NBA DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings & FanDuel | 1/17

NBA DFS action on Sunday, Jan. 17, locks at 7:00 p.m. EST with a four-game main slate. Before you lock in your NBA DFS picks and favorite lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo and SuperDraft, make sure to check out Awesemo’s daily fantasy basketball rankings and projections. Let’s dig into some NBA DFS picks, including Ben Simmons, Domantas Sabonis and more.

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NBA DFS Picks: Key Building Blocks | Jan. 17

Ben Simmons: Philadelphia 76ers at Oklahoma City Thunder

DraftKings $8,600, FanDuel $8,300, Yahoo $34
Ownership Rating (preliminary run): DraftKings 31.1%, FanDuel 42.9% Yahoo 41.2%

Tonight is another consolidated four-game main slate, which will have us looking at a lot of overlap among the top options. This is a back-to-back for the 76ers, who lost a heartbreaker last night 106-104 in Memphis. Though he only took nine shots from the field, Ben Simmons narrowly missed out on a triple-double with 11 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists. The 16 rebounds tied his career high and we could see more of the same tonight with Joel Embiid (knee) not on this road trip. This year Simmons is averaging a tick shy of 40 fantasy points, and he has even taken five 3-point shots, including two last night. They were both misses, but that is encouraging to see.

Utilizing NBA WOWY via AddMoreFunds.com, we can see that since the beginning of last year, in 1,106.7 minutes Simmons averages 1.2 fantasy points per minute with Embiid. In that same timeframe without Embiid, Simmons still averages 1.2 fantasy points per minute, but we do see an increase in his rebounding rate. Tonight Simmons should find success driving to the hoop with Al Horford away from the team.

Domantas Sabonis: Indiana Pacers at Los Angeles Clippers

DraftKings $9,800, FanDuel $9,600, Yahoo $47
Ownership Rating (preliminary run): DraftKings22.5%, FanDuel 37.5% Yahoo 24.2%

With last night’s game in Phoenix postponed, the Pacers got a brief respite from their five-in-seven West Coast swing. In a good news/bad news situation, newly acquired Caris LeVert will be sidelined after his post-trade physical uncovered a mass on one of his kidneys. If he had not been traded, this may have continued to go undetected, which is a scary thought. Hopefully this is nothing serious and he is able to return to the court soon.

Domantas Sabonis has been sublime this season, averaging 21.9 points, 12.8 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.2 combined blocks/steals. We should again see him on the court for 37-38 minutes and a chance to hit 40 if the game is close. The only knock against Sabonis is that he has not made a 3-pointer in five games, missing all nine of his attempts.


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NBA DFS Picks: Good Value

Mike Conley: Utah Jazz at Denver Nuggets

DraftKings $7,100, FanDuel $7,400, Yahoo $25
Ownership Rating (preliminary run): DraftKings 13.8%, FanDuel 17.6% Yahoo 18.2%

I am going back to the well with this recommendation. Here were my thoughts from Friday: Last year, while dealing with a myriad of injuries, Mike Conley managed just 0.9 fantasy points per game. This season he is fully healthy and has bounced back with nearly 1.1 fantasy points per minute. The 33-year-old is nicely priced across the board, and gamers do not seem to trust him just yet.

While this matchup is not nearly as good as his last three games against Atlanta, Cleveland and Detroit, Conley once again is getting lost in the shuffle. Though he has a realistic ceiling of something in the low-40s for fantasy points, he has a very high floor, approaching 30 fantasy points barring an in-game mishap. On today’s slate that is some top-shelf safety for a very palatable price point.

NBA DFS Picks: Risky Value and Strategy

Dwight Howard: Philadelphia 76ers at Oklahoma City Thunder

DraftKings $4,800, FanDuel $4,400, Yahoo $10
Ownership Rating (preliminary run): DraftKings 40.0%, FanDuel 25.7% Yahoo 50.4%

Dwight Howard was outstanding last night, flirting with 40 fantasy points with eight points, 18rebounds, three assists and three blocks. He also played 34 minutes, which was one off of his season high. That game was on Monday and was the front end of a back-to-back. In the next game Howard played just 13:40 in an overtime affair with the Heat. Embiid played 39:20 in that game for the short-handed 76ers, and we know he and Howard rarely share the floor.

If Howard is starting tonight, a realistic minutes projection would be something in the 24-minute range. Last year, in 86 regular and postseason games with the Lakers, he topped 30 minutes once. The prior year, when he was with the Wizards, he played 30 minutes in three of his nine games before missing the rest of the season with an injury.

On Yahoo we can just lock in Howard and look to differentiate elsewhere. Over on FanDuel playing Howard means we are forgoing Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert and Myles Turner, so it is a reasonable thought to skip Howard there. While on DraftKings we do have more flexibility with our lineups by utilizing multiple-position eligibility and the flex spot, what if Howard has a good game with a double-double and only scores 25-ish fantasy points? Measuring the likely fantasy outcome against the mega popularity will be a viable way to differentiate our rosters.

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 Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies

  1. Willie Cauley-Stein: DAL at CHI- $10
  2. Isaiah Roby: OKC vs. PHI – $10
  3. James Johnson: DAL at CHI- $14

SuperDraft Daily Fantasy Basketball Picks

  1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: OKC vs. PHI – 1.45x multiplier
  2. Zion Williamson: NOP at SAC – 1.40x multiplier
  3. Brandon Ingram: NOP at SAC – 1.35x multiplier

Final Thoughts

There are plenty of value options tonight, but the pricing does not align across every site. Be sure to understand your preferred site’s pricing and scoring systems.

Be sure to into the Awesemo NBA Live Before Lock show beginning at 6:00 p.m. EST for all of your up-to-date information and analysis.


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Looking for more daily fantasy basketball and NBA DFS picks content? We have loads of daily fantasy basketball articles, data, cheat sheets and more on the Awesemo NBA home page. Just click HERE.

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

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