NBA DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings & FanDuel | 1/8

NBA DFS action on Friday, Jan. 8, locks at 7:00 p.m. EST with an expansive 10-game main slate. Before you lock in your NBA DFS picks and favorite lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo and SuperDraft, make sure to check out Awesemo’s daily fantasy basketball rankings and projections. Let’s dig into some NBA DFS picks, including Jayson Tatum, Julius Randle and more.

[2021-New-Year-Promo]

[SportsbookAffiliates]

NBA DFS Picks: Key Building Blocks | Jan. 8

Jayson Tatum: Boston Celtics vs. Washington Wizards

DraftKings $9,200, FanDuel $9,400, Yahoo $43
Ownership Rating (preliminary run): DraftKings 22.9%, FanDuel 25.5% Yahoo 20.6%

Through nine games, Jayson Tatum is building on last season’s breakout. In similar minutes he is taking two more field goal attempts per game and is averaging 2 more points and one more assist. This all culminates in a bump from 1.2 to 1.29 fantasy points per minute. The wild card tonight is that the bulk of the Celtics frontcourt is currently in the health and safety protocol. We will need to monitor news for Tristan Thompson, Robert Williams and Grant Williams. I am not worried that they are in, I am worried that one of them will end up with a positive COVID-19 test and Tatum ends up being held out as a “close contact” candidate.

Washington is playing at the second-fastest pace in the league with 108.8 possessions per 48 minutes. They are also the third-worst defensive team allowing 113.4 points per 100 possessions. Traditionally they are one of the worst rebounding teams and they are playing again tomorrow night. This means that Russell Westbrook (finger) is likely to sit this one out as the plan is to not let him play on consecutive days.

Julius Randle: New York Knicks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

DraftKings $9,800, FanDuel $9,400, Yahoo $41
Ownership Rating (preliminary run): DraftKings 5.7%, FanDuel 18.5% Yahoo 19.4%

Yes, this is a dramatically elevated price tag for Julius Randle, but he should be in the five figures on DraftKings and FanDuel and closing in on $50 on Yahoo. We have seen new head coach Tom Thibodeau rolling out Randle for heavy minutes at 38.4 through the first eight games. As the main option, the seventh-year forward is posting career highs across the board. The most impressive thing is that he has more than doubled his career assist rate. The stat line is truly impressive at 23.1 points, 12.0 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 0.09 combined blocks/steals per game.

Oklahoma City is an entirely different team without Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, Danilo Gallinari and most importantly, Steven Adams. The Thunder are middle of the pack from a pace and defensive perspective, and they are a bottom-three rebounding team. There is plenty of discount options today, so Randle is an easy core option.


Latest NBA DFS Content


NBA DFS Picks: Good Value

Caris LeVert and Joe Harris: Brooklyn Nets at Philadelphia 76ers

LeVert: DraftKings $7,400, FanDuel $6,800, Yahoo $26
Ownership Rating (preliminary run): DraftKings 7.8%, FanDuel 32.0% Yahoo 18.8%

Harris: DraftKings $5,500, FanDuel $4,900, Yahoo $14
Ownership Rating (preliminary run): DraftKings <1%%, FanDuel 4.3% Yahoo 5.8%

The Nets are on a back-to-back, and this will be their third game in four nights. They took care of business in victories against the Jazz and 76ers without the help of Kevin Durant (COVID-19 protocol) in either game and without Kyrie Irving (personal) last night. Irving is out again tonight — hopefully everything is OK, as he apparently has yet to speak with head coach Steve Nash as of this writing mid-Friday morning.

Last night was a bit of a laugher, with Brooklyn cruising to a 14-point first half lead and never really being challenged. Using the rotations tool from AddMoreFunds.com it looked like Nash’s strategy was to stagger Caris LeVert and Joe Harris, which makes sense as they are the best two available offensive options. The duo played about 15 minutes apart and a similar amount of time together. That is a reasonable expectation for tonight in a tasty matchup against Memphis. If the game is close, we could see them each play 35-36 minutes with 12-15 minutes apart. For those of you new to NBA DFS, while it is important to know who is starting and who is the core fourth quarter crew, it is also important to know who is sharing the court. When this duo is apart, they are each likely to be the first option on offense, which helps their fantasy production.

