route for Orlando. The trio of Gary Clark, James Ennis and DJ Augustin are all under $5,000. They also all have the ability to flirt (or exceed) 30 DK. Augustin in particular is attractive with two of three games over 35 DK. DJA has clearly shown a higher ceiling than Markelle Fultz. Ennis and Clark only need to combine for 51 DK to hit 6x at their combine price tag. That’s something I feel very comfortable with.
Is there really anything left I can say about Giannis? He’s played 34, 32 and 31 minutes this series and produced 65, 59 and 66 DK points. If this game stays close and he gets to 35-38 minutes, 75-80 DK is within reach. The floor here is simply absurd.
Secondary “Stack”
So we have four players locked in and $6,450 left to spend. That’s not too shabby considering we have Giannis so let’s get some late night action here. It’s not a traditional game stack because we don’t have salary. However, the duo of LeBron and Carmelo Anthony fit really nicely with the main stack. I know that Anthony really bit us in Game 2, but he responded with an excellent Game 3.
The Blazers look like they’re starting to gas just a bit, especially big man Jusuf Nurkic. Anthony has two games above 36 DK in this series and his price isn’t high enough. LeBron has put up 73 and 68 in the competitive games and fell two dimes short of matching triple-doubles. We’ve seen it for years – LeBron is different when it’s playoffs. He’s full go right now vs a team that hasn’t played defense in the bubble (third-worst in the seeding games).
NBA DFS Picks and Pivots: The Wrap-Up
With the six pieces in place, it only gives us $4,600 for two spots. The last two spots I’m considering are – Jae Crowder, Justin Holiday/Aaron Holiday (prefer the starter), Pat Connaughton, Austin Rivers and Danuel House.
Of course, you can play around with these stacks to include Eric Bledsoe, Khris Middleton, Evan Fournier, Terrence Ross, Anthony Davis, CJ McCollum, Damian Lillard and others. This is just the baseline for my method in GPP’s tonight since the first and the last game offer us some serious upside.
Let’s jump into Discord and talk some hoops my friends. Time to make money!
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