Point Guard
Jerryd Bayless (DK $4600, FD $4300, 17.5 USG)
There are so many ways you could go at PG tonight. The position is absolutely stacked and loaded at every tier. At under 5K, you could take a look at Donald Sloan, Dennis Schroder, Isaiah Canaan or DJ Augustin. I can’t hate on any of those plays but if Michael Carter Williams is out again tonight, Bayless would likely be the safest of the bunch. He’s played 32+ minutes in 3 out of his last 4 and gets a Wolves team that’s given up the 4th most fantasy points to PG’s on the year. He’s scored in double figures in 5 out of his last 6 and even being 0-5 from 3 in the Bucks last game against IND, he still somehow reached value with 22.3 DKPTS. If you’re looking for upside, I’d much prefer Augustin or Schroder. With Schroder, you have a real chance at 30 minutes of playing time (Hawks -9 on the road) against the Lakers and with Augustin, he’s coming off a huge game and still really cheap across the board. Also, Augustin’s had back to back games of 32.9 and 29.3 USG% in limited minutes which is a trend I love targeting.
Shooting Guard
Bojan Bogdanovic (DK $4400, FD $4000, 17.7 USG)
Perhaps the main beneficiary of Joe Johnson‘s buyout, Bojan has flourished in his new role having nice games in 3 out of his last 4, with the main exception being that tough matchup against UTA. In those 3 games, he’s averaging 29.27 DKPTS in 35 minutes and now gets another great matchup going up a Nuggets team that gives up the 9th most fantasy points to SF’s (his actual position). He’s becoming a bigger part of this offense taking double digit shot attempts in 4 straight and also, his USG% has jumped up to 23.18 in that span. I expect him to be a popular punt so you might want to go in another direction for tournaments. Maybe someone like J.R. Smith or Devin Booker, who went off last night makes some sense.
Small Forward
Shabazz Muhammad (DK $4200, FD $4100, 21.7 USG)
Perhaps, just perhaps the Tayshaun Prince experiment is over in MIN. The Wolves have been starting LaVine alongside Wiggins as of late, giving Bazz a nice bump in the rotation. Having said that, I still don’t really love the play. My number one recommendation is to spend up at the position tonight, on LeBron to be exact. Bazz is just the only one that stands out to me amongst the lower tier. He’s reached or exceeded value in 7 straight games now so he’s safe for cash, just extremely unsexy. The thing with Muhammad has always been minutes and over his last 3, he’s jumped up to 27.73 mpg so that’s something to keep an eye on as well. On FD, I could see pairing LeBron with him to fit in some more studs around your lineups but on DK, just play LeBron. We’ve attacked the Wizards wing defense all season, Kevin Love is out and he’s under 10K. It’s just as obvious as it gets.
Power Forward
Darrell Arthur (DK $3900, FD $3700, 16.3 USG)
Arthur is averaging 26 minutes a game since the Nuggets lost Danilo Gallinari indefinitely (ankle). That’s 5.1 more minutes than what he averages on the season as a whole. Michael Malone loves him to death and plays him whenever he gets a chance. He had himself a terrible game in a beautiful matchup against the Lakers in their last game, so that’ll likely keep his ownership down but he still possesses upside to shatter value at under 4K. He’s scored 28.5 DKPTS against DAL 3 games ago and 31.8 DKPTS against SAC 5 games ago. He gets another nice matchup against the Nets, who give up the 11th most fantasy points to PF’s.
Center
Jonas Valanciunas (DK $5000, FD $6100, 20.6 USG)
This is strictly a GPP play because Jonas only costs you $700 less than Alex Len on DK and somehow costs $800 more on FD. The real play here is Alex Len but I can’t write him up every day so we’ll change it up a bit. Valancuinas’ minutes continues to frustrate the hell out of us, rarely seeing more than 25 but this matchup is perfect for him. The one other time these teams met earlier this year, he scored us 32.8 DKPTS in just 25 minutes (double-doubled). The Blazers have given up the most fantasy points to centers over their last 10 games by a wide margin. We’ve picked on Portland’s big men all season and he’s cheap enough on DK to warrant some tournament consideration.
Featured Image Credit: by flickr user ReneS (flickr) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
