The Slate Starter is a daily first look at to get your daily fantasy basketball lineup-building process started before lock tonight. Each day, we will go through some of the best NBA DFS picks, top stacks and optimal lineup construction for DraftKings and FanDuel. Be sure to check Awesemo’s NBA Starting Lineups page, as it will be updated throughout the day as the NBA injury reports are released and breaking news surfaces. Let’s dive into some players who stand out as key options on Monday’s seven-game slate.
Want to see how your lineup stacked up against yesterday’s winning NBA DFS lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo? Check out Awesemo’s Optimal Lineup Review, which uses Fantasy Cruncher Rewind to analyze the winning plays from the night before.
NBA DFS Picks & Optimal Lineup Construction | Jan. 10
Bobby Portis, PF/C, Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks and Hornets will square off on Monday, which should be one of the best games on the slate from a fantasy perspective. Both of these teams rank in the top seven in terms of pace – the Hornets rank first in that department – and they also rank in the top eight in offensive efficiency. The total on this game currently sits at 235 points, so there should be plenty of offense in this matchup.
The Bucks stand out as the clear preferred target. Not only are they slight favorites in this matchup, but they also have a few players sidelined at the moment. That should result in a few additional minutes for Portis. He racked up 37.3 minutes in his last contest, and Portis can do some serious damage with that much playing time. He is averaging 1.17 DraftKings points per minute this season.
Portis is in play across the industry, but his $6,000 price tag on FanDuel is egregious. Expect him to grade out as one of the best values in our NBA Projections.
Royce O’Neale, SF/PF, Utah Jazz
The Jazz are another team dealing with some key absences at the moment. Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles, and Rudy Gay are all sidelined due to health and safety protocols, which leaves the team thin in the frontcourt.
That means O’Neale should play all the minutes he can handle. He racked up 38.2 minutes in the Jazz’s last contest, and he finished with 23.0 DraftKings points. O’Neale is pedestrian on a per-minute basis – he is averaging just 0.69 DraftKings points per minute this season – but that is a ton of playing time for someone who costs just $4,500. O’Neale has historically averaging 23.91 in 29 career games with at least 36 minutes of playing time, and he should easily hit that threshold if Monday’s game stays competitive.
O’Neale also should not command much ownership. If his ownership projection is reasonable, he should fare well from a leverage perspective in the Boom/Bust Probability tool.
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R.J. Barrett, SG/SF, New York Knicks
The Knicks are another team that could provide some value on Monday. They have Kemba Walker, Evan Fournier, and Nerlens Noel listed as questionable, and Derrick Rose remains out with a long-term injury.
They were without all four players in their last game, and Barrett logged a massive workload in their absence. He finished with 42.6 minutes, and he has played at least 41.7 minutes in two of his past three games. It is hard to find someone with more minutes’ upside. Barrett also attempted 21 shots in that contest, which was tied for his highest volume of the year. Overall, there is plenty to like with Barrett on Monday, especially if the Knicks are shorthanded again.
Barrett could also be worth exploring in the player prop market. He shot just 33% from the field in his last game, which limited him to a pedestrian 19 points. He should be able to eclipse that mark with some positive shooting regression, so it will be interesting to see how the over on his scoring prop grades out in the Awesemo Player Prop tool.
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