Gary Gustafson 
Happy Friday my NBA DFS friends and family and welcome to another edition of Picks and Pivots where we break down our top tournament strategy on DraftKings and FanDuel for this nine-game slate!
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NBA DFS Picks and Pivots: Slate Breakdown
We get ourselves a strong 9 game NBA DFS slate here on Friday Night and as always we have a ton of injury news that is going to dictate the slate including Q tags on players like Kawhi, PG13, Mike Conley, Kyle Lowry, Jaylen Brown, Draymond and the Big Kiwi himself – Steven Adams.
Any time we get a slate this size with this amount of injury news, couple with teams on a B2B like the Bucks and Raptors – guess what guys, we are going to have value and lots of it. The one thing to keep in mind, the Jazz/Clippers game could be a value bonanza but as the lone game at 10 PM EST, we may not have it – so be careful “counting on it” because if the news doesn’t break as you expect you may be left with no pivot options.
We may not know all the injury news at 7AM EST as I write this, but it is coming and we build cores accordingly.
Building a Core:
If you are new to Picks and Pivots or Win Daily Sports – today is a great day to see what we have to offer as we make our written content FREE to all users. One thing we harp on in our Discord every single day is the importance of building a CORE – whether it be for cash, single entry GPP, or tournament multi-entry. On a nine-game slate with a massive player pool, it becomes even more critical to lock in on spots and fill in the gaps as the day goes on.
With the backdrop of value being readily available, we need to anchor to a high-priced star core we think can set a cash line foundation and give us the ceiling we want to take down GPP’s.
No player tonight has that consistent ceiling more than Nikola Jokic ($11K) who gets a Cavaliers team that will play without Andre Drummond, Kevin Love, Taurean Prince, Larry Nance and may be forced to call Craig Ehlo and Brad Daughtry out of retirment.
Seriously – who on Earth is slowing down Joker tonight from getting whatever he wants? I know it is a small sample size, but the last two games since the Cavs opted to sit Andre Drummond, they have a 125.4 defensive rating which is the third-worst mark in the league. They have given up 45 DK points to the last two “big men” they faced in Serge Ibaka and Draymond Green and you think they are going to stop Joker who is playing with a short-handed squad himself and – wait for it – HAS A BIRTHDAY TONIGHT. Yep – NarratizeSZN. Lock it in baby.
Next on our list is Jayson Tatum ($8.8K) who would become an equal lock and load if Jaylen Brown is indeed ruled out. With Brown and Marcus Smart sidelined this season, Tatum has a massive 36% usage rate and is putting up 1.4 FP/M and we saw just a few games ago against the Clippers where he dropped 55 DK points with Brown sidelined. That is the ceiling you would be missing out on here at a sub $9K price point. This one ain’t complicated.
Now let’s head to the Phoenix and New Orleans game because the rest of our core is all going to be on this court tonight!
If you have been following Picks and Pivots the last week, I have been screaming from the mountaintops – PLAY GUARDS AGAINST NEW ORLEANS. After watching Ja Morant drop a 50 spot and Damian Lillard pushing for an 80 spot last time out – I hope you all listened – but guess what, we go right back to it tonight!
The Pelicans have been absolutely dreadful at defending the perimeter the last 10 games, giving up 17 3PM, the most in the league and are giving up just under 30 assists per game, again the most in the NBA.
This screams a potential ceiling spot for both Chris Paul ($7.7K) and Devin Booker ($8.3K) for all the reasons we outlined above and the recent game logs for scoring guards give us all the support we need.
Considering the pricing, I am leaning towards getting my exposure with Booker – listen, you want ceiling in tournaments, guys that can break the slate and if Booker is hot – he has that ability that frankly, CP3 does not at this point in his career. These two teams have played twice already this year and the game log watchers are going to be unimpressed but BOTH of those games were massive blowouts – so do not be fooled by the game logs and instead focus on the match-up that has allowed sharp shooting guards to smash the last 2 weeks!
On the other side of this game, Zion Williamson ($8.4K) is the premier run back and reading Adam’s Cash Game Core (also FREE today) – well he NAILED IT.
Zion Williamson ($8,400 DK/$8,700 FD) – You know that GIF we put in Discord with the dog in the rocket ship that says “to the moon”? Welcome to the Zion show. He started this season very slow, to the point where I barely looked at him on a nightly basis. Over the past two weeks, Zion has started to rev it up with a 28.9% usage and a 1.38 FPPM, both to lead the team. He’s finding the groove and punishing teams in the paint with the ninth-most points. Phoenix is average in that metric, but I also don’t think Deandre Ayton has much for Zion down low. When a player as talented as Zion is cooking like this, I’m all the way in.
The interior for the Pelicans becomes a mini-stack spot on this slate IF Steven Adams is ruled out as I think we can run a Zion and Guillermo Hernangomez ($3.9K) 1-2 punch against the Suns.
If we roll with a high-priced core of Jokic, Booker, Tatum, and Zion – we NEED value and Guillermo (that’s fun to say!) is one of the key paths to make that kind of build work.
Picks and Pivots – The Wrap Up
Say it with me kids – Stars and Scrubs.
This NBA DFS season, especially recently, has proven on a nightly basis when we have these large of slates that the value is going to come in droves and when we get those $3K-$4K type paths – the key is pairing them with the ceiling stars.
Tonight with 18 teams in our player pool and huge names carrying injury tags, we need to anticipate a value heavy build and that allows us to anchor to the stars that carry the cash line. That all starts with Joker, Tatum, Booker and Zion – lock in the value plays like Big Willy Style, and we will see you in the green later on tonight!
Enjoy this slate – let’s get in our FREE Discord today and chat it up while we dig through our cheat sheets and custom projections here at Win Daily to set up the start of this NBA DFS season with some big wins!
Make sure you follow me on Twitter at @2LockSports and be sure to sign up for an ALL ACCESS GOLD ACCOUNT account here at Win Daily Sports. Gain access to our Projection Models and jump into our Discord where we will have our experts talking plays across every sport and slate!
