Point Guard
Tony Parker ($4600, 21.1 USG) – Parker is having a down season by most people’s standards. With exception to his rookie year, he’s having career lows in nearly every major statistical category (12.8 points, 4.3 assists, 1.6 rebounds and 27.1 minutes), but shooting a career best .548% from the field. I get it, it’s hard to trust Parker and Popovich, but then you look at the opponent and your eyes light up. First thing I do in the morning besides looking at Vegas lines is checking to see if the Pelicans are playing. It’s become so chalky but so so so good. They’re THAT bad on defense (30th against PG’s). Parker is also starting to play a bit better as of late averaging 27.7 DK points per game over his last 4. The thing that concerns me here is blowout potential (SA -9), but hopefully the return of Anthony Davis (for however long he can stay on the court) can limit the possibility of San Antonio running away with this early.
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Shooting Guard
Rodney Hood ($4900, 21.2 USG) – I’m noticing a glaring trend in Utah: Rodney Hood has been playing a lot. Over his last 3 contests, he’s played 38, 37 and 35 minutes which is pretty rare considering he had only been averaging about 27 minutes before that. If you give me that many minutes with Hood’s ability to fill up the stat sheet at under $5000, I’ll likely take it every time. He has a plus matchup against a Mavericks team that allows the 10th most fantasy points to opposing shooting guards. I think most people will be slotting Jamal Crawford in their lineups for only $100 more with Redick likely being out again, making Rodney a great GPP play along with being a fine cash play.
Small Forward
Jeff Green ($3900, 19.4 USG) – All the chalk. The most obvious play tonight. The Grizzlies made a change 3 games ago inserting Jeff Green into their starting lineup and it’s working. They’ve won three straight and Jeff Green is a big reason why. He’s averaged 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals since then. The Rockets allow the 4th most fantasy points to opposing SF’s, so please don’t overthink this. I still don’t understand how he’s priced under $4000. He has the chance to be the highest owned player of the night.
Power Forward
Ersan Ilyasova ($4000, 16.1 USG) – I wouldn’t go cheap at PF tonight. There isn’t one player under $5000 that gets me excited. It’s shooting fish in a barrel. So if I had to choose, I’d play Ersan. He’s getting consistent minutes (25.5 mpg) and coming off his best game of the year scoring 34.5 DK points (20 points on 4-6 3PT, 6 rebounds). He draws a mediocre matchup against the Timberwolves who rank 16th against power forwards. The Pistons have an implied team total 101.3, which is actually kind of high for them, so the opportunity is there for Ilyasova to rack up some points.
Center
Nikola Jokic ($3500, 18.9 USG) – The 20 year old Serbian rookie for the Nuggets finally broke out in a big way on Wednesday scoring 50 DK (23 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals) in a loss to the Spurs. Anytime a guy priced this cheaply scores that many fantasy points in his previous game, you have to take notice. The Nuggets usually play their bigs depending on the size of their opponents which is a big reason why Jokic played 32 minutes against a tall San Antonio front court. It’ll be curious to see how Denver goes about their starting lineup tonight against 7’1 Tyson Chandler. If Jokic is starting, he’ll likely be locked into a majority of my lineups. And quite honestly, if he struggles . . . he won’t kill your lineups being priced this cheap.
Featured Photo Credit: Keith Allison/Flickr CC 2.0