It looks like Chris Chiozza is the direct backup to LeVert at point guard. There is a chance they will play together, but that is hard to count on, so Chiozza is a risky option on our 10-game slate.

NBA DFS Picks: Risky Value and Strategy

With 20 teams in action and the Celtics already quarantining four players, plus the stars sitting out for Brooklyn, we are going to have plenty of value options. This means that we should not force ourselves into any discount dandies that we do not feel comfortable with like Tacko Fall or Chiozza. Stars and scrubs will once again be the prevailing strategy, so we want to be discerning with the top-shelf options that could be picking up steam.

For example, do we really want to go to James Harden and pay full freight now that he has Christian Wood, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, who are all higher-usage players than he has had alongside him over the last couple seasons? Just how much court time will the Lakers need from LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the second night of a back-to-back when they are nearly double-digit favorites against a depleted Bulls squad?

These are the next-level questions we will want to ask as we create our perfect lineup tonight. Fortunately, we have plenty of tools at Awesemo that can help with this endeavor.

Join STOKASTIC+ today!
Use accurate data and advanced tools crafted by the #1 DFS player.

 Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies

  1. Daniel Theis: BOS vs. WAS – $10
  2. Jeff Green/Bruce Brown/Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot: BKN at MEM – $10
  3. Cole Anthony: ORL vs. HOU – $14

SuperDraft Daily Fantasy Basketball Picks

  1. Caris LeVert.: BKN at MEM – 1.55x multiplier
  2. Julius Randle: NYK vs. OKC – 1.30x multiplier
  3. Jalen Brown: BOS vs. WAS – 1.35x multiplier

Final Thoughts

There are plenty of value options tonight but the pricing does not align across every site. Be sure to understand your preferred site’s pricing and scoring systems.

Be sure to into the Awesemo NBA Deeper Dive and Live Before Lock show beginning at 5:30 p.m. EST for all of your up-to-date information and analysis.


Follow us on all of our social channels! Check out our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more great Awesemo content.

Looking for more daily fantasy basketball and NBA DFS picks content? We have loads of daily fantasy basketball articles, data, cheat sheets and more on the Awesemo NBA home page. Just click HERE.

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

Stokastic +

Premium Data and Tools
PREMIUM TOOLS
Lineup Generator
Stokastic Sims MLB
PREMIUM DATA
Projections
Top Stack %s
MLB Data Central
FREE DATA
SoRare MLB Rankings
DraftKings Night Owl
FANTASY CRUNCHER (ADD-ON)
MLB Lineup Study
COMMUNITY
MLB Discord Server
PREMIUM DATA
Projections
Ownership Projections
PREMIUM TOOLS
Fantasy Cruncher (ADD-ON)
NHL Lineup Study
COMMUNITY
NHL Discord Server
PREMIUM TOOLS
Lineup Generator
Stokastic Sims PGA
PREMIUM DATA
Ownership Projections
Top Golfers Tool
PGA Tournament Models
FANTASY CRUNCHER (ADD-ON)
PGA Lineup Study
COMMUNITY
PGA Discord Server
Ownership Projections
Top Drivers Tool
NASCAR Discord Server
NASCAR Fantasy Cruncher
USFL Projections
USFL Discord Server
Ownership Projections
Top Fighters Tool
MMA Discord Server
MMA Fantasy Cruncher
NFL Betting Tools
Stokastic Discord Server
Best Ball
Best Ball Rankings
Best Ball Stat Projections
Stokastic Discord Server
Season Long Fantasy (Coming Soon)

DFS Winners from the Stokastic Community

Subscribe to the Stokastic newsletter

DFS advice, exciting promos, and the best bets straight to your inbox

Stokastic.com - Daily Fantasy Sports and Sports Betting Data, Tools, & Analytics

Please play responsibly. Only customers 21 and over are permitted to play. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.