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 plenty of key players sidelined on Wednesday’s 11-game slate, which makes it a stars-and-scrubs kind of night. Let’s 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

Anthony Davis, PF/C, Los Angeles Lakers

DraftKings Points Rating: 96 | FanDuel Points Rating: 98

LeBron James has been ruled out for Thursday’s matchup against the Thunder, which means Davis and Russell Westbrook both become elite plays. Westbrook might be the superior value on FanDuel given the price difference — Davis is priced at $10,500, Westbrook at $9,200 — but Davis has the edge from a raw points perspective. Awesemo projects Davis for approximately 52.5 FanDuel points, which is more than 5 points higher than every other player on the slate.

Davis has increased his usage rate by 4 percentage points with LeBron off the court this season, resulting in a team-high 1.40 FanDuel points per minute. He has also crushed in two full games without his superstar teammate, averaging 55 FanDuel points per game. The Lakers as a team should be able to do some damage in this matchup. The Thunder rank just 25th in defensive efficiency, and the Lakers have played at the fastest pace in the league. Their offense has not been all that effective without James, but they should still have enough firepower to put up plenty of fantasy points.

Davis was popping as a great leverage play, which Terry McBride wrote about in his NBA DFS Optimal Lineups article today.

Matisse Thybulle, SF, Philadelphia 76ers

DraftKings Value Rating: 96 | FanDuel Value Rating: 96

The 76ers are also dealing with some key absences on this slate. Tobias Harris is out of the lineup due to health and safety protocols, while Ben Simmons is still away from the team. That opens up plenty of minutes.

Thybulle is coming off 38.2 minutes in yesterday’s games, and he responded with 25.5 DraftKings points. Thybulle is extremely limited on offense, but he is good enough in the peripheral categories to make up for it. He has averaged a passable 0.74 DraftKings points per minute this season, and that is more than enough with his projected volume. Thybulle is priced much friendlier on DraftKings, but his skill set it better suited for FanDuel. Overall, he stands out as an excellent value on both sites. The Boom/Bust Probability Tool gives him the third-highest odds of finishing in the optimal lineup on DraftKings and the fourth highest on FanDuel.

Thybulle was also popping in the NBA DFS optimizer, which is used to create our free daily fantasy basketball cheat sheets. Check out the DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo NBA DFS cheat sheets for today.

Latest NBA DFS Content

Josh Giddey, SG/SF, Oklahoma City Thunder

DraftKings Value Rating: 95 | FanDuel Value Rating: 94

It is tough to decide between Thybulle and Giddey as the top value play on Thursday’s slate. Thybulle is cheaper and has better ratings on the Big Board, but Giddey has far more upside. He has averaged a stout 1.07 DraftKings points per minute this season, and he has shown plenty of promise through his first seven NBA games. He posted his first career double-double in his last game against the Lakers, finishing with 38 DraftKings points thanks to 18 points and 10 assists. Giddey is projected for significant ownership on this slate, but he is still showing up with a positive leverage score in the Boom/Bust Probability Tool.

The over on Giddey’s assist prop is also standing out in the Awesemo Player Prop tool. It gives him a 58% chance of hitting the over on 5.5 assists, resulting in a 25% expected return on investment.

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