Point Guard
Matthew Dellavedova (DK $3000, FD $3500, 15.9 USG)
This is my first playoff piece and trust me when I type this, this column in not meant for the playoffs. A lot of value that comes in the regular season doesn’t translate as well to the playoffs. Rotations get shortened, starters play longer, stars will push themselves through injury as long as they can play and so on. But we’ll do our best here and to start things off, the only guy under the 5K range I’d consider here is Delly, in the event that you think this game turns into a bloodbath. In his first game against the Pistons, he saw 19 minutes (11 DKPTS) in a game that was contested throughout. If things get ugly, he could play minutes in the later 20’s and pay off his $3000 price tag. By the way, $3000 isn’t the minimum on DK anymore. You can get guys that won’t see the court for as low as $2000.
Read More: Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks: April 20
Shooting Guard
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (DK $4900, FD $5400, 18.2 USG)
Now here’s a cash game play I can easily get behind. KCP was already averaging 36.7 minutes per game in the regular season so it’s not crazy to think he plays near 40 (barring foul trouble) in every game this series. In game 1, he played 38 minutes and shot 14 times (4-8 from three) for 21 real life points (30 DKPTS). The Pistons are going to need his defense and shot making ability to stand any chance against the Cavs so as long as he’s priced this low, just slot him in and move on. If you wanna go a bit cheaper, I also like guys like J.R. Smith (DK $4400, FD $4600) and even Gerald Henderson (DK $3100, FD $3700) who saw 30 minutes (28 DKPTS) in game one against the Clippers.
Small Forward
Al-Farouq Aminu (DK $5000, FD $5500, 16.9 USG)
It’s always a guessing game with which AFA shows up as one day he could go for 50+ DKPTS and the next, 16 DKPTS. In this series, I’d expect somewhere in between like we saw in game one where he recorded a double-double for 33 DKPTS. He played less than 30 minutes, which is concerning but that game was over fast and with how big the Clippers are in their front court, I’d expect him to play a bit more throughout the rest of this series. We’re going to have to go cheap in certain places to fit in studs like LeBron and Blake so building around guys like KCP and AFA is a logical starting point.
Power Forward
Ed Davis (DK $4100, FD $3900, 12.7 USG)
Another one of those situations where this is as low as I’d go. Davis has actually fared pretty well against the Clips this season. In 4 games against them, he’s averaging 31.32 DKPTS, averaging a double double (13.5 points, 11.3 rebounds). As mentioned above, the Clippers size should force Portland’s hand and I’d expect Davis to play near 25 minutes in this one. He only played 20 minutes in game one because that game was out of reach well before the 4th even started so as long as Portland keeps this one close, expect Davis to get his.
Center
Mason Plumlee (DK $4700, FD $5300, 17.1 USG)
Another guy that I’m going to look at after an underwhelming game one. Plumlee, like Ed Davis played extremely well against the Clippers this season, averaging 31.62 DKPTS (14.5 points, 9.5 rebounds). Before the playoffs began, his worst game again LA was when he scored 25 DKPTS on March 24th. Every other game, he scored over 30 DKPTS. Now, people are going to look at his recent game log and instantly get turned off by his performance on Sunday. Well, he was plagued by foul trouble and like Davis, didn’t play the rest of the way due to a blowout so if this game stays relatively close, Plumdog should play near 30 minutes and put up a very solid line. Recency bias can really freak with your winnings. Try to erase that game from your memory!
Featured Image Credit: By Chris Green (Chrisg21090 at en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
