Welcome to the NBA Yahoo Cup Picks for Round 17! Tonight’s slate features nine games of NBA action and there are a couple of players who are questionable that could dictate the entire slate. Four games have a total of over 224 points tonight and players from those games look appealing for all formats, including a large-field tournament as the Yahoo NBA Cup.
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The focus will be on three players — one guard, one forward, and one center — to be NBA DFS players for the Round 17 NBA Yahoo Cup contest.
Yahoo Cup NBA DFS Picks | Round 17
Best NBA Fantasy Guard: Dejounte Murray, San Antonio Spurs — $47
Dejounte Murray is the player that could change the slate the most, as he is questionable after sitting out with a wrist injury last night. It is possible that he will miss this game tonight, and if that is the case, Caris LeVert of the Indiana Pacers is a very nice pivot. He saves $15 in salary that can be spread across the rest of the lineup, and the Spurs value players like Derrick White and Tre Jones would also be at the forefront. The Spurs face the Houston Rockets tonight, and this game has a total of 236.5 points, 5.5 points above any other game on the slate.
These two teams have played twice in the past four weeks, and Murray has tormented the Rockets with 69.5 Yahoo points and 47 Yahoo points; the 47 came in just 24 minutes on the court. The game logs are not the reason to play him, but rather an illustration of how great of a spot this is for Murray. Houston is first in pace and dead last in defensive rating, and Murray stuffs the stat sheet like few players in the league. He is only 37th in scoring, but among the 36 players ahead of him, only two (Luka Doncic, James Harden) average at least eight assists and eight rebounds. Both of those players are more expensive than Murray and are in inferior spots compared to playing the Rockets. Murray also drives to the hoop the fourth most per game (17.9 times), and Houston is dead last in points allowed in the paint. Provided he is healthy, Murray is one of the best targets to spend on tonight in the NBA Yahoo Cup, with a 26.7% usage rate and 1.38 Yahoo points per minute
Best NBA Fantasy Forward: Luguentz Dort, Oklahoma City Thunder– $21
The Thunder face the Portland Trail Blazers tonight without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander once again and that leaves Luguentz Dort as a featured player with a 26.6% usage and 0.84 Yahoo points per minute. The latter number is not spectacular, and Dort’s shot is still shaky, with a 51.9% true shooting rate this year. He is liable to shoot under 20% from the floor when things are not going well, but the Trail Blazers are 28th in defensive rating and are virtually tied (0.1 percentage points behind the lead) for allowing the highest field goal percentage from 3-point distance. Dort is shooting 33.3% from that distance this season, and for better or worse, he is 23rd in attempts per game. The Thunder also utilize him as their main defender against the opposition’s best player, so he will be logging big minutes against the trio of C.J. McCollum, Anfernee Simons and Norman Powell from the Trail Blazers.
Update –Â Norman Powell was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers this afternoon, but Dort will still be relied upon heavily for his defense.
Dort looks like a great play tonight for Yahoo lineups, but Awesemo projections have him slated for two assists tonight. His assist over/under NBA player prop is a great bet, which is sitting at over/under 2.5 tonight, and OddsShopper has an expected win rate of 69% when betting the under.
Best NBA Fantasy Center: Jarrett Allen, Cleveland Cavaliers — $29
When playing large-field GPPs like the Yahoo NBA Cup, searching for a pivot to a popular player can be key to getting to the top of the leaderboard. Jarrett Allen represents that pivot because Christian Wood of the Rockets is projected to be one of, if not the most popular center tonight. Wood is in a great matchup, but so is Allen, and they cost the exact same salary. Plus, Allen is getting sub-10% rostership. The Cavaliers face the Charlotte Hornets, who have simply bled production to big men this season. They are 29th in both points and rebounds allowed in the paint, and they play at the second-fastest pace and have the fourth-worst defensive rating.
This is a big pace-up spot for Allen since Cleveland is 24th in pace and he has dominated in the paint for the Cavaliers this season. He sits 10th in rebounds per game (10.7) while averaging almost 19 chances per game in addition to ranking third in paint points scored per game (11.9). On the season Allen ranks seventh in points scored via put-back shots, and Charlotte is tied for the most points allowed per game given up on put-backs. His recent game logs are a bit uninspiring, but that should not be confused with him not having a ceiling, as he scored 39.1 Yahoo points just five games ago and this is the style of game that can coax the ceiling from him at much lower popularity than Wood.