NBA DFS Building Blocks for Saturday, October 23 | Today, 10/23/21

Saturday, Oct. 23, brings us a seven-game main slate. Let’s look at the player pool and discuss the top NBA DFS picks for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. Do not forget to head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS home page for more great written daily fantasy basketball content.

**Be sure to check out Awesemo’s free premium content today: the NBA Boom/Bust Tool, which will help you when making NBA DFS picks.**

NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Saturday, Oct. 23

Yahoo Play of the Day — Karl-Anthony Towns: Minnesota Timberwolves vs. New Orleans Pelicans

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 46.75 | DraftKings: 48.93
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 16.8% | FanDuel 1.9% | DraftKings 10.5%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $45 | FanDuel $11,000 | DraftKings $10,200

Tonight will be the third game in four nights for the Pelicans, who lost in Chicago on Friday. This is just the second game of the season for the Timberwolves who should be fresh and are favored by half a dozen points. Not only is Zion Williamson out, but it is now Jonas Valanciunas who is manning the pivot position instead of Steven Adams. Karl-Anthony Towns is quite familiar with Valanciunas, and the last four times they squared off while Valanciunas was with Memphis, Towns averaged 31.5 minutes with 25.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1.8 combined blocks and steals. Anything less than 50-plus Yahoo Fantasy points tonight is going to be a disappointment.

Paul George: Los Angeles Clippers vs. Memphis Grizzlies

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 44.74 | DraftKings: 46.85
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 20.4% | FanDuel 12.6% | DraftKings 15.0%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $44 | FanDuel $10,200 | DraftKings $9,800

This is Paul George’s team with Kawhi Leonard likely out for the season while he recovers from a knee injury. There will be times where we are likely to see George get rest days, but this is not one of those moments. The Clippers lost by a bucket to the Warriors and have had 48 hours to think about that before making their home debut. This should be an up-tempo and closely contested affair with Los Angeles favored by 3.5 points and a 225 game total. Most nights George is going to be getting a 30-35% usage rate, which should have him in the top 10 among all players. That is likely to lead to more 50-plus fantasy-point performances than at any other time in his career. Enjoy the 10-15% discount on his salary tonight.

Giannis Antetokounmpo: Milwaukee Bucks at San Antonio Spurs

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 52.22 | DraftKings: 53.93
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 17.8% | FanDuel 22.1% | DraftKings 24.4%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $55 | FanDuel $11,200 | DraftKings $10,500

For Bucks fans searching for a silver lining, Giannis Antetkounmpo should be well rested after playing just shy 23 minutes on Thursday in road loss to the Heat. Even though he did not play the final 17 minutes of the game, he still rolled up an amazing 37 Yahoo Fantasy points. While the Bucks should win this game as 7.5-point road favorites and San Antonio having played in Denver last night and against Orlando on Wednesday, even in 25-30 minutes, Antetokounmpo can reach the 50 fantasy-point plateau. There are plenty of discount options where we can easily afford a luxury play like the two-time NBA MVP.

Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies

Derrick White: San Antonio Spurs at Denver Nuggets

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 32.78 | DraftKings: 33.45
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 69.2% | FanDuel 35.2% | DraftKings 19.7%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $10 | FanDuel $5,900 | DraftKings $5,900

For the second straight day, the Yahoo salary algorithm missed Derrick White. If you followed along with Friday’s recommendation alerting you to this oversight, you enjoyed 40.4 Yahoo Fantasy points at the rock-bottom salary. We are in the same situation again tonight and it is not like facing the Bucks at home is any more difficult than playing in Denver against the Nuggets last night. This will be the third game in four days for the Spurs, but that should not dissuade us from making the fifth-year guard a core part of our Saturday player pool.

Chris Duarte: Indiana Pacers vs. Miami Heat

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 28.51 | DraftKings: 29.0
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 31% | FanDuel 19.3% | DraftKings 39.1%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $12 | FanDuel $5,500 | DraftKings $3,900

This will be the third time this season for rookie Chris Duarte being a recommended play on Yahoo. There is a little concern as he did play 45 minutes last night during an overtime loss in Washington and he racked up 33 minutes in the season opener on Wednesday. However, with Caris LeVert recovering from a back injury, the Pacers need Duarte’s offense so things are not predictably consolidated with Malcolm Brogdon and Domantas Sabonis. While Myles Turner had a career-high 40 points last night, that was only the second time in his last 80 games where he topped 25-plus points. Though the Heat are a much better defense than the Wizards, this is a forgiving salary and we really just need 20-25 Yahoo Fantasy points for this recommendation to succeed tonight.

Jalen Brunson: Dallas Mavericks at Toronto Raptors

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 18.98 | DraftKings: 19.8
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 3.8% | FanDuel 1.6% | DraftKings 7.3%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $10 | FanDuel $4,600 | DraftKings $4,000

Tonight is the third game in four days for the Raptors, who recovered from their disappointing loss to the Wizards by crushing Boston 115-83. While Jalen Brunson is coming off the bench, outside of the final four minutes of the game that was well out of hand, he handled the point guard duties every time Luka Doncic was on the bench. They also played 17 minutes together, which should give Brunson access to 24-26 minutes per game, along with a couple more as part of the closing unit in tight games.

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS picks for the Saturday, Oct. 23 Slate

Saturday should be a high-scoring night in the fantasy tournaments with so many players receiving incorrect salaries for their current roles and workloads. Keep in mind that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a slam-dunk play on Yahoo may be a below-average NBA DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.

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].

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