NBA DFS Picks: Value, Stud & Fade on August 24

NBA playoff action is underway and there is NBA DFS on DraftKings, FanDuel and SuperDraft. Greg Ehrenberg looks at some NBA DFS Picks to build around and fade for Monday’s slate.

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NBA DFS Picks: Values + Fades for Aug. 24

Value Pick: Hassan Whiteside

DraftKings $4,800, FanDuel $5,100, Yahoo $17, SuperDraft 1.35x

I played a decent amount of Whiteside on the last two slates that included the Blazers. The results of him as an NBA DFS play haven’t been great, though they were not terrible either. Even so, it’s hard for me to look at his current role and price and think of him as anything other than a strong play. Not only is Portland showing a willingness to play Whiteside minutes alongside Jusuf Nurkic, they actually started together last game. Without Zach Collins, the Blazers need to find a way to get enough size on the court to defend Anthony Davis. The options are either Whiteside, Carmelo Anthony or Wenyen Gabriel. Frankly, none of these options stand much of a chance to defend Davis.

For now, I am assuming that Whiteside will stick in the starting lineup. As long as this is the case, he is a strong play at his current price point. As a starter this season, Whiteside averages 42.78 DraftKings points. Even though he gets fewer rebound opportunities in this big frontcourt, he should still find success. Whiteside is a good weak-side shot blocker, and it’s not as if he relies on usage for fantasy output. His big performances as a starting center throughout the season came with a 17.3% usage rating.

Stud Pick: Giannis Antetokounmpo

DraftKings $11,100, FanDuel $11,500, Yahoo $56, SuperDraft 1x

As always, this is the slate loaded with most of the top NBA DFS stars. Giannis, Davis, LeBron James, James Harden and Damian Lillard all make for good plays today. This creates a logjam at the top of the pricing algorithm. The imbalance of stars every other day is what led to me playing a heavy amount of Kristaps Porzingis yesterday. Welp, we all know how that went with Porzingis getting ruled out after lock. That was a less-than-fun turn of events for me.

Quietly, this is an important game for the Bucks to put a stamp on the series. Even though they rebounded well from a disastrous Game 1, Milwaukee is still only up 2-1 in the series. The questions about this team will pop back up if they don’t handily beat Orlando today. This should incentivize Milwaukee to continue to play Giannis a bit more minutes than he saw in the regular season. Don’t forget, Antetokounmpo scored more fantasy points per minute than any rotation player this season.

Fade Pick: T.J. Warren

DraftKings $7,800, FanDuel $7,600, Yahoo $34, SuperDraft 1.4x

The legend of bubble T.J. Warren died hard in the playoffs. This always felt like a likely outcome. Even though Warren is still a quality scorer, there is no way he could continue to shoot 60% or greater from the field. Faced with the defense of Jimmy Butler, Warren is once again mortal. In this series, Warren is shooting 47.1% from the field and this is great. The problem is that it isn’t good enough at his current price point when he doesn’t provide many peripheral stats. Not was the efficiency for Warren unsustainable from the final stretch of the regular season, his defensive numbers went up in a way that couldn’t continue. Even with a dip in playoff production, Warren’s price remains up.

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Author

Greg Ehrenberg

Greg is a former stand up comedian who quit telling jokes to pursue a career in the world of DFS. He started playing fantasy sports in 6th grade when Greg and his friends would skip classes to meet in the bathroom for 20 team fantasy basketball drafts. Considering his current career path, it was the best education he could have asked for.