Non-tournament Fridays are back!
After the last few Fridays were dedicated to Emirates NBA Cup action, no-frills NBA basketball is the name of the game today, with a seven-game slate featuring, among others, the red-hot Milwaukee Bucks taking on the defending champion Boston Celtics and an ultimate race-to-the-bottom battle between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Utah Jazz.
Of course, injury updates and late scratches could ultimately impact tonight’s matchups, but for now, here are three cheaper options that DFS players should be targeting today.
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SF/PF Toumani Camara, Portland Trail Blazers vs. Utah Jazz, $4,800
Of tonight’s seven-game slate, this matchup between two of the Western Conference’s three truly bad teams doesn’t jump off the page. Yet, as bad as the Trail Blazers are, the Jazz are worse, having won just one of their last ten games and owning a -10.3 point differential.
Utah’s ineptitude raises the fantasy ceiling of all of Portland’s players, which should play right into the hands of forward Toumani Camara, who has quietly been one of this season’s most improved players. The second-year pro from Belgium has increased his scoring average from 7.4 to 9.5 points while shooting a career-high 39.1% from three-point range on moderate volume. His 4.2 attempts per game from deep rank fourth on the Blazers, and against a Jazz team that allows the second-most three-point tries per game in the league, he should have the opportunity to fire away.
Plus, he’s Portland’s most impactful perimeter defender, leading the team with 1.5 steals per game in just 31.0 minutes of playing time. Against the sloppiest ball-handling team in basketball — the Jazz lead the league with 18.5 turnovers per game — DFS players can expect Camara to make an all-around impact on Friday night. He put up 35.25 FPTS in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on December 1, demonstrating the potential to play well above his value.
PF/C Obi Toppin, Indiana Pacers at Chicago Bulls, $3,600
Toppin, the former New York Knicks lottery pick, has resuscitated his career somewhat in Indiana, playing sparingly in New York before becoming a valuable rotation piece for the Pacers. Toppin is putting up similar stats as he did in his first season for the Pacers, averaging 9.7 points and 3.7 rebounds while shooting 53.4% from the field. Along with point guard T.J. McConnell ($4,700), Toppin has been a cog of a scrappy Indiana second unit that averages 37.0 points per game, the ninth-best among benches in the NBA.
On Friday, Toppin will have an extremely favorable matchup against a Chicago Bulls defense that ranks among the worst in the NBA in pretty much all metrics. Chicago’s defensive rating is 117.5, the fifth-worst in the NBA, and because the Bulls offense plays at the league’s fastest pace, the team cedes an eye-popping 123.3 points per game, ahead of only the historically woeful Washington Wizards. Chicago is particularly bad at patrolling the paint, where Toppin thrives, hitting 78.9% of his shots within five feet. The fact that Bulls forward Patrick Williams is still out with a foot injury benefits Toppin even more, as he should be able to overpower Chicago’s undersized backup power forward, second-year player Julian Phillips.
Toppin is also trending in the right direction, having posted double-digit points in each of his last three games. In a loss to the Toronto Raptors on December 3, Toppin put up 30.25 FPTS in just over 14 minutes of action.
C Moritz Wagner, Orlando Magic at Philadelphia 76ers, $4,500
What happens when your top three centers are all injured against one of the hottest teams in basketball? That’s a problem that the Philadelphia 76ers might have to contend with on Friday night with both Joel Embiid and Adem Bona out and Andre Drummond questionable with an ankle sprain.
Philadelphia’s injury woes open up an opportunity for every big man on the Orlando Magic roster. The Magic have hardly missed a beat without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero, sitting at 16-8 and third in the Eastern Conference. A lot of that has to do with the steady play of backup center Moritz Wagner, who is averaging a career high 12.9 points and 5.2 rebounds in just 19.3 minutes per game. Wagner had a solid game on Wednesday against the 76ers, putting up 26.5 FPTS in just 21 minutes without Embiid or Drummond on the floor.
Orlando’s other centers — Goga Bitadze ($5,300) and Wendell Carter Jr. ($5,100) — are also worth a look here, but Wagner has been the best center on the roster all year, and given that he has the cheapest salary of the three, I like his value the best.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $350K Bounce Pass [$100K to 1st].
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All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
