Starting 5 - DvP Cheat Sheet: Thursday, March 12th
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 DvP Cheat Sheet tool. This tool gives us an easy to read, color-coded chart on how each team ranks versus a specific position. You can view by season rankings or by the last three weeks. I almost always use the last three weeks, as recent trends can help us find values that season-long statistics may hide.
Point Guard: Kyrie Irving (CLE)
This is the game to target tonight, as the over/under is 16 points higher than the next highest game of the night. It’s also an even spread, so all the stars should be playing right down to the final seconds. Tony Parker has been on a tear offensively, but his defense is still porous at best as the Spurs rank 24th versus point guards over the last three weeks.
That puts Kyrie right in my crosshairs for tournaments. Whenever you can get someone with 50-point upside for under $8,000 on FanDuel, you should jump at that chance. Kyrie should be a bit more involved tonight as well with LeBron having to deal with the defense of Kawhi Leonard.
Shooting Guard: Danny Green (SA)
Danny Green has been inconsistent this season, but he has picked up his play lately. He is now shooting 52% from three since February 25th and has gone for at least 5x his salary in four of the last five games.
Even if Manu is feeling better tonight, Green should still be in line for around 30 minutes, which should allow him to pay off his $5,300 price tag.
Small Forward: Joe Ingles (UTA)
Gordon Hayward is still dealing with a lower back strain, so I doubt he plays tonight. Ingles played 36 minutes last game in Hayward’s absence, and I suspect that the same will happen tonight. At only $3,700, Ingles has a good chance to go 6-7x his salary in a pace-up game versus the Rockets.
Power Forward: Luis Scola (IND)
Roy Hibbert is probably going to sit tonight. That should bump Scola’s minutes up to the 24-26 range. Scola has shown that he has 30 fantasy point upside with that amount of time on the floor. The Bucks have been the worst team against power forwards over the last three weeks, largely in part to Ersan Ilyasova. I like Scola to take advantage of this elite matchup tonight.
Center: Rudy Gobert (UTA)
I’m loving the “Stifle Tower” tonight. The Rockets’ frontcourt is undersized without Dwight Howard, so Gobert should be able to create havoc on the interior with his length. He is also averaging over 36 minutes per game through five games in the month of March.
His $7,700 price tag is still much too low based on his recent production. Gobert going 5x his salary seems like a lock tonight with the potential to post a mid 40’s fantasy point line. The matchup with Houston just makes him that much more appealing, and he’ll likely be heavily owned on this short slate on Thursday.