John Wall could feast tonight on the 76ers and could be DFS gold
FantasyPros will be taking part in FanDuel’s new Partners Basketball Championship. Each week from now until March 25, we’ll be posting our picks on Wednesday’s and Friday’s to help you set your own lineup. All lineups are built with FanDuel scoring in mind. And you’ll find explanations below on how we came up with the players we’re rolling out.
Note: With last minute lineup changes, please be sure to read the latest news to make sure a player in the list below isn’t going to miss the contest.
Tools Used:
I’ve listed three primary tools that we’re using for the lineups listed below. Each one has its purpose, but ultimately, these help us build lineups quickly and efficiently while using a few key metrics to assist with narrowing down selections.
To start, the lineup optimizer is used to generate an initial lineup which we can then fine-tune. I then like to take a look at the matchup ratings to find games that could be high scoring affairs. Finally, the defense vs. position report allows me to quickly determine if I like the matchups at those specific positions, factoring in how many FanDuel points are typically allowed by a given team. If you’re short in time, take advantage of the tools below.
FantasyPros FanDuel Lineup Optimizer
Matchup Ratings Report
Defense vs. Postion Report
Point Guards:
John Wall (WAS): $9,700 @ PHI
It’s easy to pick on the Sixers and that’s exactly what is happening here. Wall already put up an 18 pts, 10 asts, and 13 reb effort against them the last time they played and things shouldn’t be any different this time around. Over the last 15 games, the 76ers have given up 45.04 fantasy points to point guards.
Mike Conley (MEM): $6,900 @ LAL
Conley just finished putting up 43.2 fantasy points on the Lakers and traveling to Los Angeles doesn’t change the fact that they give up the second-most fantasy points to point guards. Conley is just as likely to put up 30+ points as is Kyrie Irving ($7,400) who has a tough matchup against the Raptors.
Shooting Guards:
Bradley Beal (WAS): $5,700 vs. PHI
Beal should get plenty of opportunities to score against the Sixers in a matchup where Vegas has the Wizards as the clear favorites. In order to spend big elsewhere, you need to take advantage of lower priced options with moderate upside. Beal fits that description.
Jamal Crawford (LAC): $5,000 @ SAC
Similar to the Beal pick, Crawford has a fantastic matchup against the Kings who are the second worst team against shooting guards when it comes to points allowed in FanDuel. Redick may be the starter, but Crawford has been playing well recently and that trend should continue.
Small Forwards:
Carmelo Anthony (ORL): $9,000 vs. ORL
Melo has been playing big time minutes averaging 37.3 over his last nine games. He’s also averaging a double-double in that same span with 22.4 ppg and 10 reb. After playing four games in five days where three of them were on the road, I expect Melo to show up tonight at home.
Matt Barnes (MEM): $5,000 @ LAL
Much like the Conley pick earlier, Barnes had a stellar game the other night against the Grizzlies. He’s seen an uptick in minutes his last three games (33.7) and while I don’t expect him to put up 20+ points again, he should be able to reach double-digits against the second-worst team against small forwards.
Power Forwards:
Zach Randolph (MEM): $6,500 @ LAL
The Lakers are a terrible rebounding team and Randolph does nothing better than rebound and score around the rim. Without Marc Gasol around, the team depends on Z-Bo to make contributions across the board.
Aaron Gordon (ORL): $6,200 @ NYK
The rookie is starting to shine with big time performances and hasn’t scored under 30 FanDuel points since February 7. He’s one of the safest picks at the moment and provides decent upside. Although it’s the back end of a back-to-back, Gordon is young and has better stats across the board when playing a game the following night.
Center:
Nikola Jokic (DEN): $5,800 @ DAL
The Center matchups tonight aren’t great at the top end to justify the prices. Cousins will battle DeAndre Jordan, Pau Gasol is questionable, Vucevic will have to pound against Robin Lopez… there’s good reason to believe that you won’t get the full value out of some of those options. For those reasons, I’m spending less here and going with Nikola Jokic. He’s somewhat quietly averaging almost a double-double (11.4 pts and 8.5 reb) and has dished out 4.3 assists/pg over his last three games played.
