NBA Starting 5: Saturday, January 28th
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: Ricky Rubio
Ricky Rubio gets a juicy matchup versus the Brooklyn Nets tonight. The Wolves are favored by 11, but we all know Thibs plays his starters big minutes regardless of blowouts, which means Rubio should see his normal 33-35 minutes against a Nets backcourt that can’t stop anyone. A points and assists double-double is certainly in the cards for Rubio tonight, and he offers 40+ FanDuel points upside for under $7k. He’s in play in all formats for me.
Shooting Guard: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
KCP returned from injury and promptly played 37 minutes against the Kings. I expect the same tonight against the Heat, as he has had four days off to rest up since that game. The Heat’s defense or pace should not scare you off of KCP tonight. KCP is averaging 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists through two previous matchups with the Heat this season. If he hits his season averages tonight, he will far exceed his salary, which is still below $6k.
Small Forward: Bojan Bogdanovic
Bojan has now scored 17 points in back-to-back games, so the Nets will be looking for him to keep his scoring pace going tonight. Lopez should be back in this game as well, which should take some of the defensive focus away from Bojan. With that said, Bojan is still more of a GPP play for me tonight, as he has shown 30-FanDuel-point upside but could also get you single digits. If you want a safer cash game play in the same range, then take a look at Andre Iguodala. It’s rare for Iggy to get you over 30 FanDuel points, but he’s consistently in the low to mid-20s range.
Power Forward: Derrick Favors
Some people will probably shy away from Favors due to the matchup with the Grizzlies’ tough frontcourt. I will not be one of those people, though. His price is just too cheap, and given the difficult matchup, the Jazz are likely to need Favors’ offense more than ever tonight. I’m expecting him to be back in the 27-28 minute range tonight to compete with the Green and Zbo. At $4,400 and a near lock for double-digit shot attempts, it’s going to be hard not to have Favors in my lineups tonight.
Center: Zaza Pachulia
Rounding out the Starting 5 is Warriors’ All-Star snub ZaZa Pachulia. Just kidding. The NBA All-Star voting is such a joke, but I digress. The Warriors are facing the Clippers tonight and Zaza will be needed for at least 20 minutes of banging down low with DeAndre Jordan. If we look at ZaZa’s player card on RotoGrinders, we see that he has gone for 5x in nine of his last 13 games. He’s not going to get you much more than 5x, but he makes for a solid cash game play at this price and matchup.
Note: Pay attention to the Hassan Whiteside news. If Whiteside sits, Willie Reed becomes mega chalk again at only $100 more than Zaza.
Starting your FanDuel lineup with these five guys will leave you with an average of $8,650 left per player.
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.