FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Saturday 11/2/19

If you're new to daily fantasy basketball -- maybe you started your DFS journey during the MLB or NFL seasons, or maybe basketball is your sport and this will be your first year giving it a shot -- you're in for a treat. The NBA scene changes hugely on a week-to-week, day-to-day, and -- depending on injury news -- even a minute-to-minute basis, making every slate a unique one that requires an ever-changing approach.

With so much changing so quickly, we're here with plenty of tools to help you out. We have daily projections, a matchup heat map, a lineup optimizer, and a bunch of other great resources to help give you an edge.

We'll also be coming at you with this primer every day, breaking down a few of the day's top plays at each position.

Let's take a look at who you should target on today's main slate.

The Slate

Outside of the Denver Nuggets and Orlando Magic game, all the totals are pretty juicy, so really, we should be wary of that game relative to the rest of the slate. Both teams are bottom-three in pace, with Denver coming in the slowest.

Center

There's no Karl-Anthony Towns or Joel Embiid tonight, so the season of jamming in Andre Drummond ($10,300) should continue against the Brooklyn Nets, who do rank 3rd in rebounding rate but are 20th in defensive rating. Drummond has averaged 1.53 FanDuel points per minute on the season and has only once played fewer than 30 minutes. With Nikola Jokic ($9,700) and Nikola Vucevic ($8,800) locked into the only fantasy dud game of the night (presumably), Drummond should be considered a building block again.

If not going there, Jonas Valanciunas ($6,000) pops as the second-best value for me tonight in a surprising pace-down game for Memphis against Phoenix. Despite a minutes limitation, Valanciunas has averaged 27.4 FanDuel points per game and a studly 1.41 FanDuel points per minute.

Willie Cauley-Stein ($4,800) should see an expanded role with news that Draymond Green ($7,700) may not play, which would leave the Golden State Warriors undermanned everywhere. Cauley-Stein is hyper-productive for a player of his caliber, sporting a mark of 1.28 FanDuel points per minute mark.

Core Plays: Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunas, Willie Cauley-Stein
Secondary Plays: Marc Gasol ($4,900), Cody Zeller ($6,600)
Tournament Plays: Nikola Jokic, Brook Lopez ($5,600), Hassan Whiteside ($7,500)

Small Forward

Saturday's priciest play on FanDuel is Giannis Antetokounmpo ($11,500), and just three other active players are above $10,000. Antetokounmpo grades out as the best small forward of the night in my model even after adjusting for his elevated price tag, and with no Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid on the slate due to their suspension, he's one of the few players with slate-busting upside. The Toronto Raptors have started the year fifth in defensive rating, but Giannis' 1.77 FanDuel points per minute gives him wiggle room to underperform and still be a stud.

With no Embiid this season, Tobias Harris ($7,000) has had a 21.4% usage rate, via NBAWowy. There are better per-dollar values below him, however.

Markieff Morris ($4,400), Miles Bridges ($5,400), and Jake Layman ($3,600) are the three best values in my model after Antetokounmpo. It's likely that the Towns suspension leads to a committee approach, but Layman's price works out to let us play him.

Core Plays: Giannis Antetokounmpo,