Griffin Wong dives into Tuesday’s eight-game NBA featured slate to find three undervalued players to use in your DraftKings lineups.
This time next week, the games won’t be part of the NBA regular season anymore. Instead, it’ll be the first round of the SoFi Play-In Tournament. The season is truly coming to an end.
For this sixth-to-last day of the NBA season, there’s a fairly full slate of games, with 20 of the league’s 30 teams in action. Eight of today’s 10 games will be available for DraftKings’ featured DFS contest, and with so many stars taking the court, pairing them with value options is paramount. Here are my top three favorites from tonight’s games:
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PG/SG Andrew Nembhard, Indiana Pacers vs. Washington Wizards, $5,000
Nembhard’s value will depend largely on whether or not Pascal Siakam ($7,600), who missed Sunday’s game with an elbow injury and is questionable for tonight’s contest, ultimately suits up. Nembhard took on a bigger role in the offense on Sunday with Siakam sidelined and did excellently, taking 14 shots (tied for his second highest total of the season) and recording 19 points, four rebounds, six assists, and two steals (37.0 FPTS). To be fair, the Canadian has put up some good games alongside both Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton ($9,100), too, including a 16-point (32.75-FPT) performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 29.
If Nembhard can put up good numbers alongside both Pacers stars against Oklahoma City’s league-best defense, he can most certainly do it against a Washington unit that has reverted to its losing ways after a decent stretch immediately after the All-Star break. In their last 10 games, the Wizards are 2-8 with a negative-16.0 net rating, which is pretty much where they’ve been all season. Across that span, Washington has conceded the second-most points, most rebounds, and fifth-most assists per game, even besting the Utah Jazz for futility in the rebounds department (which is very, very hard to do, given the lineups Utah has been rolling out these days).
PG Ty Jerome, Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls, $4,500
Cleveland will be without Donovan Mitchell ($9,300) as it seeks to officially clinch home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs tonight, which means that Isaac Okoro ($3,000) will likely step into the starting lineup in his absence. Okoro doesn’t have much of an offensive ceiling, though, given that he rarely shoots and rarely passes, so he’s primarily an asset only on defense. Even for a salary $1,500 higher, Jerome is the far safer bet, having scored 20 points (29.0 FPTS) last night in his return from knee tendinitis, and he’s an excellent shooter. Of the 10 players who have played at least 60 games and hit 50% of their field goals and 40% of their threes, Jerome’s 86.9% free-throw percentage is the highest.
To be fair, Chicago is one of the league’s hotter teams, having posted a 12-6 record since the start of March. But across that span, the Bulls have still allowed the 11th-most points, 17th-most rebounds, and fifth-most assists per game, and they’ll be dealing with a laundry list of injuries tonight. In what could be a first-round playoff preview — the Cavaliers are virtually locked into the No. 1 seed, while Chicago trails the Atlanta Hawks by one game for eighth — I’ll take Jerome to prove he’s one of the league’s best bench players.
C Drew Timme, Brooklyn Nets vs. New Orleans Pelicans, $4,800
The end of the season for contending teams means resting starters, preparing for the playoffs, and — in the case of the five-team morass in the Western Conference that I’ll be writing about later — jostling for seeding. But for rebuilding teams, it means giving chances to less-heralded players and improving chances to fall deep into the NBA draft lottery for the chance at picking a franchise-altering superstar. It’s only fitting that, one day after the end of the NCAA tournament, Brooklyn should give plenty of playing time to Timme, who helped lead Gonzaga to a 31-0 run to the NCAA tournament final in 2020-21. Timme earned his first start of his career in a 120-109 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday, finishing with 13 points, seven rebounds, and two assists (26.25 FPTS).
For as long of an injury list as the Nets have, New Orleans’ is even longer. Of the 10 players who received more than one minute in the Pelicans’ season-opening win over the Bulls on October 23, only Yves Missi ($5,300), Jose Alvarado ($6,500), and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl ($3,400) are even healthy and on the roster. This season, New Orleans has allowed the second-most fantasy points to opposing centers, although it has surprisingly controlled the boards fairly well in the six games that it has played since Zion Williamson’s season-ending injury.
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