Fresh from Fantasy Stars: Our Moneyball NBA thoughts for Wednesday the 2nd March.
Overall thoughts on the slate of games
As always the Golden State game/total gets the fantasy community very excited, tonight its the Hawks who also might see an increase across the board in fantasy production. Al Horford comes up big on our numbers particularly.
Two double-digit spreads to be cautious of are Phoenix v Charlotte and Atlanta v Golden State.
All totals over 200 and once again Miami feature in the lowest and a possible fade game unless there’s big value on offer.
Derrick Rose is a GTD for the Bulls clash with Miami. We expect him to play but his status is still unclear. You certainly don’t need anymore than a small exposure on him tonight.
Vegas lines
Players to consider
Point Guard
D’Angelo Russell (LA Lakers) $5,600
I watched first hand last night how bad Shane Larkin and Donald Sloan were at defending point guards. Chris Paul had his way with them and whenever he really wanted to score, he did. The Nets are on a back-to-back at Staples Centre and without Kobe (who’s officially OUT tonight) D’Angelo gets his chance to shine. He played very well and produced good fantasy numbers in both games against Memphis. He’s got a terrific chance of producing something upward of x5 value tonight in a rare Laker game that should be pretty close.
Shooting Guard
Dwyane Wade (Miami) $6,700
Wade’s usage remains sky-high in the absence of fellow All-Star Chris Bosh. Normally an SG match-up against Chicago isn’t ideal but tonight with Jimmy Butler still on the sidelines for the Bulls it becomes very juicy. Wade should be able to dominate and there is really only a bad shooting night standing between him and x5 value today.
Gain an edge by checking FanDuel prices on Moneyball NBA players
Small Forward
Nicolas Batum (Charlotte) $7,000
Batum is a gamble tonight because he is coming off two really poor fantasy performances and subsequently he will likely be on the lower ownership side today. However, we like him for the following reasons. He’ll be able to score with ease against the Suns and there is a higher total than what’s usually on the board for Hornets games. He has a great match-up and will accumulate stats in a number of ways. His price is pretty low at 7k and he’s worth a flyer today. We also considered Melo for the SF position and will be playing him in some lineups as well.
Power Forward
Aaron Gordon (Orlando) $6,500
Gordon has scored at least 30 fantasy points in each of his last nine games. He’s growing in confidence each day and with no Even Fournier for the Magic again today most likely, Gordon will have a slightly higher usage rate. He is the perfect player to exploit Dirk’s lack of mobility and he’ll be crashing the boards tonight with ease. A low risk play given his recent production and a good starting point at Power Forward.
Centre
Al Horford (Atlanta) $8,300
We love Horford tonight against the Warriors in a game with a nice high total of 220. He’s in terrific form and his skill-set gravitates well to production against Golden State highlighted by the 66.2 fantasy points he had against them on the 23rd of Feb. Steph Curry is GTD and if he doesn’t play the blowout factor is greatly reduced as well.
Sample Moneyball BANK line-up
