NBA Starting 5 (GPP): Friday, January 12th
The Starting 5 Series will provide Grinders a quick look at the day’s top positional plays, as analyzed by one of our daily fantasy sports experts.
Friday, January 12th
Happy Friday, Grinders! Welcome to the Friday edition of the NBA Starting 5 series! Fridays offer us solid slate sizes and large DFS tournaments, so it is a great day to analyze the NBA from a GPP perspective.
Let’s take a look at five of my favorite tournament plays of the day. For reference, I will be using DraftKings pricing throughout the article.
Point Guard: Spencer Dinwiddie, Brooklyn Nets – $6,600
Tonight’s slate should be a high scoring one, as all nine games have opened with overall Vegas totals of at least 206 points. This should be a fun DFS night. Please keep in mind that these are tournament-focused picks. There will sometimes be some duds in this article, but the nature of GPP play is looking for the highest possible upside for those nights when your roster hits on all cylinders. Based upon reading the comments on last week’s article, I get the sense that some people are blindly using these picks for cash games. Be careful with that. There are some risk/reward plays in here that could very much bust (Kyle Kuzma last Friday, for example). Just be mindful that most of my content generally comes from a GPP perspective. Andy Means does a great job with cash-focused articles with his “core plays,” so check that out if you are a premium subscriber!
Anyhow, let’s get things rolling tonight with Spencer Dinwiddie. While we generally focus a lot on taking players against the Nets, it’s easy to forget that perhaps we can sometimes target a guy from the Nets. They draw a decent matchup against the Hawks tonight, as Atlanta ranks in the top half of the league in pace, they rank in the bottom half in DvP against point guards, and they rank 26th in overall defensive efficiency. Dinwiddie has also been playing well of late. Outside of a dud in a blowout loss to the Pistons the other night, he had scored 26, 20, and 31 actual points in his previous three games, while playing at least 36 minutes in all of them. Brooklyn is often a team where we can’t trust the minutes for the starters, but Dinwiddie is the safest play of the group. He’s a great GPP option that will likely get overlooked on this slate.
Shooting Guard: Gerald Green, Houston Rockets – $5,500
This is definitely one of those risk/reward picks that could make or break your lineup tonight. Gerald Green is not for the faint of heart. Let that serve as another reminder that he may not be the best cash game selection. However, if we take his potential into consideration, I love the upside.
Let’s take this piece by piece. First, Green has been seeing a healthy dose of minutes with James Harden on the sidelines. Despite not having a starting role, Green is averaging 30 minutes per game in the month of January (since Harden went down). Second, Green is a perfect fit for this Houston offense. He is a volume shooter that isn’t shy about letting it fly from downtown. Lastly, the Rockets have a fantastic matchup here against the Suns. On a night that is full of high scoring games, this one takes the cake with a 227 projected total. Houston has a mammoth team total of 117 themselves. These two teams both like to run, as they each rank inside the top eight in the NBA in pace. Fire up Green as an elite upside option in tournament formats.
Small Forward: T.J. Warren, Phoenix Suns – $6,200
You will sense a theme in these tournament picks tonight. If the Rockets/Suns game stays close, I love the potential it provides from a DFS perspective. There are affordable plays with upside on both sides, and let’s not forget about the Phoenix side. T.J. Warren missed a game due to injury last week, but he has returned and hasn’t missed a beat. He seems to be co-existing nicely with Devin Booker, as Warren has averaged 23.4 actual points per game over his last nine contests, and he has attempted at least 14 shots in every game during that span. Houston will likely focus most of their defensive attention on Booker, which could open up some additional shot attempts for Warren.
While I like Warren regardless of any other circumstances, the $6,200 price point on DraftKings is particularly appealing. He should be priced at a higher level than that. Take advantage of the friendly up tempo matchup and the favorable price as you set your lineups on this Friday.
Power Forward: Dragan Bender, Phoenix Suns – $4,300
Let’s keep the ball rolling with another player from the Houston/Phoenix game. This one is probably the most obvious pick of the night, and I would be comfortable using Dragan Bender in both cash games and tournaments. This is simply a matter of opportunity. Marquese Chriss, who has been playing pretty well in his own right, has already been ruled out for tonight. After Chriss left the last game due to injury, Bender picked up the slack and played a whopping 39 minutes off the bench in a big win over the Thunder. In that game, he scored 20 points, grabbed six rebounds, dished out four assists, and also blocked three shots. He is a big man who is also capable of shooting from the outside, and he profiles nicely in a matchup against the Rockets. While Chriss has gotten all the attention of late, Bender has also been playing pretty well off the bench. He will start tonight and has tons of upside at this affordable price. Take advantage of the discount.
Center: DeMarcus Cousins, New Orleans Pelicans – $10,800
Given all the affordable picks I have thrown out there so far, you should have some salary available to spend up somewhere. Enter DeMarcus Cousins. Anthony Davis is still up in the air for this game, but we all know how much uncertainty Davis brings to the table, especially coming off injury. Cousins should still be a focal point of the offense even if Davis comes back tonight, and the $10,800 tag on DraftKings is very reasonable.
While it is understandable to be concerned about a matchup against a Portland squad that has been strong defensively against the center position this year, I am not all that concerned. Cousins racked up 38 points and eight rebounds in the previous meeting between these teams this season, and it’s worth noting that was also a game where Davis was sidelined. Cousins is a physical mismatch on the interior, and Portland will have trouble slowing him down, regardless of whether Davis is in there or not. There’s plenty of upside to seek here.
Good luck tonight, everyone!