NBA Starting 5: Saturday, March 25th
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 four 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
Rubio is coming off a 50 burger against the Lakers, which is his second 50+ FanDuel-point game in his last six. Now, he gets a plus matchup against the Blazers, who are one of the worst in the league at defending the point guard position. Rubio has looked like a different player in the month of March, as he’s scoring 16 points per game while averaging just under 11 assists. I would expect a similar output tonight in what should be a close, high-paced game in Portland.
Shooting Guard: Seth Curry
Curry has been hit or miss lately, but I’m willing to take the risk at only $5300. It helps that the Mavs want to take a longer look at Curry as a point guard. He excelled in his first test, as he dropped 23 points in a win versus Chris Paul and the Clippers a few nights ago. Tonight’s matchup with the Raptors is a solid one, too. They give up almost 10 assists per game to the point guard position, so Curry should see a few extra opportunities to make plays for his teammates. Curry is in play in all formats for me tonight given his floor as a point guard and his ceiling as a shooter who can get hot.
Small Forward: Bojan Bogdanovic
Bogdanovic hasn’t played the Cavs as a member of the Wizards yet, but he did have two big games against them when he was with the Nets. Small forward has been a position to target against the Cavs defense, and that won’t stop tonight. Like they did last night, they Wizards might start to spread out their players’ minutes as the season winds down. They are essentially locked into the 3/4 seed, so it’s probably worth it to them to start getting players some rest before the playoffs. All this benefits Bogdanovich, as he will be in the 24-28 minute range on most nights. He has scored in double figures in 10 of his last 11 games, and I’ll be banking on him adding another double-digit outing to that total tonight.
Bojan is going to sit so look at PJ Tucker or Evan Turner at similar price points.
Power Forward: Gorgui Dieng
The Blazers allow over two blocks per game to the power forward position, and Dieng is coming off a three-block game against the Lakers. The Blazers are also just a middle-of-the-road rebounding team, so all of Dieng’s strengths should be on display tonight. In his only matchup with the Blazers earlier this year, he put up 28.8 FanDuel points. At only $5000, Dieng is just to cheap for this matchup, and he has the ability to go for 6-7x tonight.
Center: Jusuf Nurkic
The matchup with KAT isn’t optimal, but Nurkic has now gone for double-doubles in three straight games even while battling foul trouble. Foul trouble is a real concern tonight, but Nurkic is really the only other center with KAT-like upside. My guess is that the masses will flock to KAT and Nerlens Noel, who are probably the better cash game options, which could allow you access to lower ownership on Nurkic in tournaments.
Starting your FanDuel lineup with these five guys will leave you with an average of $7,950 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.