NBA DFS Picks and Fantasy Basketball Building Blocks for Today, Saturday | 4/23/22

Saturday, April 23, the playoffs continue rolling with a two-game featured slate beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET on Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel. Let’s look at the player pool and discuss the top NBA DFS picks today for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. As always, you can head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS & Fantasy Basketball home page for all the fantasy basketball content you need for any given slate.

NBA DFS Picks: Fantasy Basketball Building Blocks Today | Saturday, April 23

Yahoo Play of the Day — Ja Morant: Memphis Grizzlies at Minnesota Timberwolves

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 50.02 | DraftKings: 51.86
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 50.2% | FanDuel 37.9% | DraftKings 32.6%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $43 | FanDuel $9,800 | DraftKings $9,700

Tonight it looks like Ja Morant is going to be popular on Yahoo, though going underrepresented in tournaments on the other DFS sites. This afternoon, Morant was announced as the NBA’s Most Improved Player for the season. In his three games this series, Morant is averaging 35.3 minutes, 23.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 9.3 assists and 2.3 combined blocks and steals for nearly 50 fantasy points. The 22-year-old should be a mainstay of most lineups so make sure to be over the field in the fourth edition of this dream matchup.

Jayson Tatum: Boston Celtics at Brooklyn Nets

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 48.02 | DraftKings: 50.24
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 52.6% | FanDuel 53.7% | DraftKings 45.9%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $43 | FanDuel $9,400 | DraftKings $9,300

The main knock against Jayson Tatum is that he does not rebound nearly enough for fantasy gamers. This season he recorded a career best, however, it was only 8 rebounds per game and he has a career rate of just 6.6 per game despite being a full-time starter averaging 33.4 minutes. Fortunately, Tatum has excellent vision and also averaged a career-best 4.4 assists. He is also productive from behind the arc, averaging a tick shy of three made 3-point shots per game over the last three seasons. Of the four players most likely to reach the 50-fantasy-point plateau, Tatum has the best-point per-dollar projection across the DFS sites.

Centers of Attention

Karl-Anthony Towns has been disappointing so far this series and his fantasy production has been going backwards. After a sublime 49.1-fantasy-point performance in the series opener, the face of the Minnesota franchise has produced just 30.7 and 26.5 fantasy points in the last two games. Tonight, the Awesemo NBA DFS projections have him with a median output of 48 fantasy points. That is nearly 20 points higher than anyone else at this position, which also has Towns shaping up as one of the most popular plays on the slate.

Brandon Clarke has been steady off the bench in this series averaging 25.9 minutes, 15.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists with 1.6 combined steals and blocks. This works out to around 30 fantasy points per game in most scoring systems, and it makes the 25-year-old an excellent point-per-dollar option.

While Andre Drummond is the starter, Nicolas Claxton is splitting the center minutes with him and is more likely to see the court in the final frame. Even in limited minutes, Drummond is still a double-double threat, though Claxton has the clearer path to more minutes and more frequent access to a 35-fantasy-point game. Both of the Nets pivotmen are in play, but it is best to limit lineups to only one of this pair.

Robert Williams has been out for just over three weeks with a slight tear of his left meniscus. Tonight he is expected to play around 20 minutes (unofficially) with the plan being to increase his minutes going forward depending on how his knee responds. Boston has the luxury of a 2-0 series lead and there is no reason to push Williams unnecessarily.

Yahoo Discount Dandies

Goran Dragic – Brooklyn Nets vs. Boston Celtics ($10): So far, it seems gamers are overlooking Goran Dragic playing an effective 20 to 24 minutes in the Brooklyn rotation. Most of these have come as the backup for Kyrie Irving, however, Dragic has also been more effective on offense than Patty Mills and he seems to have passed his fellow veteran in the pecking order. There is not a lot of risk for Dragic at the minimum salary, other than there being a plethora of guard options on Yahoo tonight even with a limited four-team player pool.

Jarred Vanderbilt – Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Memphis Grizzlies ($13): This feels like a trap, but it is hard to ignore that Jarred Vanderbilt saw 32 minutes in Game 3. The main knock against him is that he does not look for his shot, surviving on put-backs and filling the lane on the fast break. In the first two games of this series, the fourth-year forward played 28 total minutes and had three field goal attempts, two free-throw attempts and eight rebounds. Last game, he took eight shots and also went to the line eight times while corralling 13 rebounds, dishing two dimes and collecting three steals. Caveat Emptor.

Kyle Anderson – Memphis Grizzlies at Minnesota Timberwolves ($11): Kyle Anderson is the perfect pivot away from the trendy Vanderbilt and even though he will likely be coming off the bench, he has a much more reliable role in the Memphis rotation. Anderson can do a little bit of everything and his chameleon-like abilities serve him well off the bench or as a starter. While his upside is not as high as Vanderbilt, his probability of reach 15 fantasy points is far more secure.

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks for the Saturday, April 23 Fantasy Basketball Slate

Boston can put the hurt on Brooklyn and push it into a three-game deficit tonight with the help of Robert Williams, who is expected to return to action. Meanwhile in Minnesota, the Timberwolves’ offense has disappeared with the team scoring just 95 and 96 points after rolling up 130 in Game 1. Memphis seems to be locked in and they can all but end the postseason hopes of the Timberwolves with a victory tonight. Expect big minutes from all of the key players from each squad.

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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