NBA Daily Fantasy Rankings & DFS Optimizer Picks Tonight

The NBA DFS Big Board is a one-stop shop for building lineups. It gives each player on the slate a Points Rating, Value Rating and Leverage Rating on a scale from 1 to 100, which allows you to easily decipher some of the top options on the slate. There are 11 games tonight so let us dive into some of the NBA daily fantasy rankings using the Big Board and Awesemo’s NBA Projections.

NBA Daily Fantasy Rankings & Big Board Projections

Jonas Valanciunas, C, New Orleans Pelicans

DraftKings Points Rating: 96 | FanDuel Points Rating: 95

There is one player tonight with a point rating of at least 95 on both sites under the $10,000, and it is Valanciunas. He has a cake-walk matchup in the paint tonight against the Nets, who are 21st in points in the paint allowed and 17th in rebounds allowed. Valanciunas has been seeing more consistent minutes this year, and that is one of the more notable aspects of his tenure with the Pelicans. The Grizzlies did not always commit to playing him 34 minutes per night as he is right now. He has always been a strong point-per-minute player, and that trend has continued this year at 1.30 to go along with a 23.8% usage rate.

Brandon Ingram could make his return to the lineup, as he practiced yesterday, but that may not have the largest effect on the fantasy outlook for Valanciunas. Even when Ingram was active, Valanciunas was leading the Pelicans in touches per game, and only Rudy Gobert sees more rebounding chances per game than the 23.4 Valanciunas is currently averaging. Lastly, Valanciunas has a very strong correlation in the Boom/Bust Tool on DraftKings especially. He has the seventh-highest chance of being in the optimal lineup, and that 12.2% percentage is slightly more than double his 6% projected ownership.

Zach Brunner also loved Valanciunas tonight and points to the Awesemo Rankings Grades and Values for part of the reason.

Darius Garland, G, Cleveland Cavaliers

DraftKings Value Rating: 91 | FanDuel Value Rating: 90

The field certainly appears to be homing in on the Cleveland backcourt again tonight, as Garland and teammate Ricky Rubio are both extremely popular. That is not a huge surprise since Collin Sexton is out for the next few weeks with a knee injury. Rubio is the more efficient player, at 1.25 fantasy points per minute, but Garland is playing more minutes, with 35 and 36 in the past two games. In addition, it is not like the 0.94 fantasy points per minute for Garland are horrible, and both members of the backcourt run pick-and-roll at a frequency of at least 39.9% this season.

The Pistons have allowed the third-fewest points to the ball handler in pick-and-roll sets, but they also have only given up a 33.6% field goal percentage. Garland is shooting over 52% in his attempts, so there is still strong potential in the play type. He could also provide value in the prop market, so be sure to look at the Awesemo Player Prop Tool, as Garland has a 70% chance to hit the over for his assist prop.

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Bobby Portis, PF/C, Milwaukee Bucks

DraftKings Value Rating: 85 | FanDuel Value Rating: 91

The salary on DraftKings has the value rating for Portis a little bit further down the board (11th) than FanDuel, where he is first. It also helps that steals and blocks count for 3 points on that site, so Portis has slightly more appeal since he has averaged 1.1 blocks and 0.9 steals per game.

In the past three games Portis has exceeded 30 minutes twice and recorded a double-double in each. He has been starting for the short-handed Bucks, and that is the expectation this evening as well. Since the Bucks are missing Khris Middleton, Portis has been a little more involved in the offense and has at least 11 field goal attempts to go along with his 25.8% usage rate and 1.12 fantasy points per minute.

Both of those metrics are behind only Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Milwaukee offense right now as Jrue Holiday finds his groove after missing time with a foot injury. The Celtics are 24th in rebounding percentage on the season and have the eighth-highest turnover percentage, both aspects they should help Portis find his way to a strong fantasy score.

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