Daily Fantasy NBA Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and DraftPot - 11/4/15

The NBA is back! And honestly, I feel like if never really left us. The Finals seem like yesterday, the off season saw a ton of moves and we are ready to jump back into another season. We'll be bringing you daily picks for FanDuel, DraftKings and more. It's going to be a great season.

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Quick note on these picks: There is a lot to guess at to start the season. Tons of players have switched uniforms. Teams have slightly changed their approach. Rookies are in the mix. New starting lineups abound. It's somewhat tough sledding until we see some games and get a sense of how teams are going to use players. That being said, we've gone over the data and made a number of adjustments to our system in order to get things as close as humanly (and algorithmic-ally) possible. Our projection system handles the little bits of pricing and projecting differences. That being said, for this opening slate I think you are very much going to be taking a stars and punts approach.

POINT GUARD

Russell Westbrook - FD 10800 DK 10500
Opponent - TOR FD Proj. Pts - 48.58 DK Proj. Pts - 50.32
Really anytime Russell is below 11K on either site (and even then depending on the pricing situation up and down the rest of the lineup) you can consider him in your lineups. Really no other player (except for maybe Anthony Davis, though not last night) can fill it up faster than Westbrook. He's a reason to watch every single Thunder game simply because no other point guard can do what he does. Toronto is playing at a fast pace this season and Russell gets that breakneck pace going the other way as well. This should be a high-scoring game and he probably has the highest floor of anyone of the slate.

Kyle Lowry - FD 7800 DK 7900
Opponent - OKC FD Proj. Pts - 36.12 DK Proj. Pts - 38.35
Lowry was a popular play last night and I suspect it's the same again tonight. The Thunder/ Raptors' game projects as the second highest on the board, and this is a great spot to play some of the fellas from Toronto. They aren't breaking the bank on salary and the minutes for Toronto don't appear that variable at least from their top three. Lowry is rather steady Eddie all things considered who will score and assist while really boosting the floor with rebounds. I love the potential game flow in this one.

Mo Williams - FD 5500 DK 5500
Opponent - NYK FD Proj. Pts - 29.25 DK Proj. Pts - 31.72
He's more scoring dependent than I typically like out of my point guards, but the price is still very much in the value zone especially if you are looking for him in a GPP. If the shot is falling, like it was in Philly, then he can really outstrip the price tag. The problem on Mo is he isn't a distributor and the way the Cavs run their offense, he'll rarely post any decent assist numbers.

Strongly consider Michael Carter-Williams and Jerryd Bayless against the Sixers. Also consider Brandon Knight

SHOOTING GUARD

James Harden - FD 9900 DK 10000
Opponent - ORL FD Proj. Pts - 43.69 DK Proj. Pts - 46.14
There are few interesting big money plays on this slate and it is going to be interesting to see how the money shakes out. With such a big slate there will undoubtedly be some news heading toward lineup lock that shifts around some of the salaries. Harden and Westbrook appear like the big money guys I'd want to spend on. Harden finally got out of his own way the other night against the Thunder, turning in a monster as he finally got the shot to fall. It's all been a little too scoring dependent for Harden to start the season, and he'll get locked up with Oladipo tonight, but I am mostly looking at the price which has dipped thanks to a rougher start to the season.

Evan Fournier - FD 4500 DK 4400
Opponent - HOU FD Proj. Pts - 22.94 DK Proj. Pts - 25.41
He's been playing major minutes for the Magic and I feel bad about missing him in the picks last night. We didn't adjust his minutes until later in the day and he started showing up in our system as a top pts/$ play. That remains again today as he's simply getting too much run to ignore at these prices. Beyond just the minutes, Fournier is getting his shot up as well and he's a clear play in all formats today.

Giannis Antetokounmpo - FD 6800 DK 6900
Opponent - PHI FD Proj. Pts - 30.48 DK Proj. Pts - 31.55
He's a do everything kind of guy and is becoming more and more fun to watch. After sitting out the first couple of games from the suspension, he's returned with a vengeance playing big old minutes and doing everything across the stat sheet. The big thing on Alphabet is his length and speed get those blocks and steals numbers up to cover his floor in cash games. As long as he's playing big minutes he's cash game safe.

C.J. McCollum - FD 6400 DK 6600
Opponent - UTA FD Proj. Pts - 29.25 DK Proj. Pts - 31.22
The good thing about C.J. is he's a chucker's chucker. There isn't an ill-advised, falling away long two this guy doesn't want to take, or an off balance drive to the basket he doesn't want to throw towards the rim. But that kind of profile helps in DFS because he will just keep shooting no matter the scenario. This isn't a great matchup with Utah, but I like him for tournaments if he gets hot.

