Starting 5 - Trending Stats Watch: Thursday, March 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 Trending Stats Watch tool. Tonight’s slate is one of the harder slates to write up because there are so many obvious plays. So I’ll keep it simple and use this tool to show who has seen the biggest increase in the fantasy point production over the last week.
Point Guard: Russell Westbrook (OKC)
At this point, I don’t think it’s possible to fade Westbrook on any slate. Two games or 13 games, he’s going to be in my lineups until KD gets back. He will be looking to put up his fifth straight triple-double tonight and you just know that is going to be in the back of his mind if he gets close. The Bulls backcourt has no chance at slowing down Westy tonight.
Shooting Guard: Tony Snell (CHI)
Tony Snell has been the main beneficiary of the Jimmy Butler injury. He is playing all the minutes that he can handle. The increase in minutes has seen his fantasy point production rise nearly 10 points per game.
Snell has scored in double figures in five straight games and that streak will extend to six after tonight’s game. You can’t beat that for only $3,800 on FanDuel.
Small Forward: Al-Farouq Aminu (DAL)
Richard Jefferson has been starting and playing more minutes than Aminu with Chandler Parsons sidelined due to injury. However, Aminu has still been the better fantasy point producer as shown by his 9.37 increase over the last week.
Parsons has already been ruled out for tonight’s game, so I expect Aminu to excel in what should be a high-pace, high-scoring game.
Power Forward: Nikola Mirotic (CHI)
Nikola Mirotic is another guy that has been playing heavy minutes on the injury-depleted Bulls. His price has bumped up to $4,700 but that is still a bargain for his upside.
Mirotic is averaging over 6x his salary this week and that production should continue tonight as long as he is in the lineup. Just keep an eye on his status, as he battled through a shoulder injury in their last game.
Center: Joakim Noah (CHI)
The Bulls offense is running through Noah a lot more with Rose and Butler out. His fantasy point production has increased by 8.96 points over the last week.
Noah has been flirting with triple-doubles recently and he has another solid chance at one tonight in his matchup with the defensive swinging gate that is Enes Kanter.
Hopefully this information helps you with your roster construction tonight and leads you to a nice score. As always feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on twitter, @Socky21.