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
Let’s take a look at how our free squares did last night. Our first free square of the night was Pau Gasol who ended up with 49.75 DKFP which was good enough for right around 10.4x value. Our second free square of the night was Spencer Dinwiddie who ended up with right around 30 DKFP which was good enough for right around 4.7x value. Our final free square of the night was Kevin Looney who ended up with right around 12.75 DKFP which was good enough for 4x value.
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Tonight
We have a medium sized slate ahead of us for Tuesday night. The teams with the highest implied totals are as follows: Oklahoma City Thunder (114), Houston Rockets (114), and Cleveland Cavaliers (110). The highest priced players on the slate are LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden.
- Willie Cauley-Stein C SAC ($5,900)
- Willie Cauley-Stein and the Sacramento Kings will take on the Dallas Mavericks tonight on the road. The Kings have an implied total sitting at right around 100-points and they are currently 6.5-point underdogs. The Kings have been playing at a pace of right around 98.1 and the Mavericks have been playing at a pace of right around 98.2. Neither team is going to gain too much of an advantage in regards to pace tonight. WCS is likely going to be guarded by Dirk Nowitzki tonight who is not a great defender by any stretch of the imagination. WCS has an opportunity to have a nice offensive outing tonight. He has the following stats on the season so far this year: 27.2 MPG, 6.7 RPG, 2.2 APG, .9 BLKPG, 1.1 STLPG, 12.4 PPG, 27.5 FPPG, and a 1.01 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 31.893 DKFP which would be good enough for right around 5.41x value. He is projected to play right around 30 minutes tonight. This is a good spot and matchup for Willie tonight. I think he can get some extra buckets on Dirk tonight and I love his price. Load him up as a mid-tier center on Draftkings tonight.
- J.J. Barea PG/SG DAL ($4,700)
- J.J. Barea and the Dallas Mavericks will take on the Sacramento Kings at home tonight. The Mavericks have an implied total sitting at right around 106.0-points and they are currently 6.5-point favorites. As stated in the WCS write up the Kings have been playing at a pace of right around 98.1 and the Mavericks have been playing at a pace of right around 98.2. Neither team is going to gain too much of an advantage in regards to pace tonight. Barea is likely going to be coming off the bench but he should still see enough minutes to exceed his value tonight. He has the following stats on the season so far this year: 23.0 MPG, 6.0 APG, 3.0 RPG, .1 BLKPG, .5 STLPG, 11.2 PPG, 25.0 FPPG, and a 1.09 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 26.113 DKFP which would be good enough for right around 5.55x value. He is projected to play right around 23 minutes tonight. The minutes projection might scare some people away from Barea but when he plays he makes the most out of it with his high FPPM. Barea makes a nice value guard play tonight on Draftkings.
- Chris Paul PG HOU ($9,100)
- Chris Paul and the Houston Rockets will take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road tonight. The Rockets have an implied total sitting at right around 112-points and they are currently 2.5-point favorites. The Rockets have been playing at a pace of right around 101.7 and the Timberwolves have been playing at a pace of right around 99.4. It’s a pace down game for the Rockets tonight but I still love Paul’s price and the spot he is in tonight. CP3 is likely going to be guarded by Jeff Teague tonight who is an average defender and a guy I think Chris will have his way with tonight. He has the following stats on the season so far this year: 31.6 MPG, 5.6 RPG, 8.3 APG, .3 BLKPG, 1.8 STLPG, 19.4 PPG, 43.9 FPPG, and a 1.39 FPPM. Taking a look at our Domination Station we can see that we have a projection of right around 41.958 which would be good enough for right around 4.61x value. He is projected to play right around 32 minutes tonight. I am a little bit higher on Chris Paul than the Domination Station tonight as I like the matchup and think Harden will have a tough night going up against Jimmy Butler. I think he has a big night tonight and I love him as a higher priced point guard on Draftkings tonight.
Free Square of the Night
We have a decent 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 Willie Cauley-Stein tonight! Good luck Army!
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