Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Thursday, October 30th

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2025-10-30 22:25:31 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? 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 Thursday!

It was close to a nice slate, but as I mentioned on Crunch Time last night, I never seem to get Cam Thomas right. I was going back and forth on him all show and ultimately put him in my main lineup on DraftKings. Four first-half fouls later, and I knew I was in trouble. I’m not sure there’s a worse feeling in DFS than bubbling in all of your contests. We all have those players that we can never seem to get right. For future reference, stay far away from Johnson when I like him and target him heavily when I’m fading him.

One RG member in Discord said he wanted to hear more dad jokes in this article. Obviously, I’m happy to oblige. This is always my go-to joke:

“Why can’t T-Rexes clap their hands?”

Everyone’s immediate answer is “because their arms are too short,” but alas, that is not the answer to this joke.

“Because they are all dead.”

Pure gold. Feel free to use it as your own. As Michael Scott from The Office once said, “It gets a laugh, like, a quarter of the time.”

With the dad joke out of the way, let’s dive into tonight’s 4-game slate.

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NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Thursday, October 30th

Slate Overview

• 4-game main slate
  - 7:00 pm ET – Orlando Magic at Charlotte Hornets
  - 8:00 pm ET – Golden State Warriors at Milwaukee Bucks
  - 8:00 pm ET – Washington Wizards at Oklahoma City Thunder
  - 8:30 pm ET – Miami Heat at San Antonio Spurs
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

News Updates

This section will be updated as injury news is released throughout the day.

Team Previews

Orlando Magic (at CHA)

We kick off tonight’s slate with the Magic, who are playing on the second half of a back-to-back. They travel to Charlotte to take on the Hornets, who are bottom 10 in 3-point percentage allowed, defensive rating, and points allowed per game. The Magic are small favorites and have a team total that is 8 points higher than their season average. They haven’t submitted their initial injury report yet, but we are expecting them to be without Jalen Suggs and Moe Wagner.

If Suggs does get the night off, Tyus Jones will likely draw the spot start at center. Despite only averaging 0.46 DK / 0.49 FD points this season, he’s excelled in spot starts throughout his career and is priced under $4,000 on both FanDuel and DraftKings. Desmond Bane has been held to 30 or fewer fantasy points in 4 straight games, but he’s only shooting 25% from the 3-point line. Charlotte really struggles to defend the 3-pointer, so this could be a nice buy-low spot on Bane.

Franz Wagner has seen downticks in usage and FP/min. production this season, yet he’s still rather expensive in DFS. I prefer taking the discount with Bane. Paolo Banchero leads the team in usage (28%) and has topped 44 fantasy points in 4 of 5 games. He’s a strong option in all formats tonight. Wendell Carter is cheap and only logged 12 minutes due to foul trouble last night. He should see 30 minutes in a pace-up game against the Hornets. Anthony Black and Tristan da Silva should both see minutes in the mid-20s off the bench.

Charlotte Hornets (vs. ORL)

The Hornets might not be a good basketball team, but they are a fun one to see on the schedule. They play at a fast pace and love to get into shootouts, which are great for NBA DFS. Tonight, they host the Magic, who have been a much better matchup for fantasy production this season. Orlando is 8th in pace and 18th in points allowed per game. Brandon Miller, Josh Green, Antonio Reeves, KJ Simpson, and Grant Williams have all been ruled out.

LaMelo Ball is a lot of things (and potentially the reason why every kid is saying 6-7 all the time), but consistent is not one of them. He’s not a player that we should be targeting in cash games, but his ceiling always puts him in play for tournaments. Collin Sexton has been terrific with the Hornets, averaging 1.14 DK / 1.10 FD points per minute. He’s one of the best mid-range options on the slate. After a slow start to the season, Kon Knueppel has scored 33 and 34 fantasy points in the last 2 games.

Miles Bridges is expensive, his per-minute numbers are down this season, and he doesn’t have my favorite matchup of the slate. He’s a full fade for me. Tre Mann is priced all the way down to $3,800 on DraftKings and should see minutes in the mid-20s off the bench. Ryan Kalkbrenner and Moussa Diabate continue to split the center minutes. While Kalkbrenner is projected for more minutes, Diabate has been better on a per-minute basis. Both are decent lineup fillers for tournaments.

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