NBA DFS Picks: Value, Stud & Fade on August 21

NBA playoff action is underway and there is NBA DFS on DraftKings, FanDuel and SuperDraft. Greg Ehrenberg looks at some NBA DFS Picks to build around and fade for Friday’s slate.

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NBA DFS Picks: Values + Fades for August 21st

Value Pick: Montrezl Harrell

DraftKings $4,100, FanDuel $4,700, Yahoo $16

Harrell left the bubble due to the death of his grandmother and played limited minutes in his two games since returning. The good news is that he played more minutes in the second game than the first game. This leads me to believe that his minutes are ramping up and I expect full minutes from him sooner rather than later. After the Clippers lost Game 2 to the Mavericks, Los Angeles might have no choice other than to play Harrell bigger minutes. In a tight game, the Clippers can’t afford to fall behind in the series 2-1.

By far, this is the lowest price of the season for Harrell across all NBA DFS platforms. Due to playing limited minutes, his salary is way down and it makes sense. There is some risk in rostering him since we don’t totally know how much run he will get. In GPP, this is a risk I am willing to take. On a slate without much value, I am scrapping the barrel to find cheap players with legitimate upside. As a player who averages over a fantasy point per minute, it’s not difficult to envision a scenario where Harrell plays 25 or more minutes and puts up a big fantasy game.

Stud Pick: Joel Embiid

DraftKings $9.800, FanDuel $9,700, Yahoo $49

The 76ers need a win today. Trailing 2-0 in the series to the Celtics, this sets up Embiid to play extended minutes with a massive usage rating. As is, Philly is leaning heavily on its star center since Ben Simmons is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery. In the first two games of the series, Embiid is averaging 53.25 DraftKings points and taking 18 shots per game. This leads to him putting him 30 points and 13 rebounds per game in the series. These numbers don’t come as a shock since Embiid has a 36.6% usage rating and scores 58 DraftKings points per 36 minutes for the season when Simmons is off the court. The matchup against the Celtics is also favorable since their biggest weakness is a lack of size and defense on the interior.

Fade Pick: Jordan Clarkson

DraftKings $5,500, FanDuel $5,400, Yahoo $19

For the last couple of weeks, Clarkson is one of the players I have had the most exposure to in my lineups. With Bojan Bogdanovic out for the rest of the season and Mike Conley leaving the bubble due to the birth of his son, Utah needed Clarkson to step up. While his real life play is inconsistent, Clarkson comes through pretty consistently in NBA DFS due to the amount of shots he takes when on the court.

All of what I said above might make it seem like Clarkson is a good play. The thing is that his situation is changing. Conley is expected to play after missing the first two playoff games, which almost certainly cuts into Clarkson’s playing time and touches. In addition, his price is up. Due the combination of a decreasing role and an uptick in salary, I am comfortable leaving Clarkson out of my player pool despite some strong recent performances.

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Author

Greg Ehrenberg

Greg is a former stand up comedian who quit telling jokes to pursue a career in the world of DFS. He started playing fantasy sports in 6th grade when Greg and his friends would skip classes to meet in the bathroom for 20 team fantasy basketball drafts. Considering his current career path, it was the best education he could have asked for.