NBA Starting 5: Saturday, December 3rd
The Starting 5 Series will provide Grinders with a quick look at the day’s top positional plays, analyzed through the lens of our Daily Research Tools.
Today, we’ll take a closer look at the Ceiling and Consistency tool. I’ll sort by the last three weeks to see what players are performing well in relation to their FanDuel salary.
The Ceiling and Consistency tool shows you how often each player has hit their value based on that day’s salary. The percentage columns (%3x, %4x, etc) show the percentage of the time that particular player has hit that value multiplier. For example, if a player has a salary of $5,000, the %3x column will show the percentage of games in which he has scored at least 15 fantasy points ($5,000 divided by 1000, then multiplied by 3).
Point Guard: Sergio Rodriguez
Bayless is likely going to sit out again today. If he does, Sergio will be in play in all formats. The Celtics are traveling to Philly for a road back-to-back after last night’s tough fought win. This should hopefully allow the Sixers to keep it slightly competitive. If that happens, Sergio will get into the 28-minute range, which puts him in line for mid-20s FanDuel points with a chance to push towards 30. Embiid won’t be playing today either, so Sergio will have to do a bit more distributing on offense. He’s put up seven assists in three straight games, and I like his chances to hit that number again today.
Shooting Guard: Will Barton
Will Barton returned last night, logged 32 minutes and put up 32.9 FanDuel points. Tonight’s matchup in Utah is far less juicy than last night’s versus the Rockets, but at $4800, Barton is just too cheap. The Jazz are ranked first in DVP against shooting guards but Rodney Hood is out, which means that Barton will get old man Joe Johnson at times. This is a matchup that Barton can exploit for sure.
Small Forward: Andrew Wiggins
Wiggins dropped 29 on the Hornets just a few weeks ago and gets this nice matchup again tonight. MKG defense just hasn’t been the same this year as the Hornets rank 21st against small forwards on the season. This game also features a decent 209 total, so both teams should crack the century mark. Wiggins was $7300 just two weeks ago and fell back down to Earth at today’s $6000 price tag. These are great spots to profit on a player that appears to be back on the upswing after a few rough games.
Power Forward: Frank Kaminsky
This play isn’t for the faint of heart, as Kaminsky has put up back-to-back duds. He’s a tournament only play for sure. We do need to look back at the last time the Hornets played the Wolves, where Kaminsky dropped in 20 points en route to 34 FanDuel points. Kaminsky has still been starting; he’s just been struggling with his shot. He’s a shooter though, and shooters shoot. The Wolves are middle of the pack against power forwards, so fire up Frank The Tank in a few tournament lineups for a chance at 6-7x value.
Center: Hassan Whiteside
This is a great bounce-back spot for Whiteside after his tough matchup with Gobert. The Blazers have a solid core of young athletic bigs, but they still rank 23rd versus the center position. Whiteside faced the Blazers twice last season and went for 44 and 48 FanDuel points. The ceiling is even higher tonight as Whiteside is now a key piece in the Heat offense with Wade now in Chicago. Whiteside could certainly make a push towards 55-60 FanDuel points tonight, in which case he could outscore the next center by 10-15 points. Sometimes it’s those raw point totals that make the difference in winning and losing tournaments.
Starting your FanDuel lineup with these five guys will leave you with an average of $7,975 left per player. That’s more than enough for a few more studs on today’s slate.
Hopefully this information helps you with your roster construction today and leads you to a nice score. As always, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on Twitter, @Socky21.