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 DFS projections.

NBA Daily Fantasy Rankings & Big Board Projections

Luka Doncic, PG/SF, Dallas Mavericks

DraftKings Points Rating: 96 | FanDuel Points Rating: 96

There are exactly four players on this slate that have a point rating at 96 or higher. One is Nikola Jokic, who is discussed in-depth in the Monday Slate Starter article. It is fair to note that Doncic has been slow to start the season, and his Boom/Bust odds do not look super kind at the moment. However, he reminded everyone just how high the ceiling can be with 80 DraftKings points in the last game, and he faces Denver tonight.

The Nuggets are playing a back-to-back set and could be without multiple starters in the lineup tonight. It is difficult to envision which individual matchup would be an issue for Doncic, and this season has seen him rack up a 36% usage rate and 1.45 fantasy points per minute. Denver is also 22nd in points per possession allowed on isolations, while Doncic scores the sixth-most points per game. Doncic is also shooting just 38.5% in the play type, compared to 46.3% last year. He could start to see a regression to the mean as soon as tonight.

Talen Horton-Tucker, SG/SF, Los Angeles Lakers

DraftKings Value Rating: 100 | FanDuel Value Rating: 93

It is not that often that a value player has a 100 rating, but that is the case for Horton-Tucker tonight. DraftKings left his salary at minimum even though he made his return to the lineup yesterday. Horton-Tucker played 27 minutes in his first game back, and LeBron James remains out of the lineup for the Lakers. He was able to score 27 DraftKings points despite shooting poorly from 3-point distance and a 27.9% usage rate in his first game back was very encouraging.

Anthony Davis stayed above 31% for his usage rate, while Russell Westbrook took the backseat at 23.9%. Of course, drawing any long-term conclusions from a 27-minute sample size is not the smart way to look at this. It is more to see what the Lakers could look like with Horton-Tucker in the lineup, and frankly, even if he and Westbrook switched usage rates, it would be more than enough to play Horton-Tucker at this salary. DraftKings especially gave the field a free square tonight.

Horton-Tucker is showing up extremely well in the Awesemo projections and rankings, which Zach Brunner wrote about further in his NBA DFS Grades & Values article.

Latest NBA DFS Content

DeMar DeRozan, PF, Chicago Bulls

DraftKings Points Rating: 92 | FanDuel Points Rating: 92

DeRozan is the one player on the big board with a point rating of 92 or higher and a leverage score over 55 on both sites tonight. The Bulls continue to be without center Nikola Vucevic, and even though they are on a back-to-back as well, DeRozan is carrying a heavy load of the offense. Zach LaVine has him beat in usage rate at 37.7% to 33.6%, but DeRozan has the advantage in fantasy points per minute, 1.27 to 1.16.

DeRozan is eighth in points scored from driving to the basket, and the Lakers are 19th in points allowed in the paint. Additionally, the Lakers are second in pace, first in possessions per game and just 14th in defensive rating. That is a great mix for DeRozan, along with sitting 12th in pull-up points per game.

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