Monday, Nov. 29, brings a loaded week of action courtesy of the Association, beginning with tonight’s nine-game main slate. Let’s look at the player pool and discuss the top NBA DFS picks for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. Do not forget to head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS home page for more great written daily fantasy basketball content.
NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Monday, Nov. 29
Yahoo Play of the Day — Christian Wood: Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 38.57 | DraftKings: 39.93
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 26.8% | FanDuel 29.8% | DraftKings 10.5%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $30 | FanDuel $7,400 | DraftKings $8,200
After suffering through a 15-game losing streak, tonight the Rockets are poised to collect a third straight victory. This is the first of a home-and-home series with the Thunder that concludes on Wednesday in Oklahoma City. Christian Wood is coming off a massive overtime performance in which he played 41 minutes and tallied 33 points, 16 rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocks. The Thunder are a mediocre crew by most rebounding metrics, with Darius Bazley, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Derrick Favors manning the paint. Wood typically does not play over 30 minutes in non-competitive games, which has kept his salary in check. Houston is favored by a bucket tonight, and it would make sense if coach Stephen Silas gave more minutes to his starters to continue the momentum after such a disastrous start to the season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Oklahoma City Thunder at Houston Rockets
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 37.81 | DraftKings: 39.19
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 31.8% | FanDuel 14.2% | DraftKings 16.1%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $30 | FanDuel $8,200 | DraftKings $8,000
Since beating Houston 12 days ago Oklahoma City has dropped five straight, including a 101-99 heartbreaker to the Wizards on Friday night. Despite playing a minute more and taking an extra field goal attempt compared to last season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging over 4 fewer fantasy points per game. The main culprit is a precipitous drop in his field goal success rate from a career-high 50.8% to 40.3% this season. Gilgeous-Alexander has been around 47% in both of his first two seasons and for his career, and he should return to that level gradually. Houston is playing at the fastest pace in the league and is allowing an abysmal 108 points per 100 possessions. Even on a nine-game slate, this looks like a nice target opportunity.
Darius Garland: Cleveland Cavaliers at Dallas Mavericks
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 30.62 | DraftKings: 33.13
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 5.2% | FanDuel 2.6% | DraftKings 1.6%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $27 | FanDuel $7,200 | DraftKings $7,700
Tonight a robust 18 teams are in the player pool, and it looks like some of the mid-tier options are getting lost in the shuffle. This should not be a surprise, as the stars-and-scrubs roster construction is what most gamers prefer and there will be plenty of value plays tonight. However, this also means that perfectly good options will be cast aside, which creates differentiation opportunities for the savvy gamer. In the last five games without Collin Sexton, Garland has assumed a heavy workload that has not yet been reflected in his salary. In these games he is averaging 36.6 minutes and a whopping 23 field goal attempts. This has resulted in 23.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, eight assists and 1.4 steals per game for a solid 1.1 Yahoo points per minute. Dallas is in the bottom third of the league in defensive efficiency, which makes them an intriguing team to target against.
Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies
Nassir Little: Portland Trail Blazers at Utah Jazz
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 22.59 | DraftKings: 22.73
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 30% | FanDuel 21.1% | DraftKings 30.3%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $10 | FanDuel $4,200 | DraftKings $3,500
Norman Powell is out tonight after suffering a quad injury against Golden State on Friday. This will open up around 30 minutes in the rotation and likely will boost Nassir Little from his 22 to 26 minutes in the rotation to something in the 30- to 32-minute range. The other beneficiaries will likely be Robert Covington, Anfernee Simons and Larry Nance Jr. Utah is once again a tough defense, but the near minimum salary across the DFS sites for Little mitigates that somewhat. Even if Tony Snell draws the start, his lack of offense will limit his minutes if things stay close down the stretch, plus Little and Simmons are better off getting a chunk of their minutes against fellow reserves.
Little was one of the players Alex Hunter was focusing on in Monday’s Boom/Bust tool, which he wrote about in his NBA DFS Boom/Bust Tool Picks today.
Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Kenrich Williams is out for the Thunder, and the Rockets’ Jalen Green will be sidelined for the next week. These extra minutes, plus both teams having a puncher’s chance at a rare victory, should make for a tighter rotation than these squads usually use. Garrison Mathews, Alperen Sengun and K.J. Martin are all at the Yahoo minimum salary of $10, and Eric Gordon is available for just $2 more. Kevin Porter Jr. is coming in at $22, though he projects to be the most popular option of the slate on Yahoo and could be on nearly half of the rosters. It is a stretch to play more than three Rockets, including Christian Wood, but they are providing cheap fantasy production at a variety of positions, which is very helpful in the stars-and-scrubs builds.
Final Thoughts on NBA DFS picks for the Monday, Nov. 29 Slate
The news alerts are already popping with San Antonio missing Devin Vassell and Doug McDermott. Once against Tyler Herro and Jimmy Butler are questionable for Miami, and Cleveland could be without Dean Wade and Cedi Osman yet again. Keep in mind that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a slam-dunk play on Yahoo may be a below-average NBA DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.
