Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and Draftster 12/3/14

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Point Guard

John Wall - FD 9000 DK 10200 DFSTR 8200
Lakers. Lakers. Lakers. You will see me lead off these columns almost all of the time with point guards against the Lakers. It's just too choice a matchup considering L.A.'s style of play and their inability to defend the position. Don't sweat Brandon Jennings' performance last night. Wall is obviously in a different league and will be a high dollar, high percentage cash game play tonight. I wouldn't call him the safest dude of all time, but I want to have exposure to this game on the Wizard side of the ball and Wall is by far the best bet here.

Mo Williams - FD 5600 DK 5700 DFSTR 4000
Another guy whose price isn't there yet when we factor in just how much usage he's getting with Rubio out of the picture. Though it was mirky at first, the delineation of PG roles with Lavine around, that question is over. He's the go-to guy and delivering, getting crazy run in the T-Wolves offense and becoming a scorer and disher. This will be a super-fast game and should be up and down the court all night. He's close to Vasquez for me in terms of value and I think a bit safer than Greivous.

Greivis Vasquez - FD 3900 DK 4300 DFSTR 3900
Still coming too cheap considering his new role as the starting two guard and carrying backup PG minutes as well. Vasquez basically is continuing what he was doing in backing up Lowry but is now also filling in for Derozan as well. The price hasn't caught up at all and he makes a strong value play once again. I'd be less thrilled if he was only playing the two, but considering he becomes a ball handler with Lowry off the court, this is a fantastic price with his increase in minutes.

Shooting Guard

Kobe Bryant - FD 9200 DK 9400 DFSTR 7900
He's turning into a guy who just loves to pass. And it's working. Kobe didn't score a point in the first half of yesterday's game and still finished with a respectable 12/13/5 line. The big problem for Kobe was with more passing the more he gave up the ball to the other team. He had ten turnovers last night. That is probably an outlier going forward (unless he's planning on becoming the record holder in that area) and I think he makes a solid cash game play. It's crazy to say I want the scoring to come back, but there will be a night when he puts it all together.

Update: Jason Terry has a tough matchup but is a solid play tonight with Canaan and Beverley out again. Getting a SG playing PG is a delay safe way to go.

Lou Williams - FD 4900 DK 5400 DFSTR 3800
Like I said yesterday, I was hoping to see a little more of a minutes bump for Sweet Lou when Derozan went down, and really hoped he cracked the starting five. But we'll take what we can get and he's still a guy that'll get high volume usage from the two even off the bench. The Jazz are about league average when it comes to defending the two, though I can't say how much better or worse it gets when Burks is off the court. Considering Williams plays with the second unit more, this probably does make a difference. He's a low cost option that offers a fair amount of upside on a night when he chucks away. And I know he was bad last night. Shooting guard is kind of a disaster today.

Consider Monta Ellis and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
 

Small Forward

K.J. McDaniels - FD 4700 DK 5600 DFSTR 3900
Put on an athletic freak show the other night against the Spurs. Though K.J. didn't start, he was one of the biggest impact players for the Sixers putting up a 10/9/3/2/2 line that had him just doing a little bit of everything. That kind of contribution across the stat line, combined with hism basically forcing the Sixers to play him minutes with Wroten out should mean he creeps toward, or crushes value tonight.

Tobias Harris - FD 7300 DK 6800 DFSTR 6700
The only issue I have here is if the Clippers just crush the Magic souls early and often. They could run Orlando off the court leaving Harris short of minutes. Otherwise, I'm constantly targeting small forwards against this squad. The Clippers are allowing 20% more scoring than league average to opposing small forwards and Harris has shown the knack to pile of the points in the right kind of game. Again, the upside depends on the game staying close, which is far from a sure thing.

Josh Smith - FD 7600 DK 7500 DFSTR 7300
Well this guy's been something of late hasn't he? We featured him as our top pick yesterday and he went out and paid the day, and then some. Smoove went to the moon against the Lakers. I don't think tonight's matchup is quite as sweet and he's creeping much more into the collective consciousness because of his recent performance. I'm less pumped if he gets moved back to three to start because Monroe slides back into the starting rotation. But the recent returns have been there for sure.

Take a gamble on Andrew Wiggins or Corey Brewer against the Sixers

 

Power Forward

Thaddeus Young - FD 6500 DK 7100 DFSTR 6400
Revenge game! Kidding. I don't ever care about that kind of thing. Was just fun to say for once. What I do care about is Thad's return to the T-Wolves starting lineup and his matchup against a fast-paced team that's below average in defending the four. What I don't love about the guy is how much of his fantasy production is scoring dependent. That's odd out of this position where rebounding is such a part of the job description. But that's what's kept Thad's price moderate. I suspect he'll be a higher percentage play because of the price and matchup. Though I'll go on record as saying he isn't necessarily a safe bet.

Cody Zeller - FD 3800 DK 4400 DFSTR 3800
Laid an egg against Atlanta the other night, but so did the rest of the Hornets' squad. Zeller should still be in the starting lineup and in that role he's been logging big minutes. Thanks to the Hawks' clunker the price is still at the minimums. The matchup with Chicago isn't ideal, but the prices are too good to pass up for a starter who can score and rebound.

Kris Humphries - FD 4100 DK 4700 DFSTR 3800
Drew Gooden - FD 3600 DK 3500 DFSTR 3400
It's really a shame these guys are splitting minutes. Really a shame. Would be nice is one of them (preferably Humph) was seeing closer to 27-29 minutes a night rather than basically splitting up the opportunity with Nene out. That being said, against a Laker team in a game that could feature a ton of run, both are favorites to hit or exceed value. The matchup is just that good. The Lakers are awful everywhere, but especially against power forward. They get torched nightly by opposing fours. And I think there's even a slight case for just running these guys in tandem in cash games. Not saying I'll do it, but it's a little tempting.

Strongly consider Jared Sullinger
 

Center

Gorgui Dieng - FD 6400 DK 6900 DFSTR 5000
Love me some Gorgui. He hasn't been the fantasy dynamo from last season when Love was shelved, but been productive nonetheless. Dieng doesn't shoot as much as I'd like and that could be partly because were spoiled last season on Rubio feeding him the ball without restraint. Mo Williams isn't a prolific a passer though the guy is trying. Dieng has to hit his value in all the other pieces and he does contribute across the stat line. The matchup against the Sixers is obviously great and even on a huge night I think Dieng will be a big start because the salaries leave room for upside.

Chris Bosh - FD 8600 DK 8500 DFSTR 7500
He's one of the safer centers relative to price on a nightly basis because he's called on to do a lot of his team's scoring. He also has more an inside out game than most other team's fives as he plays a hybrid style. Even with that he is able to garner enough rebounds to keep him safe. He isn't the kind of guy who will win you a GPP on a huge night like this, but in terms of cash games the guy just hits the court and pays.

Marcin Gortat - FD 7100 DK 7000 DFSTR 6200
Though they've controlled opposing centers in terms of scoring (mostly because all of the other positions pour it on) the Lakers are a dreadful rebounding team. They get killed on the boards down low. For instance, Andre Drummond was able to clean glass without issue last night and in general opposing centers have rebounded 10% better than league average. I like Gortat for this reason and really love pairing him with Wall.

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