We got early word that Ricky Rubio is out so his backup, Royce O’Neale, is today’s must play. There’s also tremendous value in Atlanta, where the Hawks are seemingly waving the white flag on the 17-18 season.
Royce O’Neale (4.3k DK, 4.3k FD): Royce is far and away the best value on today’s DraftKings slate and right up there in FanDuel. If you’re entering multiple lineups I’d consider locking him. He put up a dud in a the last game with only 11 DK points, which will keep his ownership below where it should be. If he starts and plays 38 minutes again, that’ll be a highly unlikely outcome. In the prior game, his only other start, O’Neale filled in admirably at a starter going for 8x value. His price has gone up a little but at 4.3k on both sites, he’s still an incredible value. Probability of Top-3 Value: 25.9% DK, 32.3% FD.
Taurean Prince (4.6k DK, 4k FD), Malcolm Delaney (3.5k DK, 3.5k FD), Dewayne Dedmon (5.5k DK, 5.7k FD), John Collins (4.6k DK, 5.1k FD), Tyler Dorsey (3.8k DK, 3.7k FD): You can get away with playing pretty much any Hawk today. Not only are they short on bodies but they lack any offensive firepower whatsoever. Atlanta’s top offensive players are either all “injured” (Dennis Schroder, Kent Bazemore, and Ersan Ilyasova who are really just resting) or recently released (Marco Belinelli). I don’t know exactly where the shots will come from in this makeshift unit but someone is going to have to take them. And each of these guys is not going to need much offense to exceed value. Get lots of exposure to Hawks and if entering multiple lineups, diversify among them. Probability of Top-3 Value: Prince 19.8% DK, 36.5% FD; Delaney 19.4% DK, 26.6% FD; Dedmon 17.6% DK, 26.3% FD; Collins 17.2% DK, 19.5% FD; Dorsey 13.6% DK; 19.2% FD.
