NBA Starting 5 (GPP): Friday, January 20th
What is up everyone? Welcome back to another edition of NBA GPP Starting 5. Talk about just a crazy NBA season up to this point. I have never been a huge fan of resting players and giving them nights off. I understand that teams pay these players a good amount of money and see them as an investment. All I am going to say is that you cannot predict injuries; you can help to prevent them, but you truly will never know when a freak play can happen. Sorry about the rant; I’m just confused how normal this has become in the NBA.
I got back on track last week and went four out of five, but that is not what I wanted. I still want to continue that streak I had of going five for five. Hopefully I can repeat that success here and get to the golden five for five that we all love to see. As usual, these picks are tournament only unless stated otherwise. Today we have a nice nine-game slate, so let’s take a look.
Point Guard: Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers – $8,500 on DraftKings
Trust me everyone, I was doing everything in my willpower not to have Lillard as one of my picks, but I can’t do it! If I am going to have high exposure to someone and have valid reasoning behind it, I am going to pick him. Tonight’s slate has a lot of good point guards, but as usual I love attacking pricing. Lillard is underpriced here and has 50+ DK-point upside. We will most likely get him at low ownership, and Lillard has been playing better as of late, averaging 43 DraftKings points in his last three games. What makes it even better is two of those three games turned in to blowouts, thus taking minutes away from him.
The Trail Blazers continue their road trip and head to Philadelphia to take on the 76ers in what surprisingly will be a good game. Both teams have something to play for here. The 76ers are looking to continue their recent success and Portland is looking to finally win a game in what has become a disappointing season. The 76ers are middle of the pack against point guards and Lillard has tournament upside we all want, so I will be jumping on the bandwagon early before everyone else does.
Shooting Guard: Lou Williams, Los Angeles Lakers – $4,600
Does everyone remember this year when Lou Williams was reaching that $7,000 price tag on some sites? Williams is the definition of a player that you play while he has the hot hand, and Luke Walton does the same with his rotations. Granted Walton does scare me a little bit, but Lou has been playing way too well as of late to worry about rotations. He grades as an awesome tournament play at his lowered salary. His ownership will be a little higher due to his recent level of production.
The Lakers will host the Indiana Pacers, who are coming off a nice win in Sacramento. The Pacers have not been great on the defensive end though, and also have been pretty poor against the shooting guard position. Lou has shot 24 free throws in his last four games, which is a stat that I love. Any time you can score points when the clock isn’t even running will only help your upside in the DFS world. Now, throw in that he has almost been shooting 50% in his last two games from the field, and it makes Williams even more appealing.
Small Forward: Paul George, Indiana Pacers – $7,600
Pauly-Paul George, what am I going to do with you? I play you and you continue to do worse and worse, and then you let me down again in Sacramento. Now you have an extremely plus matchup in Los Angeles and should totally redeem yourself! All jokes aside, Paul George is not having the season that we all expected and his usage rate has gone down as of late. He came up big in the fourth quarter against the Kings though, so I will hope he can continue off that here. His price just continues to drop and that continues to increase my interest more and more.
This play could not be emphasized enough as tournament only, with not a ton of true, hard stats to back it up. There is one thing on his side though: an extremely plus matchup against one of the fastest-paced teams in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the worst teams in the league against the small forward position and continue to allow a ton of points each and every night. George has the upside we want and is coming off a game in which he shot over 50% from the field. I will be taking a shot on Paul George here in my tournament lineups.
Power Forward: Jabari Parker, Milwaukee Bucks – $6,900
This definitely comes in as one of my riskier plays, given his recent level of production. That is what some would think, but surprisingly he has been playing very well, but everything does not always show up on the stat sheet. The Bucks are on a three-game losing streak, so you can assume it will be all hands on deck for Jason Kidd and that he will continue to ride Jabari and Greek. In his last two games, Jabari has shot over 10 free throws and attempted over 15 shots in each. If he gets up his peripheral stats, he will pay off very nicely, and he does have good steal and block upside as well.
The Bucks head to Orlando to take on the Magic, who have been surprisingly poor against the power forward position. The Magic as a team have allowed almost 105 points per game to opposing offensives. Jabari Parker has shown his upside this season, but hasn’t reached the 40-point mark in his last five games, so his ownership will likely be low. Now that we have gotten to a price point that I am comfortable targeting him at, it only makes everything that much better.
Center: Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies – $7,200
This probably was my easiest pick of the five. Gasol is having another season in which he just gets it done on any given night, and he is as consistent as they come. Most will be scared away by his matchup with Boogie, but I do see them starting Koufos here. In Gasol’s last two games he has made value with ease, and if the Grizzlies want to have any shot at winning on most nights, Gasol has to be on the floor as much as possible. This season he is not afraid to take shots from deep which can get you that DK bonus we all love, especially at the center position.
The Grizzlies take on the Sacramento Kings, who have been mediocre against the center position. This is another spot that Gasol should reach value with and ease, and as you all know, I love some consistency at the center position. Gasol also has upside in the assists department, dishing out 23 in his last four games. We are getting him at a $1,000 discount here, so take it while you can.