NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks for Wednesday, July 14th | Chris Paul

Wednesday, July 14, has Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks looking for the series equalizer before heading back to the desert for Saturday’s Game 5. Let’s look at the Bucks vs. Suns 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, including the FREE NBA Deep Dive — the most in-depth article in the industry.

**Be sure to check out Awesemo’s free premium content today: the NBA Showdown/Single-Game Projections, which will help you when making NBA DFS picks. **

NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Wednesday, July 14

Yahoo Play of the Day — Giannis Antetokounmpo: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Phoenix Suns

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 56.3 | DraftKings: 58.65
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 85.5% | FanDuel 77.5% | DraftKings 75.2%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $55 | FanDuel $16,000 | DraftKings $12,200

It has now been 16 days since Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a hyperextended left knee. Though he was clearly impacted in Game 1, he still managed 35.4 minutes, and Game 2 brought further improvement with continuous treatment; that said, he did not make many lateral moves. Game 3 on Sunday was played in Milwaukee, and Giannis was rarely tentative and led the Bucks to a 120-100 victory.

Of course, Giannis has played two of the best games of his career in the last week, which is saying something considering he is a two-time MVP. In the last two games, he has averaged just shy of 39 minutes and 17.5 field-goal attempts. This has culminated in 41.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, five assists and 2.5 combined blocks/steals. It seems crazy to not be playing Giannis in the highest-multiplier slot available at this point.

Chris Paul: Phoenix Suns at Milwaukee Bucks

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 43.19 | DraftKings: 44.36
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 60.5% | FanDuel 47.7% | DraftKings 56.9%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $34 | FanDuel $14,000 | DraftKings $9,600

The last 6 1/2 weeks have been full of twists and turns for Chris Paul. In this stretch he has played 17 postseason games, dealt with a shoulder injury and also missed two games due to COVID-19. Only a handful of guards have played 40-plus minutes in the NBA Finals, and Paul joined that group with 41.5 in Game 2. On Sunday, with the game slipping out of reach, coach Monty Williams kept Devin Booker on the bench for the entire fourth quarter, and Deandre Ayton played only the first three minutes. Paul left the game for good with 5:20 remaining. Hopefully the three days off have helped this trio recharge, as they are going to need to be close to 100% to steal one tonight in Milwaukee. Paul offers a safe 30- to 32-fantasy-point floor and another 15-plus fantasy points in attainable upside.

Deandre Ayton: Phoenix Suns at Milwaukee Bucks

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 40.83 | DraftKings: 41.22
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 40.5% | FanDuel 39.2% | DraftKings 53.9%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $30 | FanDuel $13,000 | DraftKings $8,400

Coach Monty Williams did coach Mike Budenholzer a solid by sitting Deandre Ayton after he picked up his fourth foul with 10:25 to go in the third quarter. At first it looked like the Suns would weather the storm, as Cameron Johnson helped them close the deficit from 13 to 4 points. However, the Bucks closed out the quarter on a 16-0 run. Ayton ended up playing only 24.8 minutes, so hopefully a byproduct of this disastrous outcome is that he has fresh legs tonight.

This was the first game of the postseason where Ayton was in early foul trouble. It would make sense for the Bucks to make it a priority to go at him early and often tonight. However, one would also like to think that coach Williams realizes that without Ayton the Suns are a dramatically different team, one that is not going to fare well against Milwaukee. In his last eight games, Ayton has notched 40-plus fantasy points five times, with the other three being 37.8, 28.7 and Sunday’s 32.8. Do not shy away from Ayton because of one poor outcome.

Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies

Milwaukee Bucks

  1. Pat Connaughton, $11: Even excluding his own six minutes of mop-up duty, Connaughton still had more minutes than the rest of the reserves combined. He is by far the best bench option in all fantasy formats tonight as a true discount dandy.
  2. P.J. Tucker, $11: While Tucker did see his minutes slip below 30 for only the second time in the last seven games, he made three of his five field-goal attempts and also nabbed two steals to flirt with 20 fantasy points in most scoring systems. While he is a more stable play than Bobby Portis, his upside is not as high — though he likely will be able to outscore his teammate more often than not because of his seemingly secure minutes.
  3. Bobby Portis, $10: Portis is capable of piling up fantasy points in a hurry, but it is the playing time that has been concerning as he is essentially just playing backup center. While he has played alongside Lopez when Giannis is off the court, that is not a guarantee. Additionally, Portis only saw two minutes of mop-up duty, so even in that scenario he is not guaranteed playing time. The upside is 20 fantasy points, with single digits very much in play on the downside.

Phoenix Suns

  1. Cameron Johnson, $10: The trickledown impact of Ayton’s limited playing time gave most of the Phoenix wings a boost, as they were playing Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder and Johnson together for long stretches during the third and fourth quarter. Johnson had one of the best postseason dunks of 2021 while also playing 30 minutes and notching 20 fantasy points. This was likely his upside performance, but he is far and away the best discount dandy on Yahoo tonight.
  2. Cameron Payne, $13: Game 3 was the best possible outcome for Payne barring an in-game injury to Paul or Booker as he played the final 8:40 of the fourth quarter. Without this bonus rotation, he would have been in the 16-minute and 10-fantasy-point range.
  3. Frank Kaminsky and Abdel Nader, $10: Even with Ayton dealing with four fouls, this duo had just six combined minutes of non-blowout action. Nader ended up with no fantasy points in 7.3 minutes, while Kaminsky had 12.8 Yahoo fantasy points in 13.7 minutes.

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS picks for the Wednesday, July 14 Slate

Brook Lopez is still a wild card who should be getting more minutes, but Budenholzer does not like to change things up. There is a chance that he will realize that he needs to have the offense attacking Ayton in the hopes of forcing him into cheap fouls. However, that is a stretch for someone so set in his ways. Monty Williams, on the other hand, needs to realize that benching Ayton is essentially the same thing as him fouling out, and it is not particularly helpful letting him play only 95 seconds in the third quarter. Tonight should be a fun one, so be smart with bankrolls and contest selection; a Game 5 is guaranteed on Saturday night.

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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