Searching For the Free Square
In the game of Bingo, every card gets an empty spot in the middle called the “Free Square”. Since it’s the middle square, the free square is essentially the ideal spot from which to build lines around. In DFS we define the Free Square as the player to build your lineups around. Generally, this player represents the closest we can find to a sure thing for the slate. This column is all about trying to identify the free square for a particular slate. Very often, this will be a low-cost player thrust into a starting role and sure to make or exceed value. The type of player that allows us to load up the rest of our lineup with high salary studs. Occasionally it will be a high priced stud in a great spot, The goal of this column is to use quantitative data to identify the free square for the days Daily Fantasy Basketball slate. Each slate we will take a deep look at three or four players which represent outsized value on the day’s slate of games and choose the one which best represents the top value and floor play to earn the title of the slates Free Square
Recap
Before we get into the Free Square article I want to give a shout out to one of our most active VIP Members @sempernaut who cashed for $20,000 on FanDuel this weekend.
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Tonight
We have a shorter sized slate ahead of us for Monday night. The teams with the highest implied totals are as follows: Golden State Warriors (118), Houston Rockets (116), and the Cleveland Cavaliers (113). The highest priced players on the slate are Russell Westbrook, Lebron James, and Chris Paul.
- Joe Ingles SG/SF UTA ($4,6700)
- Joe Ingles and the Utah Jazz will take on the Indiana Pacers on the road tonight. The Jazz have an implied total sitting at right around 106-points and they are currently 4.5-point favorites. The Jazz have been playing at a pace of right around 97.9 and the Pacers have been playing at a pace of right around 100.0. This is going to be a nice pace-up game for Ingles and the Jazz tonight as they are one of the slowest teams in the league. Ingles is likely going to be guarded by Bojan Bogdanović who is a terrible defender. ingles should be able to have a nice offensive game against him tonight. He has the following stats on the season so far this year: 30.5 MPG, 4.5 RPG, 4.3 APG, .2 BKPG, 9.6 PPG, 24.3 FPPG, and a .80 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 23.217 DKFP which would be good enough for right around 4.94x value. He is projected to play right around 32 minutes tonight. There is not a ton of value on the late main slate and Ingles is a guy I am looking towards for a bit of cap relief. He has a solid matchup, priced affordably, and is in a pace up game tonight. Load up Ingles as a value guard or forward tonight.
- Draymond Green PF/C GSW ($7,700)
- Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight at home. The Warriors have an implied total sitting at right around 118-points and they are currently 5.0-point favorites. The Warriors have been playing at a pace of right around 103.6 and the Cavaliers have been playing at a pace of right around 100.1. This is a slight pace down game for the Warriors tonight but I still like the spot for Green tonight. He is likely going to be guarded by Lebron James tonight who is a solid defender but Draymond relies on other stats other than points which I am less worried about the matchup. He has the following stats on the season so far this year: 32.1 MPG, 7.7 RPG, 7.6 APG, 1.3 BLKPG, 1.4 STLPG, 11.1 PPG, 37.4 FPPG, and a 1.17 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 39.867 DKFP which would be good enough for right around 5.18x value. He is projected to play right around 33 minutes tonight. This is going to be a close game tonight and Draymond is going to have to play a good amount of minutes tonight. He has solid FPPM numbers and is price pretty affordable for what he brings to the table. Load him up as a higher-priced forward or center with some upside tonight.
- Derrick Favors PF/C UTA ($6,000)
- Derrick Favors and the Utah Jazz will take on the Indiana Pacers on the road tonight. The Jazz have an implied total sitting at right around 106-points and they are currently 4.5-point favorites. The Jazz have been playing at a pace of right around 97.9 and the Pacers have been playing at a pace of right around 100.0. With a pace up game, we should see extra fantasy opportunities for Favors tonight. He is likely going to be guarded by Domantas Sabonis who is not a good defender at all tonight and a guy I expect Favors to dominate on the offensive end tonight. He has the following stats on the season so far this year: 28.1 MPG, 6.8 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1.0 BLKPG, .7 STLPG, 12.3 PPG, 26.1 FPPG, and a .93 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 31.437 DKFP which would be good enough for right around 5.24x value. He is projected to play right around 32 minutes tonight. Favors has a really solid matchup tonight against Sabonis. He has a solid price tonight with a ton of upside load him up as a forward or center on Draftkings tonight.
Free Square of the Night
We have a smaller sized slate tonight with some good tournaments across the industry. I hope I have narrowed down some guys that we can look to target. We have tons of tools and content available at the DFS Army this year for NBA so don’t miss out on all of those opportunities to make some money. Click the link “DFS Army VIP Membership” and sign up and join the Army today! With my ultimate free square pick, I am going to go with Draymond Green tonight! Good luck Army!
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