Strongly consider Eric Bledsoe. Shooting guard is stacked today.

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SMALL FORWARD

Kawhi Leonard - FD 7900 DK 7800
Opponent - WAS FD Proj. Pts - 38.42 DK Proj. Pts - 40
Oh do I love me some Kawhi. We aren't going to see these prices on him for long. He's just been too good in too many different ways. He's taking many more shots this season as they are starting to run more offensive sets through him and he's always been a good rebounder. Leonard really raises the floor because he's such a beast on defense and throws in so many other points on the statistical periphery. As long as his minutes are there then I still think we are buying low on the guy.

Gordon Hayward - FD 6800 DK 6700
Opponent - POR FD Proj. Pts - 32.32 DK Proj. Pts - 34.1
We want to target the Jazz when they are playing the faster teams in the league. Utah is a plodding, defensively-minded group whose prices stay low in the aggregate because the volume is low. So anytime they are projected to get more touches then you can consider running some of them out there. Portland is playing a top ten pace in the league so far this season. Hayward's price is down as bit as he's struggled from the field this season, shooting only 35% though he's a 45% career shooter. That should regress as the season goes on and you will see the price climb. Buy low now while you can.

DeMarre Carroll - FD 6100 DK 5800
Opponent - OKC FD Proj. Pts - 27.99 DK Proj. Pts - 30.26
Not a great effort from DeMarre last night after highlighting our picks at small forward. I'm unmoved. The contextual pieces are more than there for Carroll even with the stinker from last night. I don't like to let the short term effect my overall thinking on a player and little has changed since I wrote him up last night. He's still a big minutes guy and will get his looks. Up until last night he was second on the Raptors in field goal attempts and minutes. That won't go away.

Strongly consider Trevor Ariza

POWER FORWARD

Kevin Love - FD 7600 DK 7600
Opponent - NYK FD Proj. Pts - 35.57 DK Proj. Pts - 38.05
Was expecting bigger things from Love the other night against the Sixers. But he struggled from three (0-4) and got buzzed off in minutes, putting up his lowest run of the season. The Knicks have been somewhat feisty to start the season, already beating the Bucks and the Hawks. While Vegas has the Cavs as -9.5 favorite, there is some reason to suspect the Knicks can at least keep it close into the fourth quarter. Love has seen many more shot attempts this season and the rebounding numbers are trending in the right direction. I still think he's under priced considering how the Cavs are using him without Kyrie.

Markieff Morris - FD 5900 DK 6200
Opponent - SAC FD Proj. Pts - 28.64 DK Proj. Pts - 29.65
He doesn't always feel like the safest guy on the court, but Markieff has been getting enough shots to keep the floor high. For better or worse (mostly worse so far) Morris is third on the Suns in field goal attempts this season though he's been just horrid in his efficiency. He's shooting only 32% from the field. There's no way that continues. The Kings are at the perfect point on the graph this season, playing at a breakneck with no real defense. I love Morris in this matchup.

Draymond Green - FD 7800 DK 7100
Opponent - LAC FD Proj. Pts - 31.11 DK Proj. Pts - 33.21
He's always a tougher guy to project simply because his minutes only come when other teams can hang with the Warriors and that rarely happens. Though the line on this one projects in GSW's favor by a healthy margin, this is one of those games where you can take your chances on a high upside game for Draymond.

Consider Serge Ibaka

CENTER

Nikola Vucevic - FD 8000 DK 7700
Opponent - HOU FD Proj. Pts - 37.44 DK Proj. Pts - 38.02
He was a beast last night against the Pelicans and out system likes his chances again tonight against the Rockets. Though the matchup against Dwight is worse than the Ajinca/ poo-poo platter New Orleans threw out last night, Vucevic still projects to get all of his minutes in this one. The Rockets second unit simply isn't good enough to blow teams out and I can see the Magic hanging in a shoot out.

Jahlil Okafor - FD 5700 DK 6100
Opponent - MIL FD Proj. Pts - 30.53 DK Proj. Pts - 31.01
This one is a little more speculative as it's always tough to trust rookies this early in the season. There are for sure growing pains with even the best of them and we will see some ups and downs along the way. Jahlil saw his minutes buzzed off some in the game against the Cavs, but had full run in the two games before. On a night with a bunch games showing big opening spreads, it's going to be tough fading blowouts across the board. With that in mind, I like Okafor's price considering the scoring and rebounding upside.

Strongly consider Dwight Howard on DraftKings

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