Hi, RotoBallers! The NBA season is here and we have a wonderful salary cap contest for you over at OwnersBox!
In case you're not yet familiar, OwnersBox is a fantastic new weekly fantasy sports platform that offers plenty of game setups to fulfill your desire to draft throughout the season.
In this article, I will be providing you with my weekly fantasy football lineup picks on OwnersBox for the Week 3 Contest of the Week, a seven-day contest that starts Friday, November 5th. Read my picks below, and then join us in this tournament as we battle it out for the cash prizes!
$5K Contest for Week 3!
OwnersBox is hooking up RotoBaller readers to celebrate the launch of their new salary cap style contests, so be sure to take advantage of these promo offers!
- Join this week's freeroll on OwnersBox - the contest is completely free to enter for new users with code NBA10, and there's a $5,000 cash guaranteed prize pool. You can also enter up to 18 lineups at $10 per lineup if you want more chances to win.
You can enter up until Friday, November 5 at 6:55 pm ET.
OwnersBox Guard Picks
Jalen Brunson, DAL - PG ($15,000) - 3 games
I'm all about targeting cheap plays who are currently on the upswing, so let's start with Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson.
Inserted into the starting five as the Mavs have played smaller with Maxi Kleber out, Brunson is thriving. In two games as a starter, he's averaging 33.5 minutes per contest, with averages of 28.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.5 threes. he's shooting 15 shots per game over that span and averaging 10 free throw attempts.
Those numbers will cool off, but even then, Brunson playing 30-plus minutes at just $5k per game? This is just some wild value.
Josh Hart, NOP - SG ($14,100) - 3 games
Hart missed four games. In the first game back, he played 22 minutes. But in the three games since, Hart is averaging 30.8 minutes per game, with 13.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists, plus 1.7 threes and a field goal percentage of 53.3.
Like with Brunson, I love playing someone who has seen a recent uptick in usage but whose DFS salary isn't necessarily reflecting that uptick in usage yet. It makes for a good value option that will allow you to pay up at other positions. Hart won't have the scoring explosion that Brunson has, but he's still got a ton of upside.
OwnersBox Forward Picks
Jayson Tatum, BOS - SF ($18,600) - 2 games
Because Tatum has just two games this week, he's fairly cheap and can be paired with a four-game PF like Scottie Barnes to get you to that six-game threshold.
Tatum is obviously one of highest ceiling plays in the league. On the year, he averages 22.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 0.9 steals, 0.9 blocks, and 2.1 threes per game despite struggling with his efficiency far more than usual. In nine games this year, he has scored 30-plus points twice already, so one of those explosion games is always lurking.
Georges Niang, PHI - SF ($14,000) - 4 games
Circling back to value guys like we did in the guard section, we have Sixers forward Georges Niang.
Now, if you're just casually following the league, you might have forgotten that Niang joined Philly this offseason. I mean, he only averaged 16 minutes per game in Utah last year.
But he's playing 22.4 per game off the Philly bench and is in the midst of a hot streak. Over the last three games, Niang is playing 31.5 minutes per contest, with averages of 17.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.7 steals, and 3.3 threes. Ride the hot hand, especially with the hot hand playing so many minutes and having four games this week for just $14k total.
OwnersBox Center Picks
Alperen Sengun, HOU - C ($16,200) - 3 games
Houston has moved the Turkish rookie into the starting five and so far, the results are...okay.
Across two starts, Sengun is averaging 8.0 points, 4.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 1.0 steals, and 0.5 threes per game. The assists from a center are a nice boost in his value, and he's shooting a respectable 41.2 percent. Could be better, but I really like the idea of getting three games of a starting big on a team as bad as Houston, because there's no incentive for the team to not continue playing 25ish minutes of Sengun on a nightly basis. The scoring will come. Love the value you get here at $16,200 for the three games.
Sample Lineup
Here's a lineup I built using some of the players from this article: