Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings Sunday 11/2/14

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Point Guard

Stephen Curry - FD 9800 DK 10400
Short slates are all about getting our money in good on big prices, and coming through on our cheaper plays. Without question, the big money guy to spend on for Sundays slate of basketball games is Steph Curry. He showed all that you need to know about him in the first game of the season, putting up his last season's line plus some rebounds and steals, minus a few assists. Damian Lillard is very much an offense-only PG on the other side of the ball, as evidence by Portland's dismal allowance of 11% more fantasy points to opposing PGs last season. Steph is pretty much a must play in cash games and GPPs alike.

Norris Cole - FD 4400 DK 4700
The perfect guy to play if you want to spend up on Curry but don't want to totally blow your load, so to speak, on the PG position. With Miami turning its eye toward Cole (and the future), he becomes a no-brainer play as a 30 minute a night guy for punt level prices. I might wind up eating these words, but it's basically impossible for Cole to not pay off these prices for cash games (with room for much more in GPPs when his shots are falling, a la his first game this season), and Toronto's very solid PG defense really can't do much to stand in the way of his opportunity.

Kemba Walker - FD 7600 DK 8100
It's going to seem weird recommending Kemba off of an 0-9 start to Saturday's game, but here goes, anyway. I think Walker's first game of the season is far more indicative of how Charlotte plans to use him than the game against a stout Memphis D, and the good news for him is, the already bad against the PG Knicks have lost their defensive core. Look for the Hornets to want to get Walker back on track after he played a reduced set of minutes in Saturday's game, but keep an eye on the potential foot issues.

Shooting Guard

Klay Thompson - FD 6500 DK 7200
It's a rather odd night for shooting guards. I'm concerned about D-Wade's minutes on the second night of a back to back, and the Stephenson groin issue has me officially spooked. Klay summarily rises to the top of the SG depth chart from all perspectives, really. He flashed his incredible scoring upside in the first game of the season, and while Portland was solid against SGs last year in terms of fantasy points allowed, they actually didn't do a great job in preventing SGs from scoring points themselves. Perhaps he isn't a grade A GPP play, but he's more than enough for me for cash games.

DeMar DeRozan - FD 8300 DK 7900
Count me among those who think Miami's defense will take a nose dive without the world's best player. DeRozan showed his safety by putting up a 15/11/3 with an excellent 6 steals even with an incredible run-cold of 4/16 shooting. There's more risk here, for me, thank in the Thompson play - but I think DeRozan has the highest raw point total upside of SGs going in this slate by a considerable margin.

Punt possibilities
Gary Neal - FD 3500 DK 3100
Basically a strict GPP play, but plugging Neal in for bare bare minimum prices is a pretty easy sell to me, especially with Charlotte wanting to limit the dinged up Stephenson's minutes. As of this writing he's got a 10/4/1 with 2 steals in 23 minutes against Memphis - just about the line I'd expect if he gets 20+ minutes per game. If he gets 30+, all bets are off as far as his relative upside.

Also considered: WorldWide Wes Matthews

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Small Forward

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - FD 4000 DK 5400
We have a little saying around DFSR (that I don't always follow) - "trust the system." We're talking about our projection system - a lineup construction tool that we make to use these picks. Doug, our main basketball writer, put Kidd-Gilchrist in the picks in his first game of the season. I laughed at him. May have even called his names. MKG delivered an incredible 36 fantasy points and followed it up with a double-double in Saturday's game, in which his team only scored 69 points. He's still at ridiculous punt prices. What else do I really need to do to justify this selection? Safe with plenty of upside.

Draymond Green - FD 5100 DK 5800
If you can't guess by now, I'm not going to be spending at the SF position today. If you extrapolated Green's output on a per minute basis last year to what he should get with Lee out, he'd be in the neighborhood of 25-30 FanDuel points per game. That's a fortune on these prices. Portland is basically average against opposing SF, but this is a straight up price and opportunity play.

Nicolas Batum - FD 7200 DK 7100
Batum's price still hasn't dropped - a nice job by the fantasy sites not to overreact - but people are already aflutter with concerns over his game. But not me! He's just run a little bit bad on his shooting %, and his usage is actually going up. Golden State was roughly average against small forwards last year, and coming off the second night of a double header, they might have a little bit more trouble than usual keeping up with Batum.

Power Forward

Carmelo Anthony - FD 9700 DK 9000
LaMarcus Aldridge - FD 9600 DK 8900
If you're loading up on punts at SF and taking one on Cole, you can start to spend at the PF position. To that end, I can safely recommend both Aldridge and Anthony for cash games. I'm a little more reserved on Aldridge because Golden State should get a defensive boost with Lee out, but I very much like Anthony against the Hornets tonight. They play a slower pace, but I think Marvin Williams is actually a nice match-up for Anthony's game. Don't be spooked by Anthony's early season woes - he went up against two VERY tough defensive teams in Chicago and Cleveland. And he's a classic guy that will make it up against weaker squads. I think the time is now.

Marvin Williams - FD 4100 DK 4900
On the other side of the ball, I'll throw out Marvin Williams as a nice cheap option if you find yourself getting short on funds. He got in foul trouble against Memphis (not hard to do against their juggernauts down low), but I don't suspect he'll have that problem against the New York front court. With the defensive integrity of the Knicks greatly compromised with Chandler's departure, I think we could see more of Williams' first game this season, and less of his second.

Center

Al Jefferson - FD 9500 DK 9000
Probably the biggest beneficiary of Chandler's leaving will be back to the basket centers like Jefferson. If Jefferson plays a huge allotment of minutes like he did against Memphis, don't expect him to struggle the way he did against the twin towers of Gasol and Randolph. Jefferson is going to be like a man freshly released inmate, and a vintage monster Al-Jeff performance might be coming. On a night with a lot of question marks, Jefferson stands head and shoulder above the other guys at this position.

Andrew Bogut - FD 5600 DK 5100
I'm writing this before the tip off of the Golden State game tonight, but I'm firmly outside the group of people who are concerned about Bogut's minutes this year. The guy was playing 30+ minutes in the preseason, and if the Warriors wanted to rest him, that would have been a much better time. Bogut is a per-minute beast, and with Lee's absence, I could see him playing 30+ minutes a game for a while. If he does, his 12/10/3 with a handful of blocks and steals that he flashed in Milwaukee are absolutely in play against Portland. On a per-dollar basis, Bogut presents the greatest upside of any center today.

Robin Lopez - FD 5800 DK 5900
Mostly a safety play. You don't love him going up against Bogut, but Lopez's 10/8/1 with some blocks is one of the surest bets in daily fantasy basketball. Not a whole lot else to say here - if you don't want to spend up for Jefferson but are spooked about the questions surrounding Bogut, Lopez is a great guy to just go count on for his 30 minutes.

Also considered: Jonas Valanciunas

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