RADIO
The top daily fantasy basketball lineup picks for FanDuel on August 5, 2020. Euan Leith provides NBA DFS analysis and sleeper picks for building optimal DFS rosters.
Happy humpday, RotoBallers! Today marks the seventh straight day of all you can watch basketball. From lunchtime till bedtime, we get to watch the best of the best take the court, and Wednesday's six-game slate is no exception.
I cannot stress it enough right now: please check the injury updates before your lineups lock. Someone (me) got burned with Brook Lopez and Jimmy Butler sitting on Tuesday night. You can keep track of all this injury news thanks to our great Rotoballer team. They are always on the ball and will let you know as soon as they hear or see something about lineup changes. Now back to Wednesday's action.
Memphis will try to collect their first bubble win and steady themselves against a Utah team fighting for playoff seeding. At the same time, Oklahoma City takes on a Los Angeles Lakers team that just clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs for the first time in a decade. Those will be excellent basketball games to watch, but the robust defenses may have us fading them in daily fantasy. I will prefer to get a few shares of the Boston Celtics taking on the injured-ravaged Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers beating up on a Bradley Beal-less Washington Wizards.
In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy basketball lineup picks for FanDuel on 8/5/20. You can also check out today's DraftKings lineup picks. Remember to monitor injury news as the slate can completely change before lineups lock. Feel free to give me a follow on Twitter @EuanOrYouOut. Let's get those lineups set!
FanDuel DFS Guards
Ja Morant, PG - MEM vs. UTAH ($7,500)
The Memphis Grizzlies are in a bit of a free fall at the moment. They have yet to get into the win column post-bubble and are sliding closer towards Portland, San Antonio, and New Orleans in the standings. That makes me believe that there is no better time for No. 2 overall pick Ja Morant to step up and stop the slide. The favorite to win Rookie of the Year has averaged 17.7 points, seven assists, and 3.7 rebounds on the season, but has picked it up at Disney World with 19.3 points, 9.3 assists, and 6.7 rebounds. He is shooting a dreadful 10.5 percent from behind the arc, but he averaged 36.7 percent from deep before the season was suspended. That suggests to me that there is some regression in the cards.
The matchup with the Utah Jazz is also favorable. The Jazz ranks in the bottom half of the league against points guards and has struggled to contain some of the more athletic guards they have faced since the restart. Morant and the Grizzlies love to push the pace with 103.29 possessions per game. The speed, the matchup, and Morant's talent push him into my lineups today.
Donovan Mitchell, SG - UTAH vs. MEM ($7,300)
On the other side of Ja Morant will be Donovan Mitchell. For some reason, Mitchell still seems underrated in the daily fantasy community. His price has fluctuated violently during the restart, but he continues to produce the kind of fantasy numbers we want to see. Mitchell is coming off a 33-point performance against the Los Angeles Lakers. Although the Lakers are not world stoppers against the guard position, they rank better than Memphis on the season.
If the Grizzlies can push the pace, I'm sure Mitchell will happily follow suit. He put up 22 shots in his last game and gave us the type of usage rate we love to see from our fantasy players. His price makes him a middle of the road option, and while he has been a bit up and down since the restart, I still like him in 50/50 contests because of the solid floor he provides with his type of volume.
Monte Morris, PG - DEN vs. SA ($4,500)
Every day I do a DFS article and the Nuggets play, I will have Monte Morris as a guard I recommend. The man does not disappoint when given the opportunity. With Denver hobbled at the guard position, Morris has averaged 15 points, 4.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and shot 47.4 percent in two games. He has such an attractive price tag that I can't keep him off my 50/50 lineups. I don't think he has the ceiling a lot of players look for in their tournament lineups, but you can never rule it out.
FanDuel DFS Forwards
Pascal Siakam, SF - TOR vs. ORL ($7,900)
The Toronto Raptors are not giving up their crown as NBA Champions without a fight, and Pascal Siakam is one of the players leading the charge. This season, the forward is averaging 23.5 points, 7.5 assists, and 3.6 assists in 35.5 minutes. Those are all career highs. Today's game versus the Orlando Magic doesn't have a ton of importance for the Raptors because they find themselves five games back of the No. 1 seed Milwaukee and 4.5 games ahead of the No. 3 seed Boston.
Siakam could use this game to get back on track after a couple of quiet scoring games since the restart. He is shooting the ball more efficiently behind the three-point line at Disney World. If he can increase his three-point shooting volume, I like him to have a breakout bubble game. The Magic rank 23rd against power forwards on FanDuel, allowing 46.1 FPPG. Siakam is listed as a small forward on the site but seems to play the four more often than not. Take advantage of that position switch and activate Siakam for Wednesday in a bounce-back opportunity.
Jaylen Brown, SF - BOS vs. BKN ($6,600)
The Boston Celtics get the rare bubble honor of a back-to-back set today. Last night they took on the Heat, but face a much easier matchup with the Brooklyn Nets this evening. Jaylen Brown had 18 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and a block in Tuesday's contest. It broke an eight-game streak of scoring at least 20 points in a game. Since Kemba Walker has been dealing with a knee injury, the 2016 lottery pick has stepped up and become the secondary scorer behind Jayson Tatum for Boston.
If Siakam is out of your price range, Brown is a substantial fall back plan. In three games against the Nets, the 23-year-old has averaged 17.3 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and shot 51.3 percent from the field. Those games also came against a healthy Nets lineup. They remain decimated by injuries, and half their team is unrecognizable to the average NBA. I expect Brown to help the Celtics rebound and return to their winning ways at Disney World.
Michael Porter Jr., PF - DEN vs. SA ($5,500)
It's not the smartest move to invest in a player right after they have had the best game of their career, but that's the case on Wednesday with Michael Porter Jr. The offensively-gifted unicorn exploded with a career-high 37 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder. MPJ has shown flashes this season of what he can do, but Nuggets Head Coach, Michael Malone, has decided to keep the secret weapon locked up for the majority of the year. Now that it's bubble time, he may be unleashing MPJ on the rest of the league.
Of course, this could all come crashing down, and it's just as likely that Malone benches Porter Jr. for some random reason, and he never sees the court tonight. Check those pregame notes and use the late swap to your advantage. However, if MPJ does see significant minutes, he will get to take advantage of a San Antonio defense that gives up the seventh-most points to small forwards. On the season, they have given up 42.32 FPPG to the position. The potential that Michael Porter Jr. brings to the table is what makes him so desirable in your daily lineups, and a matchup with the Spurs is a perfect follow up after the best game of his career.
FanDuel DFS Centers
Joel Embiid, C - PHI vs. WAS ($9,500)
What do Deandre Ayton, Jarrett Allen, and Myles Turner all have in common? They play center for their teams, and they put up high numbers against the Washington Wizards. Now, Joel Embiid gets his chance to wreak havoc on the Wizards interior defense.
Against Ayton, Allen, and Turner, the Wizards gave up an average of 21 points, 12 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.6 blocks, while allowing them to shoot 64.8 percent from the floor. In Embiid's two games since the restart, the second-team All-NBA center has averaged 34 points, 15 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 60 percent shooting. Not to mention the 62.3 FPPG he has given daily players.
Joel Embiid is an expensive addition to your lineup on Wednesday, but he is a worthy investment. He has the tantalizing mix of a high floor, a high ceiling, and a perfect matchup. A lineup with Embiid will put you in an ideal position to win some contests today.
