Hittin' The Nuts with Squirrelpatrol - Thursday, February 8th
Want to hit the nuts and take down 1st place in these massive contests posted by FanDuel and DraftKings? Who better to walk you through their favorite NBA DFS picks than Squirrelpatrol! Undoubtedly one of the best DFS players in the game today, Squirrelpatrol has accumulated 90+ Live Final seats, won the FanDuel 2021 World Fantasy Basketball Championship for $500,000, and most recently, took down the NFL Milly Maker in Week 2.
Happy NBA Trade Deadline Day! The trade deadline was at 3:00 PM ET, but we likely won’t see any of the new players with their new teams for a couple of days. What we will see tonight is some bench players and strange rotations as the old players have been traded but the new players haven’t arrived yet.
Among players on tonight’s slate, we saw Indiana ship out Buddy Hield, Brooklyn trade Spencer Dinwiddie and Royce O’Neale, Dallas trade Richaun Holmes, Seth Curry, and Grant Williams, the Knicks trade Quentin Grimes and Evan Fournier, Milwaukee trade Cameron Payne, Memphis trade David Roddy, and Utah trade Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk. Whew! We didn’t see any stars change teams today, but the bench rotations should have an impact on the slate.
Both FanDuel and DraftKings removed the last 2 games, so we have a 7-game slate tipping off with GSW/IND (IND -6, 249.5) and SAS/ORL (ORL -10.5, 225). All of the teams in the first window are relatively healthy, and while the absence of Hield may give a bit of a bump to some Pacers, it’s not the biggest impact for the slate.
The 7:30 PM ET window brings CLE/BKN (CLE -7.5, 224.5) and DAL/NYK (DAL -3.5, 228), and here we should see some trade implications. Brooklyn was already without Cameron Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Lonnie Walker, and now they have traded O’Neale and Dinwiddie. Jalen Brunson is also questionable for the Knicks, which would have a major impact for a New York team that already looks good in their matchup with Dallas.
At 8:00 PM ET, we see MIN/MIL (MIL -1, 226.5) and CHI/MEM (CHI -6, 216.5). Here, the injury news may be more important than the trades, as Damian Lillard is questionable for the Bucks and Jaren Jackson is questionable for Memphis.
The injury situations continue with the final 9:00 PM ET game, where Utah visits Phoenix (PHX -6.5, 242). Bradley Beal and Devin Booker are both questionable for the Suns, while the Jazz trade of Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji should open up some minutes for Utah.
Let’s digest the trades, sort through the slate with the news we have now, and figure out what to do with our DFS lineups.
NBA DFS Lineup Advice: Squirrelpatrol’s ‘Hittin’ The Nuts’ (February 8th)
High Flyers
Who are the players I’m picking first for my squad? These guys are the first selections for both my cash game and tournament lineups, and I’ll sacrifice elsewhere, if need be, to ensure I get them in:
Paolo Banchero
FanDuel: $8,600
DraftKings: $8,200
Paolo Banchero is averaging 25.2 points and 5.8 assists per game this calendar year compared to 24.1 PPG and 4.7 APG in the 2023 portion of this season. Orlando, as 10.5-point favorites, is facing a Spurs team that allows the 5th-most points per game and 2nd-most rebounds per game in the NBA this season, and we should have value popping up throughout the night to fit in multiple spend-ups. With all of the trades, we are likely to see some surprising players stepping into starting lineups throughout the night. I plan to spread out my exposure to the top spend-up players more than usual, expecting that we’ll see plenty of value throughout the night.
Kyrie Irving
FanDuel: $9,400
DraftKings: $8,700
Kyrie is averaging 29 points, 5.7 assists, and 6.4 rebounds per game in 2024, compared to 23 PPG, 5.2 APG, and 3.9 RPG in October through December of this season. His price has come down over the past month after being priced up with Luka Doncic out, and he gets a big stage against a shorthanded Knicks team. Dallas will be without Dereck Lively and the now-traded Richaun Holmes, while Maxi Kleber is questionable and PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford have yet to arrive. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see the team push the ball tonight to make up for a lack of size.
Site Specialists
Just like a good 3-and-D small forward, sometimes a player fits the specific need we have on the specific site we’re playing on. These are the guys that stand out on one particular site:
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