Point Guard
Raul Neto (DK $3600, FD $3800, 16.9 USG) – There’s 1 game to love and the rest to hate. That’s the kinda column this is gonna be. Stack as many Warriors as you can fit and patch up the rest as the day goes on. The first patch is likely to be Raul Neto. The least sexiest pick of the bunch, but a real source of value. He’s played 30+ minutes in 3 out of his last 4 and that’s going to continue tonight with Trey Burks being ruled out with an illness. Neto played 37 minutes with Burks sitting out on Saturday, scoring 13 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds and a steal (23 DKPTS) against PHO. While the matchup isn’t as great, it’s still decent (DAL 13th in DvP). Just don’t set your expectations too high. He’ll play a majority of the minutes tonight with the Jazz being so thin in their backcourt, so I’m just going to project him to score what his PER 36 numbers project (21.56 FDPTS, 23.70 DKPTS).
Shooting Guard
Danny Green (DK $4700, FD $4200, 15.0 USG) – This just feels wrong. I don’t know how to sugarcoat a Danny Green recommendation to you but I’ll sure as hell try. Whether you know this or you don’t, it doesn’t matter but Dany Green was absolutely un-playable for the first 2 months of the season. He just wasn’t making anything and with a player like Green, if he’s not making his shots, he’s pretty useless. Well since the beginning of the new year, Green has been playing much better. His FG% has improved from 35.8% to 42% and now averaging .82.3 FPPM as opposed to the .65 FPPM he was getting in NOV and DEC. Now, his price has jumped up a bit on DK, but still very affordable on FD. The thing though is this game. A low 193 over/under is not something we typically like to target as both these teams play elite defense and are 2 of the slowest teams in the league.
Small Forward
Harrison Barnes (DK $4700, FD $4400, 17.2 USG) – With the Warriors projected to score 123 points tonight, you just have to try to fit in as many possible. Vegas is looking at you dead in the eye and yelling at you to roster these guys. Now, obviously Steph, Klay and Dray are a gonna cost you most of what you got but Barnes gives you a piece of this pie at a reasonable price. Add in the fact that the Rockets give up the second most fantasy points to SF’s and you have yourself a nice lil bargain right here. And for an added bonus, if this game happens to get out of hand, Barnes is one of the guys that gets blowout minutes. I’m not lying when I write this . . I’m trying to fit in this whole starting lineup.
Power Forward
Jabari Parker (DK $5000, FD $4800, 18.5 USG) – This slate has me recommending a guy to you that’s scored a total of 20.3 fantasy points in his last 65 minutes. This is where we are here. But anyways, prior to his last two duds, Parker was performing very well in favorable matchups. Today, the Bucks will be going up against a Celtics team that gives up the 6th most fantasy points to opposing power forwards. Honestly, I really love Parker for GPP’s. He’ll be very low owned and still seeing tons of minutes. In all reality, we all expected him to not do so well against UTA on Friday so he’s really only had one matchup he couldn’t take advantage of (against POR) over his last handful of games. I think this makes for a great bounce back spot.
Center
Tyler Zeller (DK $3800, FD $4100, 24.8 USG) – Yup, seems fitting that I end this column with someone like Tyler Zeller. How annoyingly unpredictable has Brad Stevens big man rotation been all year? With the signings of Amir Johnson and David Lee, I didn’t think Zeller would be of use to us for this season. But things change fast in the NBA and Brad Stevens has a weird way of doing things. The minutes are definitely trending in the right direction for Zeller. I took a flier on him this past Sunday, and that man made me some cash. In 22 minutes against the Kings, he scored 17 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks for 29.3 DKPTS. Look at the game logs before that:
- 20 minutes against CLE for 21 DKPTS
- 14 minutes against DET for 26.3 DKPTS
- 27 minutes against NY for 31 DKPTS
It’s not going to be pretty until you survive and somehow make it to the Warriors/Rockets game, but this is the kind of night it is. Our hands are actually being forced here so accept the reality and don’t let it mess with your thought process when constructing rosters. Everyone else is likely going to have 2 or 3 guys on their rosters tonight that doesn’t sit well so when lineups lock, relax because we’re all in this together.
photo taken by flickr user ReneS (flickr) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
