NBA DFS First Look & Optimal Lineup Picks Today

The Slate Starter is a daily first look at the day’s NBA slate to get your daily fantasy basketball lineup-building process started before lock tonight. Each day, we will go through some of the best NBA DFS picks, top stacks and optimal lineup construction for DraftKings and FanDuel. Be sure to check Awesemo’s NBA Starting Lineups page, as it will be updated throughout the day as the NBA injury reports are released and breaking news surfaces. Let’s dive into some players who stand out as key options on Friday’s nine-game NBA slate.

Want to see how your lineup stacked up against yesterday’s winning NBA DFS lineups for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo fantasy basketball? Check out Awesemo’s Optimal Lineup Review, which uses Fantasy Cruncher Rewind to analyze the winning plays from the night before.

DraftKings & FanDuel NBA DFS Lineup Advice Today

LeBron James, SF, Los Angeles Lakers

Friday’s slate is loaded with star power. Joel Embiid and Luka Doncic have been among the best producers in fantasy of late. James Harden is expected to make his debut for the 76ers. Dejounte Murray has been putting up crazy numbers in San Antonio.

That said, don’t sleep on King James. Anthony Davis has been ruled out for approximately the next four weeks with a foot injury, so James is going to have to do some heavy lifting. He’s been fantastic in 19 previous games without Davis this season, increasing his production to 1.58 DraftKings points per minute.

LeBron’s price tag has also come back to reality after spiking in his last stint without Davis. He’s been priced as high as $12,000 on DraftKings this season, but he’s down to just $10,600 on Friday. That makes him significantly cheaper than some of the other studs on this slate, so expect him to own one of the better value marks in the stud tier in our NBA Projections.

Latest NBA DFS Content

Cole Anthony, PG, Orlando Magic

Anthony owns one of the largest pricing discrepancies on Friday’s slate. He’s pretty fairly priced at $7,000 on DraftKings, but he’s massively underpriced at $6,100 on FanDuel. He’s averaged 1.03 FanDuel points per minute this season, so that’s simply too cheap.

The Magic also benefit from one of the best possible matchups vs. the Rockets. They’ve played at the fastest pace in the league this season, and they also rank dead last in defensive efficiency. It’s impossible to beat that combination in DFS. The Magic are currently implied for 116.25 points, which represents a massive increase from their season average of 103.3.

Anthony deserves to carry a massive ownership projection on FanDuel in this spot. Expect him to own one of the highest optimal lineup rates in the Boom/Bust Probability tool.

Quentin Grimes, SG/SF, New York Knicks

The Knicks are an interesting team to monitor over the second half. They have a bunch of young guards on their roster, and they have plenty of incentive to play them over their final stretch. They’ve already announced Kemba Walker will ride the pine for the rest of the year, and R.J. Barrett is questionable for Friday’s matchup vs. the Heat. Barrett’s absence would leave them with a ton of minutes available in the backcourt.

Grimes has already seen a significant amount of playing time recently. He’s racked up at least 31.1 minutes in four straight games, and he’s hit at least 36.8 minutes in two of them. Grimes isn’t an elite per-minute producer – he’s averaged 0.70 DraftKings points per minute over the past month – but he should be able to pay off his current salary through sheer volume. He’s priced at just $4,100 on DraftKings, and it’s hard to find players with that much playing time upside at such a cheap price tag.

Grimes could also provide some value in the player prop market after scoring at least 19 points in two of his past three. Make sure to take advantage of the Awesemo Player Prop tool, which highlights the most exploitable prop bets each day.

Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!