Welcome to Round 14 of the NBA Yahoo Cup! This free, multi-round, single-entry contest that runs every Friday throughout the rest of the NBA DFS season. Scoring is cumulative for the year-long points race, with your five lowest scores dropped. At the end of the season, a $50,000 prize pool is shared among the top 7,950 competitors, with a whopping $10,000 going to first. But even if you’re late to the game, the top 15 finishers in tonight’s freeroll earn entry to the Final Round, where multiple Las Vegas trips will be up for grabs. Click here to get in on the action!
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Let’s home in on three plays to slot into your NBA DFS lineups for tonight’s Yahoo Cup contest.
NBA DFS Pick No. 1: Kent Bazemore — $10
Stephen Curry and Kelly Oubre are doubtful, and Eric Paschall and James Wiseman are out due to health-and-safety protocols. As a result, Golden State will be walking in Memphis awfully short-handed tonight. That makes a number of these Warriors players intriguing at every price range. It is a fool’s errand to assume Steve Kerr’s starting lineup in this spot, but assuming Kent Bazemore is in it, he immediately becomes my favorite piece of value on the board to utilize in your NBA Yahoo Cup lineup.
Bazemore last filled in for Oubre in the starting unit on March 3 against the Trail Blazers. He promptly put up 26.7 Yahoo points in his near 31 minutes of court time, providing exceptional value for anyone who reacted to the Warriors’ lineup that was released post lock. I’m hoping for a similar situation tonight, as there are a number of $10 plays on this team that will be rostered far less than they should if they happen to start. Let it be known that Draymond Green ($29), Andrew Wiggins ($24) and Jordan Poole ($12) will be the only active Warriors that aren’t minimum salary on Yahoo today, making the entire team viable. But as long as Bazemore starts, he is by far my favorite value of the bunch.
NBA DFS Pick No.2: Robert Williams — $22
With Tristan Thompson out for a third consecutive game, the cluttered Celtics frontcourt becomes much more manageable for NBA DFS purposes. Daniel Theis ($15) has been starting at the five of late, but his up-and-down production makes him tough to trust at one of your power forward spots. Backup center Robert Williams, however, continues to put up gaudy box scores despite inconsistent run. If he gets up to 26 minutes again like he did on Wednesday versus the Cavaliers, the upside his immense, as he demonstrated in that 51.3-fantasy-point outing.
On the season Williams averages an absurd 1.42 Yahoo fantasy points per minute, a rate more akin to players at $45 and above. If he were to receive even low-20s minutes against this far-from-formidable Kings frontcourt, there is a chance he could put up an outrageous score at a discounted salary. But knowing that court time in the 26- to 28-minute range is now feasible in Thompson’s absence, I’m willing to roll out Williams as a high-upside core piece of my Yahoo Cup lineup on Friday.
NBA DFS Pick No. 3: James Harden — $55
One of the best parts about playing over at Yahoo is how sharp their salaries are day in and day out. On other sites, the stars-and-scrubs approach to constructing your NBA DFS lineups can get monotonous, as there is so much overlap between entries on days with stand-out value. On Yahoo, however, the inflated salaries on studs make them far more difficult to roster, creating a balanced approach to lineup building that I believe favors sharper players over any long-term sample size.
With that being said, I will be jamming James Harden into my Yahoo Cup lineup today no matter what. With Kevin Durant off the floor this season, Harden has been playing massive minutes to the tune of a 30% usage rate and a 44.6% assist rate. Also, Awesemo currently has him projected to be rostered at only a 5% clip on Friday, a number far too low considering Harden’s current streak of play. Over his past 14 games, Harden has exceeded 60 Yahoo fantasy points an astounding 10 times while failing to eclipse 48 fantasy points just twice. That combination of floor and ceiling is unrivaled on this (or any other) slate, making him my preferred stud to roster across the NBA DFS industry today.
