Hassan Whiteside will be heavily owned tonight, but he needs to be on your roster
FantasyPros is proud to be taking part in FanDuel’s new Partners Basketball Championship. Each week from now until March 25, we’ll be posting our top five favorite plays on Wednesday’s and Friday’s to help you set your own lineup. All picks are chosen with FanDuel scoring in mind and you’ll find explanations below on how we came up with the players we’ve named.
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.
DFS Lineup Tools:
I’ve listed three primary tools that we use to help come up with lineups each night. Each one has its purpose, but ultimately, these help 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 on time, take advantage of the tools below.
FantasyPros FanDuel Lineup Optimizer
Matchup Ratings Report
Defense vs. Postion Report
Point Guard:
Jeff Teague (ATL): $6,000 @ LAL
The Lakers have seen an improvement from their rookie D’Angelo Russell, but he along with the rest of the team still struggle on the defensive end making the Lakers one of the best matchups for all fantasy prospects. Teague is projected as the 10th highest scoring point guard tonight using our lineup optimizer, but his floor is relatively safe in the mid-to-high 20’s giving him a shot to surpass other players who are more expensive and projected for just a couple of points more.
Shooting Guard:
Evan Fournier (ORL): $5,400 vs. PHO
Fournier is returning from injury and should slide right back into his starting role against a struggling Suns team that’s allowing 22.23 points to shooting guards over the season and 20.92 points to small forwards. Prior to missing the team’s last three games, Fournier had scored in double-digits in 7 out of 10 games. I like all of the Orlando guards tonight, but Fournier should be able to match his value relatively easily.
Small Forward:
Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL): $8,300 @ MIN
Antetokounmpo has seen a spike in his assists over the last five games dishing out an average of 7.8 per game. Michael Carter-Williams is considered questionable heading into Friday night’s matchup against the Timberwolves and in the event he does miss the game (has missed the last two with patella tendinitis), Antetokounmpo should continue to play the role of both distributor and scorer. In their last seven games, the Timberwolves are allowing 43.8 FanDuel points to small forwards making them second-worst only behind the 76ers.
Power Forward:
Paul Millsap (ATL): $7,900 @ LAL
Power forwards tonight can be had at a discount and the matchup against the Lakers makes Paul Millsap a worthy pick. It’s hard not to like a player who is as well rounded as Millsap and he should have his way with Julius Randle. The Lakers continue to struggle grabbing rebounds which Millsap can certainly do and Millsap is projected to score more fantasy points than any other PF tonight by our optimizer.
Center:
Hassan Whiteside (MIA): $8,600 @ PHI
Whiteside has been a monster for the better part of this season with a league-leading 3.92 blocks per game (had 8 against the 76ers in their last meeting) and 11.5 rebounds per game, which is tied for 4th in the league. He’ll likely be heavily owned tonight, but there’s a good reason for that. The Sixers allow more fantasy points to centers than any other team in the league and while I may sound like a broken record with this line, it’s important to point out just how bad they are. Oh yeah, the Sixers won’t have both Noel or Okafor tonight either. I fully expect #HassanWhiteside to be trending tonight.
