Starting 5 - DvP: Friday, March 27th
The Starting 5 Series will provide Grinders a quick look at the day’s top positional plays, analyzed through the lens of our Daily Research Tools.
Once again, I’m going to use the RotoGrinders DvP tool to pour through this cumbersome 13-game slate to narrow down who I think are some of the top plays on DraftKings tonight.
As I’ve done before, I’m going to filter out the data based on the last three weeks, while also adding in some of my own analysis.
Point Guard: Jordan Clarkson, Los Angeles Lakers, $5300
The Raptors are a disaster defensively right now, and a downgrade from Kyle Lowry to Greivis Vasquez is certainly not going to right that ship. I certainly don’t think the Lakers are going to win tonight, but I also don’t think the Raptors are going to provide much resistance on the defensive end. Clarkson is the only Laker playing over 30 minutes consistently, and he’s really stepped his game up lately. He remains underpriced on DraftKings, and I love his matchup with the Raptors and their fifth-worst point guard defense over the past three weeks. Clarkson does see time at shooting guard as well, but the Raptors are eleventh-worst there, so I’m not too concerned. An underpriced player that’s trending upward combined with a very favorable matchup is always going to be a top play for me.
Shooting Guard: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Detroit Pistons, $5200
Speaking of underpriced players and good matchups, Pope should keep his recent strong play going against a Magic team that ranks third-worst against opposing shooting guards over the past three weeks. I don’t like KCP nearly as much if Greg Monroe plays, but I’m assuming he won’t since the Pistons have no reason to rush him back. Operating as mostly a spot-up shooter for a majority of the season, KCP is being more aggressive, scoring off the dribble, and looking a lot like the player the Pistons thought they were getting based on what he did in college. The days of KCP being a high-risk, volatile player are over, and I feel very comfortable rolling him in out in cash games and GPPs tonight.
Small Forward: Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs, $8100
I forget exactly where, but I wrote up Leonard the last time the Spurs played Dallas, and despite the rest of his team not showing up to play, Leonard scored 44.75 DraftKings points in 36 minutes. With Dallas ranked second-worst against opposing small forwards, there’s no reason not to expect a similar performance against a Mavericks team that has horrible wing defenders and no prayer of stopping Leonard. Leonard is always going to provide terrific numbers in rebounding, blocks, and steals, and when we’re presented with a situation where we can reasonably expect an uptick in scoring, we need to take advantage. He is one of the safest players in the entire NBA to roster, and even at $8100, he offers significant upside.
Power Forward: Derrick Favors, Utah Jazz, $8100
Even though Gordon Hayward is expected to play, I still really like Favors in a plus matchup against a very weak Denver interior. The Jazz are one of the slowest teams in the league, but Denver will forced them to play up in pace a bit, which is always nice for players on the slower team. Favors has been one of the more consistent fantasy options lately, and even though Hayward is going to take some usage away, I see no reason why he can’t meet or exceed 40 fantasy points tonight. He’s probably not the ideal GPP play, but he’s extremely safe for cash games.
Center: DeAndre Jordan, Los Angeles Clippers, $8300
The ranking are skewed a bit by the fact that DeMarcus Cousins dropped over 70 DraftKings points against the Sixers twice recently, but Philly has been awful against opposing centers all season, and the fact that they gave up those two monster performances is further proof that they cannot defend the position. Jordan has been trending upward lately, and his rebounding and blocked shot numbers have been very impressive.
Not only do the Sixers give up a ton of fantasy points to opposing centers, but they rank near the bottom of the league in terms of rebounds and blocked shots allowed. Much of Jordan’s fantasy value is derived from what he provides in those two categories, and high scoring numbers are generally just a bonus. There’s a good chance the Clippers run away with this one, but Jordan had no trouble posting over 40 points in 28 minutes in a blowout win over the Knicks. Expect similar numbers here, and big upside if he has to play in the fourth quarter.