NBA Starting 5: Wednesday, November 9th
Tonight is a nice full eleven game slate. We have six teams (Minnesota, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Phoenix, Portland and Dallas) on the second half of a back-to-back, so I will try my best to avoid players on those teams until we get further into the season when I will have a larger sample size of data to evaluate.
Today, I’m going to continue to discuss how I can quickly glance at two of the Research Tools available to identify good situations for my starting five. First, I always browse the Salary Charts tool to see if I can identify some players that DraftKings has priced lower than FanDuel and I can therefore take advantage of the better pricing. I will then click the Advanced Player Stats tool and focus on their USG%. It’s also nice to glance the peripheral stat percentages available to see if I can expect peripheral points.
Point Guard: Kemba Walker, Charlotte Hornets, $7,000
Right off the bat I can see that Kemba is priced $1000 lower on DK than FanDuel which is great news as I always love Kemba at home. This is a scary matchup for sure as it’s against the Jazz – a team I’m usually looking to avoid. Charlotte has been looking to increase the pace this year and I’m looking for them to set the tone at home. I also like the fact that most will be avoiding this game entirely. Walker is sporting an almost 30% USG and is adding assists and steals at a nice rate. He always has great home/road splits and looks like he’s making a bid for an All Star selection. He may not go for 24 pts and 10 assists like last game, but does get a boost if George Hill is out. Even though the matchup is not ideal, I’m comfortable playing him tonight.
Shooting Guard: DeMar Derozan, Toronto Raptors, $8,000
I do like James Harden tonight, but I think you need to give strong consideration to DDR. He is priced $800 lower on DK and his 35% USG is just barely below Harden’s. He is currently 5th in the league in field goal attempts and scoring at will. Everyone keeps fading him and that is just fine with me, as I will keep playing until he proves me otherwise. I’ve been watching him very closely and I think his role on offense this year is for real. Fit him in and have fun listening to everybody say that he can’t possibly keep this up.
Small Forward: Tobias Harris, Detroit Pistons, $6,000
Tobias is priced similarly on both sites, but I love being able to get to play him at the small forward position on DK. Pistons have been struggling as of late, but get a tasty matchup against Phoenix who is on a B2B. The Suns rank 26th and 28th in DVP versus the SF and PF, respectively. This game has a decent 206-point total and I look for the Pistons to come out with great energy. Tobias should be able to exploit this matchup and get back on track with a big game.
Power Forward: Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers, $8,200
Blake is priced $300 lower on DK and gets a prime matchup with Portland who is on the second half of a B2B. The Blazers will be thin at PF as they Al-Farouq Aminu will be out tonight leaving Moe Harkless (also a nice play) to match up against Griffin. This game has a juicy 209-point total and we always like to play bigs versus Portland who currently rank 18th in DVP versus the power forward. Blake currently has 27% USG and in his last game he put up 13 pts, 10 rebs, and 9 asts in just 28 minutes. I’m calling a triple-double tonight.
Center: Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves, $8,500
KAT is $200 cheaper on DK and will probably be overlooked tonight since he’s playing on the second half of a B2B and Andre Drummond is sure to soak up ownership with his matchup against the Suns at a lower price. Because of his youth and athleticism I’m not too worried about the B2B in this situation. Towns does have a dream spot against Orlando who currently rank 28th in DVP against the Center position. He should matchup against Nikola Vucevic who we all know is not in there for his defense and Towns’ true usage percentage has increased to a respectable 26%. There have been rumblings about Bismack Biyombo possibly getting the start over Vuc, so if that gets announced I may switch to Drummond, but as it stands now I think KAT could absolutely go off in this spot.