NBA Starting 5: Saturday, November 5th
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: Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
Chris Paul in a big-game matchup for under $9k is certainly a situation to target. His big game last night might bump his ownership slightly, but I still like him for tournaments. He has gone for over 40 FanDuel points in four of his five games so far this season, and somehow this is his lowest price to date. I also wouldn’t be concerned about the game being on the road either. CP3 played in San Antonio twice last season and went over 40 FanDuel points in both contests.
Shooting Guard: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Detroit Pistons
KCP has shaken off the early season rust and gone for at least 28 FanDuel points in his last three games. He’s locked into heavy minutes, because that’s just what Stan Van Gundy does. Minutes equals opportunity, and the opportunity for steals is where it’s at for KCP in this game. The Nuggets have one of the highest turnover rates so far this season at 18 per game. KCP should be able to crush value with the 12-14 shots and 3-4 steals that I’m expecting tonight.
Small Forward: Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs
I love Kawhi tonight. He’s is still just way too cheap. He also has over a 30 percent usage rate, which is even higher than Lebron’s. The Clippers are a dumpster fire at small forward, and I just don’t see them having any kind of answer for Kawhi on defense. I really like the Kawhi/CP3 stack in tournaments, as people might shy away from the lower Vegas over/under.
Power Forward: Gorgui Dieng, Minnesota Timberwolves
My 100 percent Dieng from Thursday night still stings, but I’m sure a lot of people will write Dieng off tonight because of it, which means this is a great spot for us to hop back on the Dieng train. The Dieng train? Can we make that a thing now? Dieng has the advantage versus the rookie Domantas Sabonis, and the defensive sieve that is Enes Kanter. Look for Dieng to get back into his 30+ FanDuel point groove again tonight.
Center: Jusuf Nurkic, Denver Nuggets
The public perception still seems to be that Drummond is a good defender, and that just isn’t the case. He’s frequently out of position and lacks effort at times. This makes for a great spot for Nurkic. I wouldn’t be too concerned about Nurkic raking up the fouls either, as so many of Drummond’s points are off rebounds and being set up by his teammates. Nurkic should be able to avoid fouling Drummond in these situations. I would still be hesitant to roll Nurkic out in cash, but he’s a full go for me in tournaments, as he could be a top-three scoring center tonight.
Starting your FanDuel lineup with these five guys will leave you with an average of $6450 left per player. That’s more than enough to fit in Westbrook or Harden with a few other value guys.
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.