January 17, 2018

Daniel Marcus highlights the top FanDuel NBA DFS lineup picks for 1/17/18, and a couple of sleepers to consider while building daily rosters.

We've got a lot to prep for on yet another big Wednesday slate. As usual, this stands out in contrast to the Tuesday so let's not waste any more time and get straight to business.

Point guard and small forward immediately jump out as spots I want to pay up for the big guns on the slate, while shooting guard and center are places where I feel I can find value. I'll be building my teams with core pieces of John Wall, Kawhi Leonard, and Zach LaVine.

Below you will find our daily fantasy basketball lineup picks for FanDuel on 1/17/18. These DFS lineup picks can vary from higher-priced players and elite options, to lower-priced players and value picks on FanDuel. You can also read more DFS lineup picks for DraftKings and other sports too.

FanDuel DFS Guards

John Wall - PG @CHA ($10,100)

I was torn between picking Wall and Curry as the elite point guard to highlight here, but the reality is they are both om good spots to produce tonight. I’ll highlight Wall here to illustrate the change in the trajectory of his season. In the 10 December games after he returned from injury, he returned 5X value or better only twice. That may have caused many fantasy owners to bury him, but in the seven games since, he has hit 5X value four times and failed in has not returned worse than 4.6X value. Don’t let his slow return fool you, he is back among the best plays at PG on a nightly basis.

Goran Dragic - PG @MIL ($7,100)

Milwaukee has been a mess defensively of late against opposing point guards, allowing an average of 60.8 FD points to them over their past 10 games. Dragic had his price hiked up recently due to a string of strong performances, but if Tyler Johnson is out (which at time of publishing looks likely) Dragic should see a bump in his usage that goes a long way in making up for any price increase.

Kent Bazemore - SG vs. NO ($5,700)

Though not thought of for his consistency, Bazemore is at a nice price point as a cash play and the circumstances of tonight point to him as a surprisingly safe play. The Pelicans are a generally vulnerable team defensively, and they will now be on the back-end of a back-to-back with both coming on the road. I prefer Bazemore in cash games as he hovered right around 5X value for most of his recent run, but he is viable in all contests.

Zach LaVine - SG vs. GSW ($4,100)

Minutes limit or not, LaVine has not been shy about getting his shot up, posting a 31.1% usage rate to kick off his campaign. He’s shown the ability to smash value on his $4,100 price tag and sees a favorable matchup on Tuesday against the Warriors. Despite the Bulls being the home team, the Warriors will likely still dictate the pace of the game, which is bad news for the Bulls but good news for the fantasy appeal of this matchup.

FanDuel DFS Forwards

Derrick Favors - PF @SAC ($6,900)

Many have rejoiced at the Kings plan to turn to youth, but that isn’t likely to stop their bleeding this season. That should especially be true on the defensive side of the ball, where the Kings have allowed opposing bigs to post big fantasy nights against them all season. Favors fits the ball as the Jazz’s predominant big man, and because of that he is a nice cash game play.

Trey Lyles - PF @LAC ($5,800)

Opinions vary as to how much back-to-backs affect the value of players. Generally speaking, I use it as a strike against a player but won’t rule them out because of it. Lyles is coming into the back-end of a back-to-back set tonight against the Clippers who have been a positive matchup for wings and PFs all season. I’m not in love with the options at power forward, so I’ll settle on Lyles despite not being 100% comfortable with it.  His performance relative to cost has cooled of late, so I like him more as a cash game play but he does still have potential to blow up.

Also Consider: Otto Porter - SF @CHA ($6,600)

Kawhi Leonard - SF @BKN ($8,900)

UPDATE: Kawhi Leonard has been ruled out.

When Kawhi has played of late, he has looked as good as his 2017 form. That leaves him underpriced at $8,900 and is a great complementary play to your favorite stud on the slate as a result.

FanDuel DFS Centers

Dewayne Dedmon - C vs. NO ($5,100)

Dedmon is one of the veterans holding up popular rookie John Collins, making him unpopular in a similar vein to Jarrett Jack. However, Dedmon continues to produce and his price is reasonable. In yesterday’s column, I highlighted the success of centers against the Pelicans of late, and we can now add Al Horford to the list as he went for 5.3X on Tuesday. Dedmon is a nice mid-priced option to target if you choose to pay up elsewhere on the slate.

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