NBA Glue Guys — 2/9/16
Short NBA slates can be some of the most mind-racking to build line ups. Often the toughest parts of building lineups, regardless of the sport, on short slates is having too many top tier options with seemingly not enough value picks to make your line up come under he salary cap without feeling like your stars and scrubs roster has a 1/100 chance of actually making the cash line. The NBA Glue Guys article will be published on nights with five games or less to show you your cash and GPP options at all five positions to help make roster construction a little bit easier. The criteria, save for super crazy nights, will be players under the $4500 mark; however, the closer we can get to the basement price of $3000 the better. On the other hand, some times small slates will present us with no perceived cash or GPP value meaning you eat the chalky option at the position and move on.
Point Guard
Raul Neto (cash): by all means a point guard getting nearly 35+ minutes a night should be a tournament option, but until he increases his usage rate Neto is a low price cash option. Neto has typically been handling the starting duties for the Jazz all season, yet to only yield the majority of minutes to Burke. However, Burke has already been ruled out with an illness paving the way for Neto to handle the majority of minutes at the point for the Jazz as they face the Mavericks who are giving up 48.44 fantasy points per game to opposing point guards over the last three weeks.
Shooting Guard
Being out after 2AM and looking for value worthy pivots at shooting guard; two places you shouldn’t find yourself. The only pivot I’m looking at is Andre Igoudala who has recently moved his positional eligibility from small forward to shooting guard. For what he’s producing per game I’d really prefer his price be near the minimum, but if you find yourself needing to spend down he is a “why the heck not?” option on a five game slate.
Small Forward
Justice Winslow (GPP): when it comes to NBA DFS their are two teams I inevitably fade players against, and on this short slate those teams (Miami Heat/ San Antonio Spurs) have managed to face each other. While the smart move is to fade a game that will probably end up 35 points short of its projected over/ under, the contrarian move is to pick your spots and end up with a player that could go off at low ownership. With Winslow you know you’re getting 26 minutes, yet his ceiling is determined by how many shots he knocks down. If Kawhi slides over to match up with Dwyane Wade then Winslow could be a sneaky play to get up 10+ shots.
Power Forward
Josh Smith (GPP): as I write this the Vegas odds have yet to be released, but my assumption is the Rockets/ Warriors game will have the highest total for the night considering the teams and the pace they both play at. While I will steer clear of Smith in double ups and 50/50s, I do think Smith is an intriguing play at the 4 spot based off recency bias (2 fantasy points in his last outing), and the chance the Festus Ezili injury forces Golden State to go small and play Harrison Barnes at PF which should be a mismatch Smith can take advantage of.
Mareese Speights (GPP): speaking of the Fezili injury… instead of going small, Warriors coach Steve Kerr could elect to give more minutes to Speights who has no issue getting up shots while on the court. For only $3100 he needs 18 fantasy points to hit value, and if given at least 20 minutes he should hit that 6x value benchmark
Center
Tyler Zeller (GPP): if Brad Stevens does anything well it’s keeping us on our toes about his big man rotation. Tyler Zeller must have started finally getting his Dunkin Donuts order right on the way to practice because he’s been given 19 minutes in 3 of his last 4 games. More importantly for us, Zeller is putting up at the minimum of 1 fantasy point per minute played all the way to near 1.4 fantasy points per minute. Like Speights and Neto mentioned above he is at the basement price for FantasyHub so be sure to jump on this production train before Brad Stevens starts giving his other power forwards/ centers more minutes.
