Starting 5 - Ceiling and Consistency: Sunday, March 15th
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 have found this tool useful in uncovering trends that may have escaped my notice. I will generally look at this every couple days and I like to toggle back and forth between the last week and the last three week data sets. For today’s analysis, I am looking at DraftKings scoring. Exactly as the name implies, this tool helps identify consistency (aka solid floor) and upside potential through a lens you may not normally utilize.
Point Guard: Alexey Shved, NYK at PHO – $5,800
Over his last four games, Shved has been terrific. He has lead the team in scoring (at DEN), rebounding (at LAL) and assists (at UTA) and last night he posted 33.5 DK points in just 21 minutes. That is some outstanding production. Along the way, he has reached 5x value in three of those games and 6x in two. Tonight’s matchup with Phoenix is a good one and I have no problem utilizing Shved in my cash games.
Shooting Guard: Danny Green, SAS vs MIN – $5,400
Looking at the three-week snapshot, we can see that Green is averaging 25.9 fantasy points per game and that he has reached 4x value in seven of nine games and 6x value in two.
This helps confirm my speculation that Green has terrific tournament upside and in most games he won’t torpedo your entries if he has an average game for him, which is just under 5x value on today’s price.
Small Forward: Danilo Gallinari, DEN at NO – $6,000
Gallinari is going to be in an excellent spot today with so many of his teammates already announced as out (Wilson Chandler, Randy Foye and Darrell Arthur) so he is going to be very popular with everyone. Over his last dozen games, he has put up 5x value in six and 6x value or better in three. In that span, he has averaged 29 fantasy points per game and I can see him getting a few extra shots which should boost him into the 6x range and potentially higher.
Power Forward: Anthony Davis, NO vs DEN – $11,000
Davis has been phenomenal over his last five games averaging nearly 60 fantasy points per outing… the really nice thing is his floor. As you can see, his lowest game has been 42.5 DraftKings points. He did leave last Tuesday’s game early with a potential concussion, but he was cleared. That was the last game the Pellies played, so he should be safe to employ versus a severely overmatched Denver squad.
Center: Jordan Hill, LAL vs ATL – $5,700
Hill has been very steady over his last ten games with a 26.3 DraftKings point average. He has a solid floor having achieved 4x value in seven contests and 5x in three. Combine this information with his good matchup on tap with the Atlanta Hawks tonight, and you have a sneaky differentiation play for your cash game lineups.