NBA Starting 5 (GPP): Friday, November 24th

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, November 24th

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: Kemba Walker, Charlotte Hornets – $8,200

Kemba Walker is enjoying a fine season for the Hornets, and there’s nothing to indicate that he will slow down tonight. Nicolas Batum is questionable for this game, so Walker might be tasked with controlling the offense even more. The Charlotte point guard could very well be on his way to his best season of his NBA career, and he isn’t getting enough national attention for his production. Walker leads the team in usage, and he has posted a lot of solid games in the process. Cleveland ranks near the bottom of the league in point guard defense, and Walker also ranks 16th in the NBA in minutes per game. He is a lock and load as one of the highest upside options at point guard this evening.

Shooting Guard: Will Barton, Denver Nuggets – $6,000

Will Barton has done a little bit of everything for the Nuggets this year. He has run the point at times. He has played the two guard position at times. He has played small forward in lineups where the Nuggets go small. That scenario might happen a little more often now that Paul Millsap is going to be sidelined for an extended period, so Barton should continue to see 30+ minutes on a regular basis. He generally puts up solid numbers when given the opportunity, and I would not expect that to change tonight despite a generally difficult matchup against the Grizzlies.

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As I touched on above, the all around upside is what is most appealing here. Barton can handle the ball when the point guards are out of the game, he can play off guard at times, and he can roll at forward in smaller lineups. Even though he doesn’t have the most clearly defined role, he is extremely valuable to this team, and the $6,000 price tag is very reasonable for his talent and role. Fire him up with confidence in tournament formats tonight.

Small Forward: Josh Richardson, Miami Heat – $4,500

This one is very risky, but sometimes you have to be a little frisky in order to win a tournament. Please keep in mind that this play is definitely not a safe one, so I am strictly talking GPP here. Josh Richardson continues to start for the Heat, but he did not make a basket in 30 minutes of playing time in the last contest. The good news is that the minutes still seem to be there. The bad news is that the floor is very low. However, there isn’t a lot of slam dunk value on tonight’s slate at first glance, so everyone will likely be taking some risk with their value selections. In those instances, I like to rely on minutes and upside, and Richardson does have a handle on both of those elements. Hopefully, the poor game the other night will wake him up, and his presence will be needed against the solid wings for Minnesota. All he needs is about 20-25 fantasy points to pay off this price tag, and I think he can get there in this one.

Power Forward: John Collins, Atlanta Hawks – $4,800

After that last risky pick, we will keep it rolling with another risk/reward selection, albeit one that will be significantly more popular. Collins drew his first career start the other night and did not disappoint, racking up 14 points, 10 rebounds, and four steals with the Hawks extremely thin in the frontcourt. The per-minute production has been there all year; it has just been the fouls that have been an issue. If Collins can stay out of foul trouble, he is capable of routine 35-40 fantasy point games with the upside for more. He will draw another start this evening with both Luke Babbitt and Mike Muscala out, and he played 38 minutes on Wednesday. The sky is the limit, and even though he will be massive chalk on DraftKings at a ridiculously cheap price tag of $4,800, I will not be fading Collins here.

Center: Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies – $7,900

The Memphis offense revolves around Tyreke Evans and Marc Gasol with Mike Conley on the shelf, and that is not going to change anytime soon. Gasol brings a nice combination of floor and upside to the table, as he has logged at least 30 fantasy points in every game since Conley went down. He also showed off his upside on a few occasions with a 70 fantasy point outburst against Indiana and a 19/12/7 line against the Blazers. He will need to be a force on the interior against Nikola Jokic, and this should be a fun matchup. Gasol is locked in as a top play at center again tonight. The floor/upside combination is very appealing in all contest formats.

Good luck tonight, everyone!

About the Author

stlcardinals84
Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84)

Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84) is a longtime RotoGrinders contributor and show host. He’s appeared in numerous Live Finals, has logged countless 6-figure wins in a host of different sports (including 5 in PGA), and is a former DFS Writer of the Year Nominee by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. You can find Justin’s ‘Covering The Bases’ series on weekends during the MLB season. He is also a main contributor of sports betting picks at our sister site, ScoresAndOdds, and is a co-host on the RotoGrinders Game Night show on SiriusXM. Follow Justin on Twitter – @stlcardinals84