Saturday’s Slam Dunks were particularly slam dunk-y (whatever that means), with my lovechild Luka Doncic hitting 6X+ and Nikola Jokic going nuclear for 80 FanDuel points. I’m hoping to carry that momentum over to the first Monday of the NBA season.
Luka Doncic
You best believe I’m going back to the Doncic well. Luka is $7500 on FanDuel and $6800 on DraftKings. For a guy with monster usage, this is simply too low. With Harrison Barnes still out, Doncic will continue to jack up whatever he wants. The best part of playing Luka tonight: the match-up. The Bulls have a putrid defense. They projected as a bottom 5 defense before the season started, and they’re currently sitting at 24th in points per 100 possessions. Who’s going to guard Doncic? Jabari Parker?!? Hahaha. Luka. All day.
Kawhi Leonard
This is mostly a price play. Kawhi Leonard is healthy, but he’s priced as if he’s not. SF is loaded today, with Giannis, LeBron and Durant all available, but I’d prefer to take the savings. Kyle Lowry has been deferring a bit to Kawhi, as evidenced by his 34.2% USG through two games. For reference, Leonard has a 31% USG in 2016-17 with the Spurs. That might not seem like a big jump, but it’s 10% higher than it previously was. This is more of a cash play than a GPP play, as I don’t think Kawhi has the same ceiling as the three guys mentioned above, but I think he’s one of the safest plays on the slate.
Jabari Parker
I mentioned Parker as because his defense is offensive, but I actually like Parker quite a bit. $5500 on FanDuel and $4800 on DraftKings is simply too cheap for a guy with his offensive ceiling. The Mavericks defense is similar to Parker, in that it’s bad. I love this entire game from a fantasy perspective, but Parker is probably my favorite from a value perspective.
