Brian Tulloch 
Happy Monday my NBA DFS family – after an awesome weekend of sports, capped off with a HUGE day for the Win Daily Sports family yesterday, we are back with a 10 game slate to kick off this new week. Before we get started though – a HUGE congrats to our very own StixPicks for his massive win in NFL on Sunday, capping off a monster season for our lead NFL DFS analyst!
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NBA DFS Picks and Pivots: Slate Breakdown
With a massive 10 game NBA DFS slate ahead of us, it is no surprise that we open up to a ton of high-end injury news with players like LeBron James, Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, Joel Embiid, D’Angelo Russell and Aaron Gordon all questionable to play.
With the slate being as large as it is, narrowing down our player pool to build a core is key and there are two games that jump out to me at first look – Nets/Heat and Warriors/TWolves.
Golden State, Minnesota and Brooklyn are three of the five fastest pace teams in the NBA this season and while we have talked about the Nets defensive struggles since the big Harden trade (dead last in the NBA) – the opposing Heat rank amount the bottom 10 as well coinciding with the loss of Jimmy Butler and the rest of the COVID crew.
Now what stands out in both games is the star power – and I think anchoring to 2-3 stars here is going to be key.
The easiest of which is Bam Adebayo ($8.5K) – a player we were all screaming to play against the Nets just a few days ago and all he did was drop 63 DK points and his, price….wait for it – DID NOT CHANGE. The Nets have absolutely no interior defense right now – Bam should destroy them in this spot once again.
The Nets run back is likely more position based than anything else (more on that in a moment) – which leads me to use Kevin Durant ($10.4K) and his PF eligibility on DraftKings. Durant continues to lead the Nets in usage when sharing the court with Kyrie/Harden (30% last game) and gives you a high ceiling run back at a weak position.
Now if you want run back with Brooklyn and need the salary – Kyrie Irving ($9K) remains the most cost-effective way as he has gone for 50 DK points per game over his last 3 outings and has not seen his price change at all. You can use him at Guard on DK with the two late-night hammers we are looking to build around next.
Part of the reason I initially overlooked the Nets backcourt, is my priority at PG is Stephen Curry ($9.2K) who is just simply – too cheap – in the fastest projected pace game on the slate against one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA.
The one interesting run back here for me is D’Angelo Russell ($8.2K) – a player with a 30% usage rate and 1.3 FP/M with Karl Anthony-Towns off the court. D-Russ has slate breaking upside in this kind of fast-paced match-up and it is rare to get a player with this kind of usage and volume for just $8K.
Now – one thing we cannot overlook in these games is the potential for stacking up value pieces especially on Miami. With Moe Harkless out and KZ Okpala questionable tonight, the Heat will likely use Andre Igoudala ($3.6K) in a big role against Durant an company. Iggy saw most of the 4th quarter run for Miami last game once Harkless went out and is a great way to get cheap exposure to this game.
On the Minnesota side, we have similar value potential both in the mid-range and at the low-end. Jared Vanderbilt ($5K) is one of my favorite pairings with D-Russ as you can get the inside/out combination with Vanderbilts ability to rack up not only scoring but the peripheral counting stats inside.
A cheaper option is Jaden McDaniels ($3.4K) who has played 23 MPG the last three outings and while the results have been inconsistent (30, 12 and 12 DK points) – that has been largely driven down the last two games by a combined 3 for 16 shooting. The volume and minutes are there and this is a guy who pushed for 9=-10x upside at this price just a few days ago.
Picks and Pivots – The Wrap Up
With it being a 10 game slate, you know the value is coming – and one thing I love to do at first glance is build around my core games and just wait on the news. Taking a stand on the Nets/Heat and Warriors/Wolves gives you arguably the two best game environments on the slate with 4 man star power that could lift you to a massive win.
The key – sit back now and watch the news and react to value. Lock into our custom projections and talk to us in Discord – the paths are going to be there tonight for Stars and Scrubs again – I promise you.
Enjoy this slate – let’s get in Discord today and chat it up while we dig through our cheat sheets and 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!
