DraftKings Contributors Garion Thorne and Matt Meiselman join The Sweat to give their favorite DraftKings plays at forward for tonight’s NBA slate.
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Video Transcript
Emerson Lotzia:
Who is a forward worth building your lineup around, Matty?
Matt Meiselman:
I’m going to stick with the same team, and this is really a lot of the same analysis with De’Andre Hunter at $4,800. So again, Collins is out, more for Hunter to do, and then I think if Gallinari’s out, that’s an even larger increase in Hunter’s responsibility for the team. He’s been playing a lot of minutes and I think the big fantasy game just hasn’t been there.
Again, this is just such a strong spot for Atlanta against Charlotte and to me, this slate sort of sets up as stars and scrubs where a lot of the popular plays will be sub $4K, and then also very expensive, especially if we get Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ruled out, a lot of these cheaper Oklahoma City players will become priorities above the 4, 5 and $6K range. So I think Hunter is probably relatively contrarian too, and I think that that’s the case for really all the Hawks tonight despite this big total. So I’m really interested in this spot.
Emerson Lotzia:
Garion, which forward stands out to you?
Garion Thorne:
I was going to mention De’Andre Hunter, so I’ll pivot here to a guy who is more expensive. This is not a similar asset type on this slate, but I do think it’s worth mentioning Julius Randle, who has been playing some of the best basketball of his season the past two weeks. Now, that’s not the highest bar to clear in the world considering the Knicks 2021-22 campaign.
You’ve got Randle with essentially a 35% usage rate and averaging 1.5 DraftKings points per minute across his last four games. The matchup against the Trail Blazers tonight, which you know obviously there are a lot of different outcomes, there are a lot of different ways this game could get out of control. Although I do think with Thibs’ track record of just running his starters into the ground and the Knicks’ track record of blowing giant leads, I wouldn’t worry too much about Randle’s minutes’ load here.
I think maybe you don’t see the ceiling of a 38 or a 40-minute performance, but I still think he’s gonna play somewhere in the range of 30 to 34 minutes in this contest. And Portland’s defense has just been absolutely atrocious, the last 10 games they’re going up over 120 opponent points per 48 minutes or per 100 possessions, so I just think it’s a fantastic spot for Randle, who really seems like he is finding himself and is in a groove right now, so I’ll ride with him.
Matt’s Pick: De’Andre Hunter ($4,800)
Garion’s Pick: Julius Randle ($9,500)
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