Isaiah 
Isaiah’s Protocol picks for the NBA DFS slate are built around DraftKings pricing, but are good across the industry with some slight adjustments to salaries on the various sites.
We have a very difficult 4 game NBA DFS slate tonight, as 7 of the 8 teams are on the second half of a back to back. Making matters even more intriguing, there are several superstars that are questionable due to lingering injuries. Others are in blowout type game scripts. At the time in which I’m writing this, I don’t have the luxury of knowing what the teams are planning in regards to resting certain stars.
I’ve studied several different ways to attack this small NBA DFS slate and concluded that there is very little value as of right now. This makes it extremely hard to fit any of the high salaries into a lineup that feels comfortable. The Nuggets and Grizzlies seem to spread the ball around evenly, making them tough teams to target on this NBA DFS slate. De’Aaron Fox is injured so there should be value in Sacramento, but I don’t like targeting Denver’s stout defense at home. This leaves the five superstars which are difficult to fit in and New Orleans. The Pelicans are playing an up-tempo game against a susceptible defense in the Rockets. This is what I came up with.
The Core
Russell Westbrook ($9200) Westbrook has been north of 45 DKFPTS in all of his last six games, and 9 of his last 10. He’s has a double-double floor, and is the cheapest of the studs tonight. He’s averaging 54 DKFPTS in 2 games vs. N.O.
Brandon Ingram ($8100) Ingram carries a 29.5% usage rate and scores 1.26 FP/min. Houston Is ranked 30th in DvsA, and Ingram put 63 DKFPTS on them in his last time out.
Jrue Holiday ($7800) Holiday has a 27.6% usage rate and scores 1.12 FP/min. Scored 48.3 DKFPTS in his last game vs. Houston.
Richaun Holmes ($7100) Holmes will be asked to do some of the heavy lifting on this NBA DFS slate with both Fox and Bagley on the shelf. Denver is actually ranked 23rd in DvsA at Holmes’ position.
Lonzo Ball ($5400) Ball’s been starting, and his minutes have been trending in the right direction. He carries a 21.5% usage rate and scores a FP/min. Ball dropped 45 DKFPTS in 35 minutes against the Rockets earlier in the season.
Value
Josh Hart ($4200) Hart has a great matchup tonight. The Rockets rank 28th in DvsA, and DEFF, and Josh dropped 35 DKFPTS on Houston his last time out. (Consider a pivot to Rondo here if Lebron misses the game)
De’Anthony Melton ($4000) This is more of a gut call. Melton should go relatively under-owned coming off the bench and averaging around 15 min/gm. He’s been averaging close to 30 DKFPTS a game and is a nice sleeper candidate at that price. Use caution here.
Jerami Grant ($3800) On an NBA DFS slate that is starving for value, Grants been getting a decent amount of minutes. On a B2B, and home favorites, against a banged-up King squad; Grant may get a nice value at his bargain-basement price.
Of course, all of the superstars are still in play for every NBA DFS slate. This write up just gave me a chance to get a lot of good players in one lineup. Using all of them would be a better cash gameplay than a GPP.
Breaking news will be extremely important today as we will need some value to open up so that we can look at some higher-priced stars to squeeze into our lineups, I highly encourage all readers to join myself, and the rest of the WinDaily team in the Discord chat rooms as we break down and discuss our favorite plays of the NBA DFS slate. Thank you for reading my content and feel free to leave a comment, or hit me up on Twitter @IsaiahsProtocol.
GOODLUCK AND HAVE FUN
