Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, October 25

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2025-10-25 21:41:09 Premium Content Part of the product NBA DFS

A daily fantasy sports OG, Notorious has been roaming the DFS streets ever since they were invented. He has racked up multiple live final seats and several six-figure tournament wins in his DFS career. So, who better to walk you through the madness of an NBA DFS slate? On weekends, Taylor Smith takes the reins. Core Plays LIVE will zoom out on the slate as a whole, zoom in on the best plays, and constantly update as news breaks. Whether you are diving into the slate 5 hours before it starts or 5 minutes before it starts, you’ve come to the right place.

Happy Saturday! ‘Tis the first Saturday of the new NBA season, and we’re looking at a nice little 5-gamer on both DraftKings and FanDuel. The schedule appears to balance out a bit this week following a topsy-turvy opening week, which is what we love to see.

We have a few teams playing the second halves of back-to-back games for the first time, so injury reports should be interesting. We’re not expecting much (if any) load management this early in the season, but you never know with this league. Nobody expected a head coach to get arrested, and that happened, so anything’s possible!

Anyway, on to the games. I’ll be on Crunch Time about an hour before lock with TJ and Will, so tune into that for final takes.

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NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, October 25

Slate Overview

• 5-game main slate
  - 7:00 PM ET – Chicago Bulls at Orlando Magic
  - 7:30 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Atlanta Hawks
  - 7:30 PM ET – Charlotte Hornets at Philadelphia 76ers
  - 8:00 PM ET – Indiana Pacers at Memphis Grizzlies
  - 9:00 PM ET – Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

News Updates

Here’s where I’ll provide news updates throughout the afternoon.

Team Previews

Chicago Bulls (at ORL)

The Bulls will be in action for the second time on the season after an opening-night win over the Pistons. They’re listed as 6.5-point underdogs in Orlando against a Magic team playing the latter half of a back-to-back. Coby White and Zach Collins remain sidelined for Chicago. Tre Jones is expected to start again in place of White.

The Magic were a brutal matchup for fantasy production over the past couple of years, but they’ve committed to playing at a faster pace this season. I still expect them to be capable defensively, but the quicker pace naturally means more opportunities overall. Jones (1.17 FP/minute) was very productive overall with White off the floor last season, and he topped 31 minutes on opening night. $5,600 on FanDuel is a fair salary, but he’s likely too cheap for the role at $4,500 on DK. Josh Giddey (33.2%) and Nikola Vucevic (25.5%) predictably led Chicago in usage in the opener. I’m not thrilled with the matchup against the Magic, but I also feel like both players look a bit underpriced at their sub-$9,000 salaries with so much usage available on this team. Giddey will likely be the higher-owned player of the two.

I’m excited to see what Matas Buzelis can do in Year 2, but we’re not getting much of a discount at his $6,000+ salaries on both sites. He is still a solid GPP play, though, as his minutes should be consistent. Kevin Huerter and Ayo Dosunmu both have roles off the bench, but they’re large-field fliers at best.

Orlando Magic (vs. CHI)

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