This article is part of our FanDuel NBA series.
After a teaser on Thursday, this is the first full slate of NBA. How exciting is that to hear? Anyway, we have six games spread all throughout the day and it should make for a fun day of basketball. Without further ado, let's get into this slate.
Slate Overview
ORL-BKN: Orlando is the heaviest favorite on this slate, facing a dismantled Brooklyn team. Look for the Magic to be a 7.5-point favorite in a game with a total 211.
WAS-PHX: It's weird to see Phoenix as a 6.5-point favorite but that says a lot about Washington. It should be a high-scoring matchup though between two poor defenses, sitting at a 226-point total.
MEM-POR: These are two clubs battling for a playoff spot in the west. We have a 1.5-point spread in favor of Portland. The 223-point total represents a high-scoring fixture too.
MIL-BOS: Milwaukee enters this game as a 4.5-point favorite, with a total of 219.
SAC-SAN: These are two teams are on the outside looking in for the playoffs and the 2.5-point spread in favor of Sacramento makes this a close game.
DAL-HOU: Dallas enters this matchup as a 1.5-point favorite with a total of 228. That's the highest of the slate and it makes this game a fantasy gold mine with such a small spread as well.
Positional Breakdown
PG: Russell Westbrook is the highest here at $9,800. Damian Lillard is next at $8,900 while De'Aaron Fox is at $7,500. Ricky Rubio, Eric Bledsoe, Ja Morant, Dejounte Murray, Kemba Walker and Shabazz Napier all sit between $6,200 and $6,500. Tyler Johnson is making his Nets debut and is worth considering at $4,100 with not much else on the roster.
SG: Luka Doncic is the highest-priced player on the slate at $10,800. James Harden is next at $10,600 and it's clear that you need to pick between these two (which we'll do later!). Caris LeVert and DeMar DeRozan are both at $8,200 and both guys should have huge roles for shorthanded clubs. Devin Booker gets a fantastic matchup against Washington at $8,000 while C.J. McCollum and Khris Middleton sit in the $7,000s. Dillon Brooks at $4,300 is probably the best cheap value.
SF: Giannis Antetokounmpo is the only player above $7,000, sitting at $10,700. Gordon Hayward is the only player in the $6,000s while Joe Harris, Jaylen Brown, Tim Hardaway, Evan Fournier, Carmelo Anthony and Mikal Bridges all sit in the $5,000s. Troy Brown, Danuel House and Rudy Gay make for nice values below that.
PF: Kristaps Porzingis ($9,300) and Jayson Tatum ($8,500) are the best options here. Aaron Gordon and Robert Covington follow them up around $6,000. Jaren Jackson and Brandon Clarke are in the high $4,000s while Richaun Holmes is at just $3,900.
C: Hassan Whiteside and Nikola Vucevic sit in the $8,000s while DeAndre Ayton, Jonas Valanciunas and Jusuf Nurkic are in the $7,000s. Jarrett Allen is one of the best plays here at $6,700 with DeAndre Jordan out. Thomas Bryant, Brook Lopez and Jakob Poeltl all make for solid value plays below $5,500.
Injury Situations to Monitor
Brooklyn Nets (BKN)
They get their whole team name here because they will be without Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jamal Crawford, Michael Beasley and Taurean Prince.
Aaron Gordon (ORL)
Gordon suffered a groin injury earlier in the week but looks ready to go here.
Jonathan Isaac (ORL)
Isaac is questionable with a knee injury that he suffered in January but could make his return to action. Even if he does, look for him to play limited minutes.
Kelly Oubre Jr. (PHX)
Oubre injured his knee right before the season came to a halt and it's unclear if he'll be ready to play in these games.
Bradley Beal/John Wall/Davis Bertans (WSH)
Wall is still rehabbing from an Achilles injury while Beal and Bertans are sitting out the restart.
Marvin Bagley III (SAC)
Bagley injured his foot and looks unlikely to play in this Orlando restart.
LaMarcus Aldridge (SAN)
Aldridge got shoulder surgery and will miss the Orlando restart.
Eric Gordon (HOU)
Gordon will be out at least two weeks because of an ankle issue suffered this week.
Elite Players
Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden are the three guys above $10,000 and we're going to let you know who we like among them in the value write-up. Look for all three to be highly used and it may be even possible to fit two of them into your build, with a good mix of Brooklyn and Washington players.
Expected Chalk
It's strange to see Giannis barely cracking five figures. That's just what we have here and it's likely that people are going to do everything possible to fit him in their lineups. This guy is the front-runner for both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year after capturing MVP last season. That's going to put a lot of the public on him and it's also scary that he's averaging nearly 60 fantasy points per game against the Celtics this season. Not to mention, there are no good small forwards aside from Giannis on this slate
Caris LeVert, BKN
Everyone and their mother is going to use LeVert. The Nets are currently without Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Spencer Dinwiddie and Taurean Prince. That equates to about 75 shots and 75 percent of the team's usage. With those guys off the floor, LeVert has a usage rate north of 36 percent and it's impressive how good he was when Irving and Dinwiddie were sidelined too. DFS managers know about all of these absences and it's likely to put LeVert in over 30 percent of lineups.
Key Values
James Harden HOU ($10,600)
Harden as a value? Um, what is this price? Harden was regularly sitting around $12,000 earlier in the season and it's hard to understand what FanDuel is thinking here. While it's strange to say he's a value, he's just that at this price tag. We're talking about a guy with a 50-point floor and an 80-point upside. It's not like it's a tough matchup either, with Harden averaging 64.3 FanDuel points per game in his two meetings with the Mavs this season. Just get him into your lineup and build from there.
Jarrett Allen, BKN ($6,700)
This could be chalky but Allen is an absolute beast with DeAndre Jordan out of the picture. That's what we're looking at here, with DJ opting out of the restart. If you look at the eight games that Jordan has missed, Allen has played at least 29 minutes in all of them. More importantly, he's averaging 37.6 FD points per game across 33 minutes of action. That's absurd for a player below $7,000 and he might be asked to do even more with Irving, Durant, Dinwiddie and Prince all out too.
Troy Brown, WAS ($4,600)
With Bradley Beal, John Wall and Davis Bertans all out of this reboot, Brown might be the Wizards' best scorer left. That sounds absurd but someone is going to have to step up with all that usage gone. We're talking about a guy who averaged 22.6 FanDuel points per game in fewer than 25 minutes of action this season. He's almost guaranteed 30 minutes a game with this shorthanded roster and his 8.3 shot attempts per game might double too.
Jakob Poeltl, SAN ($4,200)
Poeltl generally starts when LaMarcus Aldridge is sidelined. He's a stud in these circumstances too, averaging 27.1 FD points per game across 25 minutes of action in the 14 games where he played at least 20 minutes this season.
