Tuesday, October 25 brings a four-game main slate tipping off at 7:00 p.m. ET on DraftKings and FanDuel. Let’s look at the player pool and discuss the top NBA DFS picks today for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. As always, you can head over to the Stokastic NBA DFS & Fantasy Basketball home page for all the fantasy basketball content you need for any given slate. Let’s dive into our NBA DFS Building Blocks.
NBA DFS Building Blocks Today: Tuesday, October 25
Core Play of the Day — Luka Doncic: Dallas Mavericks-New Orleans Pelicans
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 57.78 | FanDuel: 54.26
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 42.7% | FanDuel: 60.3%
- DFS Salary: DraftKings: $11,100 | FanDuel: $11,200
This recommendation is relatively simple. Luka Doncic projects for 15 more fantasy points than anyone else in the player pool. Devin Booker and Stephen Curry each project for just over 40 fantasy points and Paul George is out with an illness and Zion Williamson is questionable with a bruised hip.
Doncic is likely to approach the 70% popularity threshold as we get closer to lock, which makes sense as it will be hard to replace those raw points. That does not mean it is going to be impossible to find production elsewhere for the same salary allocated to other players and there are a variety of ways to approach tournaments tonight. This is our first really intriguing game theory puzzle of the season.
CJ McCollum: New Orleans Pelicans-Dallas Mavericks
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 37.44 | FanDuel: 35.92
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 22.5% | FanDuel: 26.6%
- DFS Salary: DraftKings: $8,000 | FanDuel: $8,300
Brandon Ingram is out tonight with a concussion and Williamson is dealing with a bruised hip. That means CJ McCollum will need to be the focal point of the offense, particularly if Williamson misses this game. in 29 regular season games with New Orleans, McCollum has averaged a 29.2% usage rate with nearly 1.2 fantasy points per minute. Thus far in 599 minutes without Ingram on the court, that fantasy production increases by nearly 10%.
It is very early in the season, but we have seen Dallas go from last in the league with 98 possessions per 48 minutes, to 100.8 which is in the top third of the league. That will likely drop back to the middle of the pack, but it is an improvement for opposing teams.
Jonas Valanciunas: New Orleans Pelicans-Dallas Mavericks
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 33.11 | FanDuel: 31.75
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 11.4% | FanDuel: 16.1%
- DFS Salary: DraftKings: $7,800 | FanDuel: $7,600
Jonas Valanciunas should see additional rebounding opportunities and a couple extra field goal attempts as part of a trickle down effect in filling the void left by Ingram. If Williamson is out, then JoVal is a phenomenal option on a level similar to Doncic. Since the McCollum trade, Valanciunas is averaging 1.35 fantasy points per minute with McCollum on the court and Ingram off the court. In these minutes, the Lithuanian sees an uptick in his rebounding and assist rates, along with more field goal attempts.
Additional NBA DFS Picks Today – Sports Wagering Opportunities
Saddiq Bey is an interesting option in the NBA player props market where he has a 4.5 over/under rebounds prop. The Stokastic NBA player projections have him for 6.4 rebounds and a 76% chance of surpassing this milestone. Through three games, Bey is averaging a career best 8.0 rebounds, though last year he still was at 5.4 rebounds per game, with similar minutes. This feels like a strong wager and one that can be used in parlays as well.
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Los Angeles Clippers-Oklahoma City Thunder
Get ready for a full season of Clippers analysis with this team managing the workload of their key players. George has been ruled out with an illness and Marcus Morris Sr. is away from the team for personal reasons. Even without these players and Kawhi Leonard likely settling in for around mid-20s minutes per game for the next month, Los Angeles is nearly double-digit road favorites.
Ivica Zubac, Norman Powell, Robert Covington and Reggie Jackson are all candidates for 30 minutes tonight and we know that John Wall can be productive at around a fantasy point per minute in this scenario. Wall is likely to see similar minutes to Leonard as he has missed the better part of the last three seasons for a variety of reasons.
The Thunder are without their three best players with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey out with “injuries” and top draft pick Chet Holmgren out for the season. This will be a fluid rotation, but Luguentz Dort and Tre Mann have the best paths to approaching 30 minutes. The rest of OKC is a gigantic question mark as they are already in full tanking mode and who knows what the rotation will look like on a night to night basis.
Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks Today
Tonight we have three games tipping off in the first hour, then a two-hour respite until the West Coast action begins in earnest at 10;00 p.m. ET. Set a reminder to check news before the final game or even better – enable push notifications from the Stokastic NBA Twitter account.
Be sure to check out the Stokastic NBA Boom/Bust tool which is a must for tournament players. Clicking on this link will allow you to get 10 days of all-access Stokastic+ for just $10 dollars, including projections and tools for every sport. FINAL DAY OF THIS OFFER.
