Kmarko's NBA DraftKings Picks - January 25
Welcome back to the daily DraftKings picks where we try to get super rich playing daily fantasy basketball. As usual I’ll do a brief recap of my lineups from the week before then throw out some picks that I’m brainstorming for this weekend, and hopefully get some good feedback/tips/picks from you guys either in the comment section or on Twitter @kmarkobarstool.
Quick review of last Friday’s blog:
Broke 300, hell yeah. And my feature play of Steph messed around and dropped a triple double. Chris Bosh did OK, and my value play Kaminsky didn’t pay off – but as you can see I switched to Myles Turner in my optimal lineup and that was a nice move. Kind of left you all out to dry though, sorry about that.
On to tonight…
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SG James Harden $10.1K
On a massive slate like this there are a ton of value plays at your disposal, meaning you can easily pay up for 1 or 2 guys that you think can smash the 70 point barrier and win you a tournament. Just like every night he steps on the floor, I think Boogie Cousins is the safest bet to do this…but he’s also incredibly highly owned lately, and I don’t even think an 11K price tag will keep people off him. So kind of a lose-lose to have a highly owned guy that expensive. Meanwhile Harden has broken out of his fantasy slump and is lighting it up…with Dwight expected to be out again, the show is all his. He’s a legit triple double threat and helps fill a pretty shitty position for the night. So while he may fall 5 or 10 points short of the upside DeMarcus and Steph bring to the table tonight, he’s about as rock solid as you can get.
PG Kemba Walker $8.6K
New year, new me. Decided to ditch my Kemba grudge and start rolling him out there on a nightly basis, and he’s been paying off BIG time. Had a couple 70+ games last week, and even his “off” games are racking up 35-40. With half his team injured he should have control of the entire offense once again, in a pretty good fast paced matchup against Sacramento. Steph and John Wall are the premiere plays here, but I’ll save some money for a guy with arguably as much upside and a great game situation.
VALUE PLAY PF David West $4K
With a ton of value plays up for grabs, I tried to go with one I think will go under the radar and low owned. David West is the exact opposite of a sexy pick, and it feels boring just typing his name. But the fact is nobody ever gravitates towards him, even when Tim Duncan is out (like he is tonight) which opens up tons of minutes for him. Everybody flocks to Boban because he’s a funny name, but the guy with the best shot of giving us 6X value at a dirt cheap price is West.
Other considerations…
So many high priced guys could end up being the top scorer of the night…Cousins, Anthony Davis, Steph and Lebron, can’t go wrong with any of them. At PG I’m loving Lin, Schroeder, Tony Parker and Norris Cole as potential value plays. SG is probably the toughest position on the board which is why I’m paying up for Harden, but Avery Bradley and Manu are some decent options too. Lebron is the top SF but Gallo is a great play as well for much cheaper. Trevor Ariza has been way hot with Dwight out. At PF Cousins is my top play of the night, but Millsap is a close #2. Josh Smith and Marvin Williams are some risky upside guys. At C I love Gortat, like Pau and Gobert, and would consider Hawes and Cauley Stein as value guys.
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That’s it for me, good luck tonight. Tweet me @kmarkobarstool with your picks or to talk shit, whatever. Also if you’re depositing to play make sure to use my referral and we’ll both get hooked up with some stuff.