On Friday, the Pelicans could be without Zion Williamson (illness) when they host the Celtics. Williamson has only played 13 games this season, but has been available and productive for each of New Orleans’ last three games. He’s played in six of his last nine. Potentially without Zion, there will be more minutes for Javonte Green ($3,600) and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl ($3,000), who could both be solid value plays in the frontcourt on Friday night.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $300K Friday 8’s [$100K to 1st].
SF/PF Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, New Orleans Pelicans vs. Boston Celtics, $3,000
Robinson-Earl has slightly more upside than Green, although both players can be prone to logging lots of low-usage, empty minutes. JRE is in his second season with the Pelicans after starting his career with two years in OKC.
Robinson-Earl has started six games this season for New Orleans, including the last game Zion missed which was last Friday against Memphis. Robinson-Earl had five points, four rebounds and 17.5 fantasy points in 20 minutes in that game and has over 14 fantasy points in four of his last six games in the rotation.
Despite that decent value showing, Robinson-Earl has fallen totally out of the rotation for the last two games for New Orleans, while Zion has taken back over.
Earlier this season, while Zion and several other scorers were out, Robinson-Earl had a few games where he carried more offense. He had double-digit points in seven of 12 games for one stretch in November, averaging 10.3 points and 7.1 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game over that span.
That productive stretch is why I like his ceiling more than Green’s as a value play. It also helps that Robinson-Earl is available at the minimum salary, and thus doesn’t have to go off to be a great value play.
