LineStar® Daily Dribble - Where are the stars!?

April 18, 2021

We are back, for another version of the Daily Dribble written by LineStarTyler.

Another classic late-season NBA slate with lots of stars out. These slates can be good though and the usage matrix tool can be a huge help on slates with a ton of moving pieces.

Today's Slate

We have a 5 game slate tonight that features 7 losing teams, only the Mav's, Clippers, and Trailblazers have winning records that are playing tonight. We also have TOR resting most of its regular starters, Damien Lillard likely out, and who knows if Kawhi will play tonight.

The last two games have the highest totals but also pose the biggest blowout risk.

Slate Injury News

Aleksej Pokusevski-Prob.

Lou Dort-Questionable

Graham/Washington-Questionable

Bamba/Ennis-Questionable

Kawhi Leonard-Questionable

Jaylen Nowell-Doubtful

Malik Beasley-Out

John Wall-Out

Vanvleet/Lowry/Siakam/Anunoby-Out

Ibaka/Beverley-Out

MCW-Out

Richaun Holmes-Out

Damien Lillard-Out

Jimmy Butler-Out

James Harden-Out

Lots of stars are out tonight. Also to note is that the Clippers and Wolves play 2.5 hours after the 4th game starts. We may not know if Leonard will play or not by then. Pay attention to injury news until that comes out because there could be some leverage on the field based on that news.

Tonight's Point Guard /Shooting Guard Notables

Kevin Porter Jr. DK $6.6 k | FD $6.5 k

Porter Jr is likely going to be my highest-owned player. With no Wall, Oldaipo traded, Gordon hurt, the game rests in his and Wood's hands. The team needs him to score in bunches. With everyone out, he gets a 4.38% usage bump and picks up 7.43 fantasy points. Play him with confidence.

CJ McCollum DK $8.7 k | FD $7.9k

Without Lillard, this is a bit of an obvious pick. He is way too cheap on FD so I felt like I had to mention him. He has been great all season and now gets a usage bump without Lillard.

Malachi Flynn DK $5.9 k | FD $5.6 k

This is a bit of a homer pick. I won't lie, but the numbers check out. I am from San Diego and Flynn played at SDSU, if COVID didn't ruin last year's NCAA tourney everyone would know about this kid. He is a good two-way player and is going against a turnover-prone young team. You can lock in 2+ steals/blocks. With all of TOR starters sitting he gets a huge usage bump, and he is in a plus matchup where Killian Hayes just put up 40fp.

Tonight's SF / PF Notables

Norman Powell DK $6.3 k | FD $6.3k

I actually like him more than CJ on DK. Powell is priced right, and getting huge minutes (38 the last two games). We haven't seen him have one of the blow-up games that he had in TOR but with Lillard out there is a chance he gets it tonight. Powell is a .92fp/min player historically and with 38 min, in a good matchup, I will take that median projection all day.

Kawhi Leonard DK $9.5 k | FD $10k

Paul George DK $9.3 k | FD $9.8k

I put both here because I love this game but there is a big question mark with Leonard's status. The nice thing is that both of their salaries are similar so it's easy to switch on to the other. This is the highest-scoring game of the night and Leonard might go way under-owned as people will be scared to play him. Since I love PG13 if Leonard sits I have no issues with plugging Leonard into my lineups and pivoting to George if Leonard sits.

*If Leonard plays then George is way too expensive and I don't want him.

Christian Wood DK $8.5 k | FD $8k

Wood started the season on fire then he got hurt. However, he has started finding his stride again. Wood has two over 50 fp games this month and has been in the perfect lineup 3 of his last 5 games.

Tonight's Center Position Notables

Wendall Carter Jr. DK $6.4 k | FD $6.4k

Wendall will be my 2nd highest-owned player, and if Bamba sits I will have a little more of him. He is getting over 30 minutes a game now and produces at a 1.17fp/min clip over the last 10 games. He is also facing the Rockets who just had Jokic go for 65, Sabonis for 40.5, and Ayton for 46.6.

Value Options

There are a lot of different value options tonight so I figured I would highlight a few I am interested in.

In order for my most to least exposed of these value options.

Yuta Watanabe DK $3.6 k | FD $4.1k

Jalen Brunson DK $4.4 k | FD $5.2k (a bit expensive on FD)

Armoni Brooks DK $3.2 k | FD $3.6k

Freddie Gillespie DK $3.2 k | FD $3.9k

KJ Martin DK $3.8 k | FD $3.6k

Anfrenee Simons DK $3.6 k | FD $4k

My Strategy

I like the potential leverage we can get from Kawhi Leonard and or Paul George depending on their health, So I will definitely have some Leonard. He won't be part of my core but I will have a decent amount of him. If he doesn't play then all my Leonard shares will become George or KAT (if salary works).

On DK my core is Porter jr, Carter jr, and Norm Powell. They are my most exposed players and all of my lineups will likely have at least 1-3 of them.

GOODLUCK!

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Thank you for reading and if you have any question please hit me up in the chat @LineStarTyler

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