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
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Tonight
We have a decent sized slate ahead of us for Monday night. The teams with the highest implied totals are as follows: New Orleans Pelicans (116), Houston Rockets (112), and the Minnesota Timberwolves (112). The highest priced players on the slate are DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, and James Harden.
- Jerian Grant PG CHI ($4,900)
- Jerian Grant and the Chicago Bulls will take on the New Orleans Pelicans on the road tonight. The Bulls have an implied total sitting at right around 110-points and they are currently 6.0-point underdogs. The Bulls have been playing at a pace of right around 101.7 and the Pelicans have been playing at a pace of right around 103.4. This is going to be a nice pace up game for the Bulls tonight who are already one of the fastest teams in the league. Grant is likely going to be guarded by Rajon Rondo tonight who has not been a great defender at all this year. Grant is primed for a nice offensive output tonight. He has the following stats on the season so far this year: 21.2 MPG, 2.3 RPG, 4.6 APG, .1 BLKPG, .7 STLPG, 7.7 PPG, 19.0 FPPG, and a .90 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 25.997 DKFP which would be good enough for right around 5.31x value. He is projected to play right around 27 minutes tonight. Kris Dunn is likely out tonight which means Grant should see nice minutes boost tonight. On top of that, this is a good matchup for him in what should be a high-scoring pace-up game. Load him up as a mid-tier point guard with some upside tonight.
- Dwight Howard C CHA ($8,100)
- Dwight Howard and the Charlotte Hornets will take on the Sacramento Kings tonight at home. The Hornets have an implied total sitting at right around 110-points and they are currently 10-point favorites. The Hornets have been playing at a pace of right around 102.0 and the Kings have been playing at a pace of right around 98.0. This is going to be a pace down game for the Hornets tonight but I still like the spot for Dwight tonight. He is likely going to be matched up with Willy Cauley-Stein tonight who has been a horrible defender this season. I expect Dwight to dominate WCS tonight on the offensive end. He has the following stats on the season so far this year: 30.3 MPG, 12.5 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.5 BLKPG, .7 STLPG, 15.5 PPG, 36.9 FPPG, and a 1.22 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 44.119 DKFP which would be good enough for right around 5.45x value. He is projected to play right around 33 minutes tonight. Dwight has been having a solid fantasy year this year and he draws a fantastic matchup against the Kings tonight. He has a solid FPPM number and I like his upside even at $8,100 tonight. Load him up as your higher priced center tonight on Dratkings.
- Jrue Holiday PG/SG NOR ($7,200)
- Jrue Holiday and the New Orleans Pelicans will take on the Chicago Bulls tonight at home. The Pelicans have an implied total sitting at right around 116-points and they are currently 6.0-point favorites. As talked about in the Grant write-up the Bulls have been playing at a pace of right around 101.7 and the Pelicans have been playing at a pace of right around 103.4. This is a pace down game for the Pelicans tonight but like I talked about before neither of these teams is known for playing slow. Holiday is likely going to be guarded by Zach Lavine tonight who has never been that great of a defender and a guy I think Holiday can exploit. He has the following numbers on the season so far: 36.5 MPG, 4.4 RPG, 5.2 APG, .6 BLKPG, 1.4 STLPG, 18.8 PPG, 35.7 FPPG, and a .98 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 38.28 which would be good enough for right around 5.32x value. He is projected to play right around 37 minutes tonight. You can always count on Holiday to play a ton of minutes and he has a solid FPPM to go with that. This is going to be a high-scoring fast game tonight which is perfect for fantasy purposed. Load up Holiday at either guard position tonight on Draftkings.
Free Square of the Night
We have a decent 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 Dwight Howard tonight! Good luck Army!
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