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Boomers’ Baller’s: NBA Daily Fantasy Basketball October 21, 2018

Good Afternoon NBA folk! We have a nice little 4 game slate tonight that should be filled with high scores!  We have a couple things to watch out for, and I’ll go over them as we go through the slate.  Obviously, with today being a Sunday, I’m going to advise you to play lighter than normal, and make sure you pay attention to the news so you don’t get hit with some of the things we’re going to be watching for.

Things we KNOW:

Will Barton: OUT 

Daniel Hamilton: OUT

Justin Anderson: OUT

Kosta Koufos: OUT

Obviously, the only one that we really care about is Will Barton, as we’ll get into this when we go over this game.

Things we DON’T KNOW:

Chris Paul: We’re still waiting on word from the league about a possible suspension.  Personally, I don’t know how the league doesn’t come out with some word on what happened last night in Los Angeles.

Russell Westbrook: The Thunder listed him as OUT yesterday, with the ability to change this if they see fit.  I didn’t think he would miss the home opener, but them listing him OUT yesterday made me question it.  I now don’t think he plays, but I’ll still be paying attention to it.  As of now, I’m building and prepping as if he WILL NOT play.

Shaun Livingston/Andre Iguodala: I don’t know what the Warriors do here, but it’s worth paying attention to as it will change up the rotations a little bit.

Larry Nance/Sam Dekker: I’m assuming that both are out, and that’s how I’m approaching things currently.  We will change if we need too.

Nene Hilario: Getting Nene back wouldn’t be that important to DFS, but it would help the Rockets in their front court rotation.

 

So here we go!  In case you have never read my work today, I approach things from a pure basketball standpoint and add in the DFS aspects of it.  All my plays are good for both sites, and if there are any site specific reasoning, then I will point out and identify when that happens.

Hawks vs. Cavs

So when we sit here and look at this game, the first thing that I notice is what Cedi Osman has been doing.  He’s basically taken over for LeBron James.  No, i’m not saying he’s that type of player, but he’s playing the position.  I can see Kent Bazemore on him, who is one of the better wing defenders in the league, but the issue with this is that the Hawks haven’t really been playing straight up a lot as they switch a ton to try to make up for the lack of defense from basically everyone not named Bazemore.  The problem with this when it comes to making decisions in DFS is until we see see the Hawks actually start to play better, we can’t really avoid good options that fill up the stat sheet.  Kevin Love, Osman, Rodney Hood, and Tristan Thompson are all options for the Cavs right now, with Love being an elite options in all formats today.  Ok, so for the Hawks, Trae Young is your primary option here, as George Hill, Rodney Hood, Collin Sexton aren’t good defenders at all.  I love Bazemore here as he can contribute on the defensive side as well and Taurean Prince.  With other center options today like Steven Adams and Nikola Jokic, both Tristan Thompson and Alex Len are options to get off the chalk.  I like Len more then Thompson because of the upside that is available, but neither one provides something I’m looking to avoid outside of just roster construction or playing one of the other two at the position.

Kings vs. Thunder

This is the home opener for the Thunder tonight.  I am NOT expecting to see Westbrook tonight, which means that both Paul George and Dennis Schroder will be your primary ball handler’s tonight.  I love the idea of pairing up both with Adams tonight, as they have shown the ability to work well on the pick and roll.  Terrence Ferguson will again get the start for the Thunder at the 2 and split time with Alex Abrinis with a sprinkle of Hamidou Diallo.  If I’m taking a shot here at a punt play, it’s more than likely Abrinis.  Although I’m not that excited about any of them.  Jerami Grant is a guy that plays a ton and can fill up the stat sheet through the game and I love his price for both sites tonight to kind of get off some of the other chalkier plays at the position.  De’Aaron Fox is going to see a lot of Schroder and that is never something we are going to shy away from when trying to decide on whether to play the opposing guard.  NARRATIVE ALERT: Buddy Hield LOVES playing against the Thunder, in case you weren’t aware, he went to college down the road in Norman and last season put up at least 28 FD points in 3 of the 4 games.  I love Buddy tonight, and will have him in a lot of lineups.  As for Willie Cauley-Stein, I don’t make it a point to pick on Steven Adams defense, and with the other options at the position tonight, i’m not going to start now.  If you need a salary saver at PG tonight, then Yogi Ferrell is more then likely your best option for the cheap.

Warriors vs. Nuggets

Draymond Green has played 32 and 33 minutes the first two games of the season.  I expect him to play about the same tonight, and be stuck on Paul Millsap tonight.  Now, even though Millsap is a very good NBA player, there are a few spots we are going to have to take stands on tonight, this is one of them.  I’m going to attack the Warriors with other pieces instead of Millsap.  Mainly with Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, and Gary Harris.  I’m having a hard time deciding exactly who’s going to get the bulk of the minutes with Will Barton out, and even though I think it’s going to be a combo of Trey Lyles, Juancho Hernangomez, and in some rotations, Torrey Craig.  My favorite play here is Trey Lyles who I think will get the bulk of the minutes and I love the skill set.  For the Warriors, Curry, Klay, Durant, and Draymond are all in play.  Don’t get me wrong, Durant is one of the top 5 players in the NBA, but I think he sees a lot of Gary Harris defense today, which isn’t something I usually avoid with a guy of Durant’s ability, but what it does if free up Klay Thompson to get some better looks.  I’ll still have some exposure to Durant, but Klay is my favorite play on the Warriors outside of Draymond today.

Rockets vs. Clippers

Last night was awesome! All the way until a boxing match decided to break out.  With this, we’re looking at Chris Paul more then likely being suspended before the game tonight.  For me, this is almost an auto roster for James Harden.  Harden already carries a very high usage rate, but without Paul in the lineup, it goes up even more to 37.7% the last couple years.  Granted, we still don’t know for sure about it, but this means that if Paul isn’t on the court, that Harden will be the Point Guard in this offense.  Which in return, also means that he is going to see a ton of the former pest of a teammate of his in Patrick Beverly.  If you want to take a stand in tournaments tonight, you can fade Harden and play the Beverly/Ownership card on a shorter slate and spend you money elsewhere.  I won’t be doing that in the majority of my lineups though, and I will make sure that I have some of my Harden pairings with Clint Capela in those lineups as well.  With Paul out, both Eric GordonGerald Green, and Michael Carter-Williams will get more run in the back court with Harden.  I like Gordon more, but we’ve seen Green get hot quickly and with more run, that could happen again.  If MCW beats me, so be it, because I’m just not going to bank on one of the 3 games a season that he actually is useful.  Both Carmelo Anthony and P.J. Tucker will see an uptick in shot attempts as well tonight.  The Clippers are a little more clear to figure out with everything.  Tobias Harris is your main target as he’s the feature point of this offense.  He fills up the stat sheet and will get the ability to play against Melo for a bulk of minutes tonight.  After that, Lou Williams and Dinilo Gallinari are both able to light it up from the field, but are mostly scoring dependent.  Make no mistake, there is going to be very little defense played in this game tonight and I can see a number of players out performing their salaries.  Another value option for the Clippers that I really like is Monrezl Harrell.  He’s a guy that plays like his hair is on fire and fills up the secondary stats and does it in a hurry.  They will use him when they go to a smaller lineup against Clint CapelaJames Ennis is also in play for the Rockets if you need the value there.

 

Good Luck tonight! Make sure to keep checking out the forums for breaking news and player updates and any updates that I make as well!

 

LET’S MAKE SOME MONEY!!!!