DFS NBA Top Plays: August 6

Injuries
*Goga Bitadze (knee) — Questionable
*Malcolm Brogdon (neck) — Questionable
*Aron Baynes (knee) — Out
*Elie Okobo (ankle) — Out
*Kelly Oubre (knee) — Doubtful
*Jimmy Butler (foot) — Out
*Goran Dragic (ankle) — Questionable
*Seth Curry (leg) — Doubtful
*Patrick Beverley (calf) — Out
*Montrezl Harrell (personal) — Out
*Bruno Caboclo (ankle) — Out
*Eric Gordon (ankle) — Out
*Russell Westbrook (quad) — Questionable 

You don’t have to play cash games to understand why it’s important to grasp them. Players we consider for cash are the ones we believe are the most underpriced, have the best floor/ceiling combo and feature a relatively tight range of outcomes. In other words, these are the best plays on the board once price, slate context and positional depth is accounted for. Those sound like pretty good options for GPPs as well.

The optimal GPP lineup will mix some of these cash-type plays with higher-variance options. In cash games (where roughly 50% of the field gets paid out), we don’t worry about ownership or game stacks or correlation. In large-field tournaments, our ACO (average cumulative ownership) should stay reasonably low.

With all that said, these are our Top Plays considering the following factors: Median projection, matchup, upside and value. Ownership is not considered here. Generally speaking, these players are what we consider to be “head-to-head and 50/50 considerations.” They are listed in price descending order (NOT ranked by “best play”). At the bottom, you’ll find suggested rankings by site once salary is accounted for.

 

Incentives/Back-to-Backs

Playoff Hunting: Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers
Seeding motivation: Miami Heat, Indiana Pacers
No Motivation: Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks

Front End: None
Back End: Los Angeles Lakers

 

Point Guard

Russell Westbrook ($9,000 DK/$9,600 FD) – Westbrook is questionable with a quad injury and it’s the last game on the slate, so investing in Westbrook requires some careful consideration. Ideally you’ll have Westbrook paired with someone from the last two games (DEN-POR) that in combination allows you to swap to Harden and another player IF Westbrook is ruled out. The price tag on Westbrook is eye opening on DraftKings at just $9,000. It’s a tag he routinely clears with ease and it’s one that leaves room for a couple other big names in your lineups. If Westbrook was a clear go, he’d be one of the easier plays on the slate even in a neutral matchup against the Lakers who rank 13th in defensive efficiency against point guards. Playing Westbrook will require monitoring news.