If you plan on playing NBA DFS on Christmas Day, this slate will serve as great practice for you. We only have three games on Tuesday, but we have seven players above $8,000, and while we're still waiting on a line for the Washington and New Orleans game, I'd imagine every game will have a total eclipsing 205. The options and different combinations will be seemingly endless considering we only have six teams to work with.

In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy basketball lineup picks for DraftKings on 12/19/17. With this slate being so small yet so star-driven, I feel it may be better for me to outline a few thoughts for each game rather than try to solidify picks in a pool of studs.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @BellRoto and ask any questions you may have. Let's get to it!

 

New Orleans @ Washington

Let's start with the New Orleans side. While everyone will look to the big duo of Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins for the Pelicans production, I will continue playing Jrue Holiday while he's too cheap. He boasts a safe floor with his high shot attempts, and we know the upside is there when he gets hot. Holiday is safe for cash games and viable for tournaments as well. Meanwhile, Rajon Rondo's minutes remain capped and E'Twaun Moore is overpriced. Holiday is really the only player on my radar, but if I had to pick one of the big men it would be Cousins based on hunch alone. I would rather spend up on one of the stars who won't have to compete for usage with his teammate.

On the Washington side, we have an Otto Porter injury to monitor. He didn't play on Sunday with a hip injury, and Mike Scott was the big beneficiary. If Porter sits out again, I don't mind going right back to Scott. He's the kind of strech four that can score in transition as well as fight for rebounds against the Pelicans' big bodies. So far this season, guards have torched New Orleans, so it's likely that John Wall and/or Bradley Beal will play well in this one. If I had to choose one, I'd take the discount and go with Beal. His quality of looks drastically increases with Wall in the lineup, and he seems to collect a few extra peripherals too.

 

Sacramento @ Philadelphia

Sacramento is the only team without a stud in the mix, and as such I probably won't have a whole lot of interest in their team Tuesday night. They continue to roll out deep rotations, hindering the minutes upside of a lot of potentially good plays. If you wanted to choose two plays in a tournament, I might lean towards Willie Cauly-Stein and George Hill, as their minutes and production are trending in the right direction. Even still, you're hoping for 6x at best.

Philadelphia is the lone team on a back-to-back of this bunch, and with Joel Embiid coming back, the value we loved on Monday will seemingly disappear. On top of Embiid's minutes and production factoring in, I also tend to avoid jump shooters playing for the second night in a row. J.J. Redick and Robert Covington fit that mold, although Covington tends to do enough peripherally to produce even on poor shooting nights. Both Embiid and Ben Simmons get great matchups, but I think I will side with the rested Embiid to come out firing and not slow down until this one is over. At a price point just under $10,000, The Process has reached at least 5x in five of his last six games.

 

Cleveland @ Milwaukee

If we assume that Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to cover LeBron James, it's tough to imagine him scoring 30 points as he did in their last meeting. I'll probably avoid James and hope that this is a far overdue down game for the King. If I take that stand, it would probably be smart to roster Kevin Love in hopes that he's the focal point of the offense. Love also put up a 60 DK point night in the last meeting between these two teams, and wing players continue to be the Bucks' weakness on the defensive end. There isn't a whole lot of value to be had with Dwyane Wade expected to play, but you could take a shot on Jeff Green, JR Smith, or Jose Calderon if you are starved for value.

So there are all these studs, and yet I don't want to commit to playing any of them. For what it's worth, I feel the best about the aforementioned Embiid for the time being, but Antetokounmpo is a close second. The more I think about it, the more I may go with Khris Middleton for the Bucks in this spot and aim for a balanced build. The Cavs defense leaks fantasy points, and Middleton has been shooting somewhere between 17 and 20 shots each game. He doesn't shy away from peripheral stats either. John Henson is the only other Buck that I'll consider, but Tristan Thompson defense does scare me slightly. For that reason along with his natural inconsistency, Henson is nothing more than a GPP dart throw.

 

Quick Strategy Thoughts

If you don't feel any better about this slate after reading the above notes, then you're in the same boat as me. I get the feeling that, unless we get some major injury news, I'm just going to make one tournament lineup for Tuesday night. Cash games are tough on short slates in general, but they will be even tougher Tuesday with a boat load of studs and very, very little value. I think my approach will be to be balanced and try to catch everyone else in an unnessecary "Stars and Scrubs" mindset.

As I mentioned above, hit me up on Twitter @BellRoto with any of your thoughts or feedback. Best of luck, everyone!

 

NBA DFS News & Injury Alerts

 

DFS Premium Subscription

Get a free trial of our powerful Premium Tools. Our famous DFS Cheat Sheets, and Lineup Optimizers & Generators with daily matchup projections.

Win more. Try the most advanced lineup optimizer in daily fantasy sports.
Sign Up Now!