Its Sunday today, and as a lot of our top competition is focused on Football we are still locked in on NBA DFS. We have a small five game slate tonight, but there are quite a few plays that stand out. It is going to be all about the Portland Trailblazers tonight, as the absence of Damian Lillard makes a few Blazers the best play on this slate by far. We will start with one cheap guard from Portland we are using in our core tonight, as well as our favorite superstar at the very top end. As always we will talk about one star who is a pass for us here. In our premium content we will go into more detail about who we really like from the Blazers. As well as a few more priorities across the slate.
Here’s Two Core Plays For DFS Basketball 11/14/21 (using DraftKings Values)
| Point Guard | A. Simons | $3,500 | |
| Shooting Guard | |||
| Small Forward | . | ||
| Power Forward | |||
| Center | N. Jokic | $11,600 | |
| Guard | |||
| Forward | |||
| Utility |
With Lillard sidelined on a small slate tonight we are looking at Anfernee Simons as one of our favorite value options. Simons is only $3,500 here, and he is already averaging 19.4 FPTS on the season. Simons likely gets the start without Lillard, but he should be in for a significant boost regardless. Simons can easily give us a big night here relative to the price, and it is hard for him to disappoint us at $3,500. Simons looks even better if he stars tonight, but he is going to be a value play we are using a lot either way.
Our favorite superstar on the slate is going to be Nikola Jokic, who has been massive the past few games with Michael Porter Jr. joining Jamal Murray on the sideline. Jokic has been doing everything for the Nuggets lately, taking a lot of shots, rebounding, and facilitating. He has scored 70.25 and 66.75 FPTS respectively in his past two games and he has an easy matchup tonight against Portland. Jokic is the most expensive player on this slate at $11,600, but that is expected as he stands out as a producer. With the value we have from Portland tonight, it won’t be hard finding the salary to roster Jokic.
Here’s a Fade DFS Basketball 11/14/21 (using DraftKings Values)
We have quite a few stars on this slate and most of them look solid. One guy we are not going to be getting to is Devin Booker who is just a little too expensive at $9,000 for what he does as a fantasy producer. When Chris Paul plays Booker does not pick up too many peripheral stats, so he needs to score a ton of points to hit value. He is only averaging 40 FPTS on the season, and we need closer to 50 from him to be happy with what we are paying. That big game is possible from Booker, but we have cheaper options who we expect to produce at a similar rate.
Now what do you get if you sign up now for $99?
• Priorities at every position
• Some general strategy for the night, with potential injury news
• Two more absolute priorities from the Portland Trailblazers
• A breakdown of the value potential from Chicago
Point Guard
Raul Neto – PG ($10,800 DK) Harden had a rough start to the season, as he is only averaging 47.7 FPTS so far which is low by his standards. However, we expect Harden to be extremely productive in DFS playing on a Nets team without Kyrie Irving. We saw one of those big scoring and playmaking nights last time out against the Pelicans, where Harden dropped 68.75 FPTS. Harden is starting to look more like himself, and we expect his price to rise over $11,000 soon.
Shooting Guard
CJ McCollum – ($7,600 DK) With Dame out on a smaller slate a lot of people are going to be getting to McCollum here, including us. McCollum always see’s a massive usage boost when Lillard is off the floor, as the Blazers offense will require him to take a ton of shots. Consequently, there is some massive upside on McCollum in this spot, and he is already very priced for his production. With any boost to what he usually does McCollum will have a big game here, and this is a guy who can easily give you 50 FPTS at under $8,000.
Norman Powell – ($5,300 DK) Powell is another absolute priority for us in this spot from Portland. Powell would be an interesting play if everyone was healthy given his price tag, so he is one of our favorite options tonight with Lillard out. Powell is averaging 26.9 FPTS per game already, we know he is going to need to shoot more with Lillard sidelined, so it is just so easy for him to smash value where is priced here. We don’t mind using all three of the Portland guards we have mentioned here, as Simons is very cheap, and we expect Powell and Lillard ot take the lions share of the Blazers usage.
Derrick Jones Jr. – ($3,000 DK) Nikola Vucevic remains sidelined for the Chicago Bulls as he has Covid-19, so there is an opportunity for other Chicago big men to see more minutes. Jones is not always the most productive DFS producer, but at the minimum price we don’t need much. Jones is averaging 14.7 FPTS on the season, and we saw him score 20 FPTS last time out with no Vucevic. If Jones picks up some extra minutes in the frontcourt here he could be a nice value.
Tony Bradley – ($3,500 DK) The upside on Bradley looks better then Jones tonight, but we must pay $500 more for him. Bradley started in place of Vucevic last time out, but he only played 13.4 minutes to go for 10.3 FPTS. However, the Bulls played the Warriors last time out, and Bradley really struggles to switch onto guards in pick and roll. The Warriors go small, and Steph Curry is known to absolutely crucify big men who are unfortunate enough to switch onto him. Given the matchup, it is not surprising that Bradley got forced off the floor. However, the Bulls play the Clippers tonight who have less dynamic guard play and more of an old fashioned big man in Ivica Zubac. We expect Bradley to see a lot more run tonight, and at this price he could prove to be a nice value.
General strategy
With only five games tonight, there is no getting away from the Blazers for us here. Simons, McCollum, and Powell are three of our favorite plays on this slate, as they should all be significantly more expensive when Lillard is off the court. Jusuf Nurkic is another strong option at $6,700, as we expect him to play big minutes tonight and he should see a usage bump as well. For Cash games we are happy playing three or even four Blazers, as they present better value then anywhere else on the slate. We are happy getting to a maximum of three Blazers for GPP’s here, as they do look that good. However, we would probably cap it at three for tournaments. It is going to be interesting to see who starts for Lillard, as Simons is an easy play if it is him. We know we are getting to Jokic, Harden and Steph Curry a lot at the top end, as they have the biggest upside for raw FPTS. Good luck tonight, and make sure to keep an eye on the coming news.
Go win your lineup and tell us how you did. Twitter (@FantasyDFSX) is a good place for that.
