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We close out the MLK Day 14-game slate with the Golden State Warriors at the Portland Trail Blazers. We already know that CJ McCollum (ankle) will be sidelined for the Blazers, while Draymond Green is back in the lineup for the Warriors. Glenn Robinson III is questionable to play, but other than that we’re not tracking any other injuries as of now. In this piece, we’ll look at the best lineup strategy for Monday night’s DFS Showdown on DraftKings.
Who should you play in the Captain’s slot?
It’s between Damian Lillard ($15,300) and Hassan Whiteside ($12,900). With McCollum out of the lineup. Dame is tasked with more offensive load and his usage should be up in the 35-40% range. He has scored 34 points in each of the past two games without CJ in there and his usage was 37% on average. The Warriors are a poor defensive team that can’t defend the 3-point line, plus Lillard scored 31 points with 13 assists against the Dubs on Dec. 18. His ceiling is just way higher than Whiteside’s, though Dame will garner heavy ownership.
The case for Whiteside would have been helped with Green out, but he’s in. So Whiteside in my eyes isn’t a stronger Captain than Dame. The thing is the Dubs are a poor rebounding team (47.1 rebounds per game to opponents) and have basically no size to contain Whiteside. I could see him reaching a 20-20 type of game with 3-5 blocks, which would be huge.
Who should you play in the UTIL spots?
I think Dame and Whiteside are locks for your lineup no matter what really. So after that we’d need to identify some value. We’ve got $6.5K on average left over for the final four UTIL spots. Draymond Green ($6,800) is really cheap and back from injury, so he’s not a bad option. Gary Trent Jr. ($2,000) is somehow incredibly cheap and coming off 30 points against the Thunder on Saturday. I’d lock him in as well with no CJ for the Blazers. With Trent as a value, D’Angelo Russell ($9,000) is easy to fit in as well, but we’re looking at a situation in which salary may have to be left on the table. There just aren’t enough players to pay up for in this game with no McCollum or Stephen Curry. Damion Lee ($7,000) and Alec Burks ($6,600) aren’t bad UTIL plays if Glenn Robinson III is eventually ruled out.