Ten games on the board for this Friday night with fewer big-name injuries than what we have been seeing recently, so this should be a good slate to get into. Here are your early day recommended picks for the DraftKings NBA slate tonight.
Check out today’s NBA Sharpshooter from DraftKings 
Guards
Trae Young (PG – ATL): $10,400 @ Wizards
This game features two of the worst defensive teams in the league and two very fast pace offenses. The total sits at 236 right now, five points above the second-highest mark. Young’s price has gone back over the $10,000 mark, but he is still a great play here. He shot the ball 30 times in the Hawks’ game with the Rockets on Wednesday and has gone over 20 shot attempts in nine of his last 11 games. He has a 34% usage rate and a 1.33 FPPM rate this year, and the Wizards have allowed an average salary value return of 5.84x to guards this year. Young gives you a great shot at 60+ point output tonight and gives you the biggest piece of the most fantasy friendly game on the slate, he should be very popular for good reason.
Buddy Hield (SG/SF – SAC): $6,600 vs. Bucks
The Kings are not in a great spot against the Bucks, but Hield’s price is just too low. For the year he has a 27% usage rate with a 1.11 FPPM rate. The average return for a wing player against the Bucks has just been 5.4x, but Hield provides a huge ceiling at this deflated price tag. He has taken 17 or more shots in seven of his last eight games and the Bucks have seen the most three-point attempts against in the entire league this year, which is good news for Hield who loves to chuck it from beyond the arc.
Ten games on the board for this Friday night with fewer big-name injuries than what we have been seeing recently, so this should be a good slate to get into. Here are your early day recommended picks for the DraftKings NBA slate tonight.
Check out today’s NBA Sharpshooter from DraftKings
Guards
Trae Young (PG – ATL): $10,400 @ Wizards
This game features two of the worst defensive teams in the league and two very fast pace offenses. The total sits at 236 right now, five points above the second-highest mark. Young’s price has gone back over the $10,000 mark, but he is still a great play here. He shot the ball 30 times in the Hawks’ game with the Rockets on Wednesday and has gone over 20 shot attempts in nine of his last 11 games. He has a 34% usage rate and a 1.33 FPPM rate this year, and the Wizards have allowed an average salary value return of 5.84x to guards this year. Young gives you a great shot at 60+ point output tonight and gives you the biggest piece of the most fantasy friendly game on the slate, he should be very popular for good reason.
Buddy Hield (SG/SF – SAC): $6,600 vs. Bucks
The Kings are not in a great spot against the Bucks, but Hield’s price is just too low. For the year he has a 27% usage rate with a 1.11 FPPM rate. The average return for a wing player against the Bucks has just been 5.4x, but Hield provides a huge ceiling at this deflated price tag. He has taken 17 or more shots in seven of his last eight games and the Bucks have seen the most three-point attempts against in the entire league this year, which is good news for Hield who loves to chuck it from beyond the arc.
Dejounte Murray (PG – SAS): $6,000 @ Grizzlies
San Antonio has been been a very profitable team to look towards in DFS this year, but they find themselves in a really nice matchup here against the Grizzlies. Memphis has added 10 fantasy points to opponent’s averages this year, while allowing a 5.82x average salary value return to guards. Murray is a very active player, averaging 1.11 fantasy points per minute this year, and he has even been playing a few extra minutes lately, seeing 28 and 26 minutes in his last two games. If he plays 25+ here he has a nice floor at this salary, and a hot shooting night gives him a big-time ceiling.
Kendrick Nunn (PG/SG – MIA): $4,600 @ Nets
Nunn’s minutes have been a bit down recently, not hitting 30 minutes in any of his last three games, but he been consistently in or above the mid-twenties all year. He has a 24% usage rate, which you do not find at this price tag very often, and the Nets are a good matchup. Guards have averaged a 5.73x return on salary this year when facing Brooklyn. Nunn does not bring a huge ceiling to the table, but gives you a nice chance at a 6x return as a salary saving option. I like him quite a bit for a safe salary saving guard in cash games tonight.
Isaiah Thomas (PG – WAS): $3,900 vs. Hawks
DraftKings has been very flexible on pricing this year, not hesitating to really lower prices on guys that are dealing with short term injuries and/or diminished production. Thomas came down $600 after going for just 10 DraftKings points in 24 minutes against the Magic. For the year he is a solid 0.99 FPPM player with a 26% usage rate. This is the most attractive game on the slate, and Thomas should have a significant hand in the output regardless of the status of Bradley Beal. He should be very popular at this price, but I am not sure that he will be after seeing the lower ownership on Kemba Walker (who was priced at $6,500 due to a possible minutes restriction) last night. Thomas is my favorite value on the board at this point in the day.
Forwards / Centers
Kawhi Leonard (SF/PF – LAC): $9,900 vs. Warriors
It is always a little tougher to pay up for studs against teams as pathetic as the Warriors, as not many of these games are going to be close at all. The Clippers are a 13 point favorite at home and beat the Warriors by 19 points the first time they played (and that was with Steph Curry and D’Angelo Russell healthy). However, Paul George is out for this game, and Kawhi has a 1.58 Draftkings points per minute rate with George off the floor this year. If he can find his way over 30 minutes, he has a great chance at being one of the highest point per dollar plays on the slate, but the blowout risk is a real problem here.
LaMarcus Aldridge (PF/C – SAS): $7,400 @ Grizzlies
We talked about this with Murray above, but the Spurs are right there behind the Wizards and Hawks as far as team fantasy output goes tonight. Aldridge is the main cog in this San Antonio offense, as he has averaged 1.28 FPPM this year with a 23% usage rate while being one of the few Spurs to play 30+ minutes consistently. At $7,400, you are really looking for a 40 point night from Aldridge, and he has given that to you in five of his last ten games, and this matchup is the best he will have seen over the last month or so. Love me some LMA tonight.
Montrezl Harrell (PF/C – LAC): $6,700 vs. Warriors
We talked about the blowout risk in the Kawhi write-up, and that remains true here, but Harrell commands significantly less salary to make this a bit less risky. The Warriors have been smashed over and over again by big men, allowing an averaging salary value return of 5.93 this year. Harrell gets a little bump with George off the floor, going from a 1.16 FPPM player to a 1.24 FPPM rate. I think he pretty easily picks up a double-double here and has big-time upside in this soft matchup. If this game stays remotely close, Harrell should be one of the top centers plays on the board.
Troy Brown Jr. (SF/PF – WAS): $6,600 vs. Hawks
The Wizards have not been the easiest team to figure out in all of these games without Bradley Beal, but Brown has gone for 44,28, and 51 fantasy points in his last three games without Beal, while taking double-digit shots in each of his last five games. At $6,600 you have to like his chances here against a Hawks defense which has allowed an average salary value return of 5.92x to wing players. Brown is a solid mid-priced forward tonight if Beal remains out of the lineup.
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Jon Anderson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Jon, check out his archive and follow him @JonPgh.
