Yahoo NBA Expert Picks: Thursday, February 8th

Each day when there are two or more NBA games, our daily fantasy basketball experts will provide their top plays for Yahoo. These picks will help you find the best values and top overall plays to build a foundation for all types of contests. Our top-ranked experts will also provide the reasons for their picks, so you can make informed decisions when setting your lineups.

Thursday, February 8th

Tonight, we have a six game slate to choose from with no teams on the second half of a back-to-back. Let’s have a look at some of my favorite plays for the slate.

Point Guard

PG: Dennis Schroder, Atlanta Hawks, $26 – This is sure to be an interesting slate with more trade news soon to come in and with the injury news and potential resting of players. The slate kind of hinges on the availability of Russell Westbrook, as he’s currently questionable, but for now the first point guard that stands out to me is Dennis Schroder. The price is simply too cheap for a player of his caliber in this matchup. Both teams don’t play very much defense, as the Hawks rank 24th and Magic 27th in defensive rating. The game has just a 1.5-point spread and a nice 213.5-point total, so hopefully this game will be competitive. The matchup is elite, as the Magic rank 30th in DVP vs. the point guard position and rank towards the very bottom of the league in twos, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks allowed to opposing point guards. Coach Bud can be frustrating at times and the Hawks are often involved in blowouts, but Schroder leads the team with 31.3 minutes per game and 30.4% usage. He’s also a 1.09 fantasy point per minute player, so if you work off just average minutes and factor in this matchup, he appears to be a steal tonight.

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About the Author

kirkdiese
Chris Kirkwood (kirkdiese)

Chris Kirkwood (aka kirkdiese) graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in Economics. He’s been steadily climbing the DFS rankings since 2014, and in 2015, decided to pursue it full time. A 2016 FanDuel WFBC finalist and 2019 DraftKings FBWC runner-up ($350,000 prize), Chris is consistently one of the top-ranked Grinders in the industry. He considers NBA, MLB, and MMA his best DFS sports and makes a habit of watching every NBA game with his dog Phil (named after Phil Ivey). Follow Chris on Twitter – @Kirkdiese