NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks for Friday, April 17th | Stephen Curry

NBA DFS action on Saturday, April 17, locks at 8 p.m. ET with a five-game main slate on Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel. Before locking in lineups, make sure to check out Awesemo’s daily fantasy basketball picks, rankings and projections. Let’s dig into some NBA DFS picks and daily fantasy basketball, including Stephen Curry, Nikola Vucevic and more.

Don’t forget to head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS HOME PAGE for more great written daily fantasy basketball content, including the FREE Deep Dive — the most in-depth article in the industry.

***Get a SNEAK PEEK with our free premium content of the day, the Awesemo Premium NBA Player Projections.***

NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Saturday, April 17th

Yahoo Play of the Day — Tristan Thompson: Boston Celtics vs. Golden State Warriors

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 28.07 | DraftKings: 28.71
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 37.4% | FanDuel 18.2% | DraftKings 25.8%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $12 | FanDuel $4,300 | DraftKings $4,500

Robert Williams will be out again tonight as he is dealing with a sore knee. On Thursday, Tristan Thompson returned to the starting lineup in his stead. While he is not likely to play heavy minutes, something in the 25-27 range is appropriate with a decent chance to see closer to 30 minutes if this games ends up being as close as it is currently projected. The Celtics are just 3.5-point home favorites and this is a nice matchup for them. The Warriors play fast and do not have a daunting defensive frontcourt with Draymond Green and Kevon Looney playing most of the center minutes with rookie James Wiseman out with a torn MCL.

Stephen Curry: Golden State Warriors at Boston Celtics

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 45.84 | DraftKings: 49.23
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 10.2% | FanDuel 21.2% | DraftKings 20.8%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $50 | FanDuel $10,600 | DraftKings $10,300

Hopefully gamers will be worried about Marcus Smart guarding Stephen Curry. That individual matchup does not bother me in the slightest, particularly with Curry seeing 35-36 minutes per game. Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal logged 44 and 42 minutes in last night’s overtime thriller. That heavy workload has led me to tabbing Curry as the best spend up option on tonight’s five game slate.

Curry has a 31.5% usage rate which is the fifth highest in the league among players who have logged at least as many minutes. He is second in the league with 30.7 points per game, third with 20.6 field goal attempts and his 11.8 3-point attempts is one more than any other player. Oh and as a bonus he has a 42.3% success rate which is wild for that kind of volume behind the arc. Enjoy!

Nikola Vucevic: Chicago Bulls vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 43.8 | DraftKings: 45.27
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 28.8% | FanDuel 26.8% | DraftKings 14.6%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $41 | FanDuel $9,000 | DraftKings $9,800

This is a back-to-back for the Bulls who will be leaning heavily on the recently acquired Nikola Vucevic. Zack LaVine is currently in the health and safety protocol which leaves Vucevic as the primary offensive option. Cleveland is a disaster on defense and they are not trying to make the playoffs. The Bulls however are trying, though their five game slide is not doing them any favors. They are favored by a bucket tonight and this should be a reasonably pitched battle. Vucevic should see 20-22 field-goal attempts and anything less than 20 points and 10 rebounds is going to be a major disappoinment.

Good Value

Detroit Pistons at Washington Wizards

The Pistons are in full tank mode and have been liberally resting players for the last two weeks. Jerami Grant has played once in the last five games, though he is expected to start tonight and he should be fresh as a daisy. Mason Plumlee is also expected to play, though it is unlikely he sees more than 24-26 minutes. His presence curtails the upside of Isaiah Stewart who likely will see 20-22 minutes in the rotation barring foul trouble for Plumlee.

Dennis Smith Jr. and Killian Hayes are out and Frank Jackson is questionable. That leaves Cory Joseph who sat the last game and rookie Saben Lee manning the point guard and with the Wizards generally running small lineups they should both see time alongside each other. Saddiq Bey should be in line for 30-32 minutes, though he is a slight risk having played 39 minutes last night. Josh Jackson is the other Detroit wing who interests me as he is reasonably priced for his likely 25 minutes in this cherry matchup.

On the Washington side of the ball most gamers will be flocking to Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal, just keep in mind they both topped 40 minutes last night in the overtime victory. Daniel Gafford is playing some phenomenal ball right now and he is quickly becoming a fan favorite. Even coming off the bench he is carving out a solid 20-22 minutes in the rotation and it should not be long before he moves ahead of Alex Len and Robin Lopez. Definitely make sure he is in your plans tonight at his near minimum salary across the DFS sites.

Risky Value

Devin Booker: Phoenix Suns vs. San Antonio Spurs

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 35.31 | DraftKings: 37.79
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 22.6% | FanDuel 21.8% | DraftKings 13.6%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $35 | FanDuel $8,700 | DraftKings $8,800

While this is a good matchup for the Suns, the Awesemo Boom/Bust tool is not a fan of Devin Booker tonight. Currently there is a 12.9% probability that Booker is in the FanDuel optimal lineup which when compared with his projected level of popularity gives him a negative 8.9% leverage score. There is only a 5.7% likelihood that he exceeds his “boom” score of 5x salary + 10 or 53.5 FanDuel points. Conversely there is a 67.0% chance that he falls below his “bust” threshold of 5x value or 43.5 FanDuel points.

Though Booker continues to be an elite scorer, the addition of Chris Paul has knocked his assist average from 6.6 per game over the last two seasons to 4.5. That along with two fewer trips to the charity stripe per game from last year having him averaging just 37.5 FanDuel fantasy points per game. The Suns are just 1.5 games behind Utah for the best record in the Western Conference and it is clear they have designs on a deep postseason run. Coach Monty Williams has been careful with the minutes for his key players and with the Suns embarking on a five game East Coast road trip beginning Monday, it is unlikely he will deviate from this strategy. That means we are counting on Booker to have an above average night from the field or to luck into a few steals in order to be a tournament difference maker. I would rather let other gamers assume the risk of a mediocre performance tonight.

Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies

  1. Saddiq Bey: DET at WAS – $14
  2. Coby White: CHI vs. CLE – $10
  3. Cameron Payne: PHX vs. SAS – $10

Final Thoughts on the Saturday, April 17th NBA DFS Slate

It looks like we have all of the major news items, but this is the time of the year to expect the unexpected. 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].

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)

Premium Data

NBA DFS Projections

NBA DFS Boom/Bust Probability

NBA DFS Ownership: Night Slate

NBA DFS Ownership – Express Slates

Yahoo! NBA Ownership

FanDuel NBA DFS Ownership

NBA DFS Ownership – Main Slate

NBA Data Central

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.