Hello DFS Army! My name is Michael, otherwise known as DFS Madness on Twitter (@MadnessDFS), I am one of the new writers/contributors that the Army has brought on to join the team! I’ll be writing a Core 4 article a few times per week and then full slate breakdowns on the weekends. A quick little background about me, I am an Economics student at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse (yeah it’s cold here) with graduation coming this May. I’ve been playing DFS for about 4-5 years now and providing content for about 2-3 of those years.
Purpose of the Core 4: These four players are guys that I want to lock into my cash game lineups and if doing multi-entry, using the Domination Station lock them in or set high exposure percentages to them. These are players that I see as underpriced, in great matchups, in play because of injuries, increased usage, etc. I also need to mention that these plays are normally geared toward Draftkings pricing and scoring, I’m not a huge fan of NBA for Fanduel, so if you see my list has three small forwards or two centers, etc. it’s because of the multi-position eligibility on Draftkings. With that said, let’s jump right into it!
Yesterday’s Core Results:
- Karl-Anthony Towns – 54.5 DKP; 5.6x – I wish Marc Gasol didn’t get ruled out before lock because it put a lot more people on Towns. Any time Towns is under $10k with Rose out, I’ll be all over him.
- Jerryd Bayless – 19.5 DKP; 3.6x – Bayless was our dud of the night, but the process was there. If you told me I was going to get 37 minutes out of a starting point guard at only $5400 I would lock him in again, Bayless just didn’t play well.
- Jaylen Brown – 25.5 DKP; 5.2x – Brown was pretty chalky around the industry, but for good reason. He did exactly what we thought he would in a plus matchup.
- Ben Simmons – 40.75 DKP; 4.7x – This was a price play for me, under $9k for Simmons is always a good time to attack, but Embiid just took over at the end of this game.
Overall, really not a great night for the core, but it’s not going to be like that for two nights in a row so let’s get started!
Tonight’s Core 4:
Zach LaVine – $6,600
I still like Tim Hardaway Jr. quite a bit but he is a little too risky for cash games, so fire him up in tournaments. Zach LaVine draws a very nice match up against the New Orleans Pelicans in a face paced battle of these two bottom feeding teams. LaVine is seeing nearly a 28% usage rate on the season and the Pelicans rank in the bottom half of the league against “shooting guards”. I take the shooting guard label with a grain of salt because he can play anywhere between point guard and small forward for this team. He’s also seen at least 36 minutes in three of his last four games and that won’t change tonight as long as this game is competitive which I expect it to be. At $6,600 this is too cheap for LaVine in this spot, go ahead and lock him into your lineups.
Marvin Bagley – $5,800
The Sacramento Kings will play host to the Rockets tonight in a projected 236 total with the Rockets favored by 3.5. By now you know the story, we’ve been targeting big men against the Rockets ever since Clint Capela has gone down and it hasn’t failed us yet. Not only does Bagley get a plus matchup, but he has been in excellent form as of late averaging 42.1 draftkings points over his last three games. It seems like Sacramento has finally decided to give him the minutes that he’s earned, so we’re going to take advantage and make some money off of it. Going back to the Research Station, Bagley is projected for 33.2 draftkings points, at $5,800 we will be laughing to the bank, lock in Marvin Bagley tonight.
Jakob Poeltl – $3,200
Alright, so this was initially Rudy Gay and I love him for tournaments because of that 1.6 fantasy points per minute. However, this game isn’t going to be competitive and Gay will likely be the first one off the floor when the Warriors blow them out. I don’t like factoring in blowouts, but it’s a pretty safe bet here so in this case I look for blowout proof guys like Poeltl. Poeltl probably won’t get the start, but he’ll be the first man in to take the place of Pau Gasol who likely won’t play more than 18-20 minutes. With DeRozan, Aldridge and White off the court this season, Poeltl sees about 1.08 fantasy points per minute. At that rate he’ll only need to play 15 minutes to pay off his salary and I’ve got him projected around 24-25 minutes. At this price don’t get cute and go ahead and plug in Jakob Poeltl.
James Harden – $12,600
Alright, so we’ve got three mid-range players, let’s round things up with the most expensive player on the slate. The Rockets go on the road to play Sacramento in tonight’s matchup. Before I do any of my own writing, I always go and read CeeGee’s “1st Look” article and the first thing that jumped off the page to me was the Rockets being in the biggest pace up spot on the slate. Not only is Harden in a pace up spot, but the Kings rank dead last against opposing shooting guards. Eric Gordon is questionable for tonights game and although I like Harden if Gordon plays, he becomes even better if Gordon is out. He sees about a 3% usage increase with Gordon off the floor, but the average fantasy points per minute stays similar around 1.9. This seems like one of the best spots on the slate for an MVP type player, let’s lock in the beard tonight.
As always I appreciate everyone who gave the core a read! Feel free to mix it up with me in our coaching forums as news breaks and lock approaches. If you don’t know about them, our two newest pages contain Breaking News and our exclusive Coaches’ Picks……both invaluable for late breaking news and pivots in NBA. Make sure to follow me on Twitter @MadnessDFS as I occasionally make changes to the core. Let’s make some money tonight!
