AP’s CORE FIVE
Happy Tuesday Karma Nation! With this being a smaller slate, I will not be doing an AP NBA Playbook. Below, you will find my CORE 5 plays that will make their way into my lineups tonight. As always, these plays could change with last minute injury news.
POINT GUARD, Trae Young, 6,700 (ELITE)
My initial hope was that Trae Young would somehow go under the radar due to his volatile (and lack of) playing time over the past four games. Despite not seeing more than 30 minutes over his last four games, he has averaged over 30 DraftKings points in these games. Jeremy Lin, arguably, was Young’s largest threat to cutting into his minutes on the court. With Lin gone, we *should* see Young return to that 32-34+ minute role. Young came into the league as a shooter; but you must appreciate how he has developed his passing game. His ability to rack up peripherals & raw scoring coupled with the fact that he should see more court time makes him an elite play tonight.
POINT GUARD (PIVOT), Rajon Rondo, 5,900 (GPP PIVOT)
Rondo played under 16 minutes against the Sixers. I didn’t watch the game but after talking to a few trusted sources, Luke must have been leaning on a rotation with size to matchup with the Sixers. Obviously, this didn’t work. Rondo should resume his normal role tonight against Trae Young who is a terrible defender.
POINT GUARD (2ND PIVOT), Stephen Curry, 9,000 (GPP2 PIVOT)
If you haven’t noticed, I absolutely love the first game on this slate. I want to stack that game up in a bunch of different ways in tournaments. However, I feel like I’ll need a ‘late game hammer’ play. I typically avoid the Warriors as they just have too many mouths to feed. I don’t mind using one of their all-stars as a ‘one-off’ in tournament lineups. The Jazz are good at limiting peripheral stats which is why I think Curry is the stud I’ll target in this game. I love his raw scoring upside and he is much overdue for one of those 35+ point games.
SHOOTING GUARD, Blank
SMALL FORWARD – Lebron James, 10,500 (CORE)
Since returning from injury, LeBron has put himself into a position to log a triple double in each of the games he has played. He has only logged one true triple double in the four games he has played. However, he been just an assist, or a few rebounds shy of a triple double in the three other games. In my opinion, the pace of this game and lack of defense is going to increase The King’s ceiling. The increase in pace leads to extra opportunity’s while the lack of defense should increase his assist and raw scoring rates. In a must win game, the King puts up over 60 DraftKings points tonight.
POWER FORWARD – John Collins, 7,600 (ELITE GPP)
If you follow my content, you know I often get frustrated with the Hawks rotations. With that noted, in competitive games, Collins is one of their players we can count on to log big minutes on the court. He is going to be a matchup nightmare for this Lakers squad. Collins has been quiet lately, I’m hoping this recency bias keeps his ownership down. Mark my word, Collins has 50+ DraftKing point upside and it should be on full display tonight against the Lakers.
CENTER – JaVale McGee, 4,800 (CORE)
Both Mike Muscala and Tyson Chandler are questionable coming into tonight’s game. I’m tagging McGee as a core play whether both players are ruled in or out. If both Chandler and Muscala are ruled out, McGee will probably end up around 80%+ owned. If they are ruled in, we should be able to get McGee at much lower ownership (40-45%). The latter is a far more attractive scenario and I believe McGee will produce whether or not the other two centers play.
GUARD – Blank
FORWARD – Taurean Prince, 4,500 (CORE)
Prince is the Hawks best chance of slowing down LeBron James. Prince is known for his defensive skillset who occasionally flashes the ability to put up big numbers offensively. Most importantly, Prince will most likely be on the court whenever LeBron is in the game; this gives him 35 to 38-minute upside.
UTL – Blank
Young at PG-> $5,300 left per position
Rondo at PG-> $5,567 left per position
Curry at PG-> $4,533 left per position
CHALK THAT COULD BUST -> Reggie Bullock -> It pains me to say it, but if I had to list a ‘potential chalk play that could bust’, it would have to be him. Bullock is raw scoring dependent who is still figuring out his role on this Lakers team. If his shot isn’t going down, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him put up a low number. *Full Disclosure* – No, I am not completely fading Reggie Bullock tonight.
GPP PLAY THAT COULD BLOW UP (In a good way) -> Gordon Hayward -> Hayward has been hit or miss all season. But with Kyrie out, he has typically been more hit than miss, if he is priced appropriately. He is also a guy I like playing in ‘prime time’ matchups and that is exactly what we have tonight.
