NBA DFS action on Tuesday, Feb. 9, locks at 7:00 p.m. EST with a scintillating seven-game main slate on Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel. SuperDraft is going with a six-game main slate tipping off at 7:30 p.m. Before you lock in your lineups on Yahoo, DraftKings, FanDuel and SuperDraft, make sure to check out Awesemo’s daily fantasy basketball rankings and projections. Let’s dig into some daily fantasy basketball picks, including Joel Embiid, Delon Wright, Damian Lillard and more.
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Awesemo’s NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks
Yahoo Play of the Day – Delon Wright: Detroit Pistons vs. Brooklyn Nets
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 33.29 | DraftKings: 32.74
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 28.2% | FanDuel 14.9% | DraftKings 14.2%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $19 | FanDuel $6,000 | DraftKings $6,000
This is a phenomenal opportunity for Delon Wright against Brooklyn tonight. The only slight concern is that he reportedly tweaked his ankle in Saturday’s double-overtime game in Los Angeles against the Lakers. That is the last time Detroit played, so it seems reasonable that he will be a full go tonight. The Pistons just dealt Derrick Rose to the Knicks in exchange for Dennis Smith Jr. and a draft pick. Smith is not expected to be with Detroit tonight, so this should put Wright in line once more for heavy minutes. Over their last 10 games, Brooklyn is allowing 119.7 points per 100 possessions, which is the second-worst defensive efficiency in the league. In their last five games, the Nets’ putrid defense has been rocked for 128.2 points per game.
Joel Embiid: Philadelphia 76ers at Sacramento Kings
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 49.63 | DraftKings: 50.85
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 7.6% | FanDuel 6.7% | DraftKings 5.9%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $49 | FanDuel $10,600 | DraftKings $10,500
Over his last eight games, Joel Embiid has scored at least 33 points in seven games, with 28 being the low performance. While he has missed two games in this stretch, the per-appearance averages are eye-popping, to say the least. In this timeframe he is averaging 32.6 minutes with 35.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.1 combined blocks/steals. He is also dropping in 3.3 made 3-point shots per tilt. On tap tonight is a matchup with the Kings, who are just not equipped to deal with him.
Damian Lillard: Portland Trail Blazers vs. Orlando Magic
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 49.68 | DraftKings: 53.26
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 12% | FanDuel 12.8% | DraftKings 7.3%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $49 | FanDuel $10,800 | DraftKings $10,500
This will be the Blazers’ first game since returning from their six-game road trip which wrapped up on Saturday in New York. Their Sunday game in Charlotte was postponed, so that gave the depleted squad a bonus day of rest. Remember that Damian Lillard also sat out Thursday’s surprise victory over the 76ers in Philadelphia.
With their many injuries finally taking a toll on their depth, Orlando has really been struggling on defense. Over their last 10 games, they are allowing a whopping 115.8 points per 100 possessions. In his last 11 games, Lillard has taken 20 or more field-goal attempts eight times while averaging 15.0 in the other three. In these 11 games Lillard is averaging 37.2 minutes, with 31.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.45 combined blocks/steals. This has culminated in 50.4 Yahoo fantasy points per game.
Good Value
Dejounte Murray: San Antonio Spurs vs. Golden State Warriors
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 38.44 | DraftKings: 38.81
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 25.8% | FanDuel 23.5% | DraftKings 30.9%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $27 | FanDuel $6,800 | DraftKings $6,500
In this reprisal of last night’s matchup, it sounds like Derrick White (rest) and LaMarcus Aldridge (hip) will both be out. Additionally, Lonnie Walker is questionable with an illness and has missed the last two games. This should secure some excellent fantasy opportunities for Dejounte Murray. Finally healthy, he has been outstanding this season, with 15.0 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.7 combined steals/blocks in 30.4 minutes per game. Last night he laid down a monster 60 fantasy points in 36 minutes. While we simply cannot expect a repeat of that, he also flirted with 40 fantasy points in the other matchup with Golden State three weeks ago.
Frank Mason III: Orlando Magic at Portland Trail Blazers
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 18 | DraftKings: 18.6
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 0.6% | FanDuel 5.1% | DraftKings 21.5%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $10 | FanDuel $3,600 | DraftKings $3,300
This play is not for the faint of heart on the main slate. However, those of you with a higher risk tolerance should give Frank Mason III consideration as an extreme discount dandy. On the three-game late slate, he will likely be on most of my rosters, with so many other spendy options to target. While Mason’s playing time was sporadic in his two years with the Kings, he was usually productive on offense. The downside is at 5-foot-11 he has had trouble defending bigger guards, even though he was on the Big 12 All-Defensive Team his junior year at Kansas.
Mason caught on with the Bucks last season, spending most of his time with their G-League affiliate, where he was the 2020 G-League MVP. Philadelphia looked to get Mason on their roster this year for added depth on their G-League team after he was in the final cut during the abbreviated training camp, and last week the Magic signed him to a two-way deal. At a minimum he will be the direct backup to rookie Cole Anthony, though we did see them play just over 5 minutes together in a blowout loss to Chicago. Portland is going to go with a lot of three-guard lineups tonight, which opens the door for Mason to approach 20 minutes, which is ideal for NBA DFS.
Risky Value
DeMarcus Cousins: Houston Rockets at New Orleans Pelicans
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 40.64 | DraftKings: 41.78
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 71.8% | FanDuel 40% | DraftKings 22.8%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $20 | FanDuel $6,000 | DraftKings $7,400
Wait a minute, wasn’t DeMarcus Cousins listed as a good value yesterday? Yes he was, dear reader. But things change, and context is everything. Coach Stephen Silas has made it clear he is going to try to limit Cousins to no more than 30 minutes per game. With Christian Wood (ankle) dealing with a multi-week injury, the Rockets rotation is getting pretty thin with John Wall and Victor Oladipo not playing on consecutive nights.
This will be the third back-to-back we have seen this season for Cousins. On Jan. 22 and 23, he played 32.8 and 29.8 minutes in road victories against Detroit and Dallas as a starter. Coming off the bench on Feb. 2 and 3, he played 25.9 minutes during a blowout loss in Oklahoma City and 15.5 minutes the next night in a runaway victory in Memphis. Houston is currently a 6-point road dog heading into New Orleans tonight. The key thing to remember is that there are some outstanding center options tonight with Embiid, Nikola Vucevic, Enes Kanter, Mason Plumlee and Jakob Poeltl, to name just a few. If we are going to Cousins tonight, then we are missing out on those other players.
Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies
- Jae’Sean Tate: HOU at NOP – $12
- Danuel House: HOU at NOP – $11
- Patty Mills: SAS vs. GSW – $12
SuperDraft Daily Fantasy Basketball Picks
- Damian Lillard: POR vs. ORL – 1.15x multiplier
- Kelly Oubre: GSW at SAS – 1.55x multiplier
- Enes Kanter: POR vs. ORL – 1.55x multiplier
Final Thoughts on the Tuesday, Feb. 9 NBA DFS Slate
Tonight has three West Coast games tipping off at 10:00 p.m. EST. This means that quite a bit of news will be coming out after lock. We will want to be near our computers or mobile devices in order to properly react. 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.
