Paul George has a great matchup tonight making him a solid play in FanDuel lineups
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:
John Wall (WAS): $10,000 @ MIN
Let me start by saying the top three PGs tonight are all solid plays with both Russell Westbrook ($11,000) and Chris Paul ($10,200) going against one another. Then there’s John Wall who has the best matchup out of the three going up against the Timberwolves who give up the 7th most FanDuel points to PGs. All three players have a chance to put up the same amount of points so you might as well save between $200-1,000 by going with the guy who isn’t going to get challenged with the same intensity that Paul and Westbrook will put on one another tonight.
Shooting Guards:
Jordan Clarkson (LAL): $6,000 @ DEN
Clarkson should get ample opportunity to score against a Denver team that gives up 104 ppg and allows teams to shoot 51.4% against them. In his last 10 games, he’s averaged 30.1 fantasy points and at his price tag, there are far riskier options with equal amounts of upside.
Small Forwards:
Paul George (IND): $8,700 @ MIL
Much like John Wall, the more expensive option would be Kevin Durant ($10,600) who I would love to roster. The problem is he’s $1,900 more than the next man up in Paul George. George is just as capable to put up big points tonight and has a much better matchup going against the Bucks (they give up the 5th most fantasy points to SFs). Let me be clear though. Players like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are virtually matchup-proof. If you want to roster other quality players though, you can’t max out at every position, especially when there are high-floor alternatives with near equal ceilings like tonight.
Power Forwards:
Kenneth Faried (DEN): $6,500 @ LAL
The Manimal has three straight double-doubles and the Lakers are far from a defensive and rebounding powerhouse. He was listed as questionable originally for tonight’s matchup, but reports are that he’ll be good to go and he should be able to take advantage of a team that has the third-worst rebounding differential. With the loss of Danilo Gallinari for possibly the season, some of his points and rebounds will naturally fall into Faried’s lap.
Center:
Al Jefferson (CHA): $5,300 @ PHI
Jefferson is one of the better value plays of the night. The 76ers are practically matchup-proof for nearly every center in the league. Although Jefferson is playing limited minutes and coming off the bench, this matchup is a prime candidate to give Big Al his first double-double since returning. If you’re looking for a statistical breakdown, just look to the bottom of the list in nearly all defensive categories. The point is, Jefferson put up 26 pts, 10 reb and 5 blks against the 76ers earlier in the year in 31 minutes. He’s been playing 21.83 mpg since his return so you can get an idea of what he’s capable of.
