NBA Starting 5: Saturday, November 19th
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
This is a perfect bounce-back game for Sergio, as he gets a matchup with the fastest-paced team in the league. His ownership will also be lower because of his epic dud last game. The Sixers are a middle-of-the-pack team in terms of pace, so this could be a track meet. It’s the perfect matchup for Sergio to do a little bit of everything while racking up the assists. He had 12 assists two games ago before his dud and is averaging over six assists on the season. This is a game where he could certainly make a push towards double-digit assists again, but six-plus is easily in play.
Shooting Guard: Bradley Beal
Beal returned against the Knicks and played 29 minutes. He should push the 30-minute mark again tonight, and I don’t mind the tougher matchup against the Heat for his price. Beal has a length advantage over Waiters that I think will pay dividends in this matchup. If Beal gets to his season averages, he will nearly meet value at $5300. If he has the 20+ point game that he is capable of, then he will give you a nice ceiling for his price.
Small Forward: Andrew Wiggins
20, 24, 21, 24. Those are Andrew Wiggins’ shot attempts in his last four games. He has also made nine threes in those four games. Wiggins adding the three-point shot to his game has turned him into a different player this season. He is really starting to show the signs of the star player the Wolves hoped they were getting in the Kevin Love trade. The matchup isn’t the best but it isn’t terrible either. The pace will be down, but the Grizzlies are only a middle of the pack team in defensive efficiency so far this season. Wiggins also has the highest usage rate of any small forward on the the slate at 29 percent. Durant is the next closest at 27 percent.
Power Forward: Ersan Ilyasova
I like Ersan tonight in the track meet against the Suns. At only $3900, he doesn’t have to do much to meet value, and I can certainly see him hitting 5-6x in the 24-28 minutes that he will get tonight. Ilyasova has taken double-digit shots in his last four game while also scoring in double figures in four of his last five games and averaging two three pointers per game. If Embiid plays, Ersan is a decent punt for cash. If Embiid sits, I would feel comfortable playing him in all formats.
Center: Cody Zeller
NOTE: Zeller has been ruled OUT for tonight.
Is Cody Zeller a thing now? It certainly looks that way. Especially given his price drop and recent performance. His price has dropped $700 in the last 10 days and he has been able to turn that into 7x and 8x performances over his last two. He gets another solid matchup tonight has the Pelicans play at a top 10 pace while sporting a middle of the road defensive efficiency. The Pelicans continue to give minutes to the cement footed Asik so Zeller will have that advantage for the likely 12-15 minutes that they are matched up together. At $4200, I could see Zeller going for 6-7x again tonight.
Starting your FanDuel lineup with these five guys will leave you with an average of $8650 left per player. At this point you can roster whatever remaining studs that you want.
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.