Monday gets the week underway with a seven-game featured slate, tipping off at 7 p.m. ET on DraftKings and FanDuel. This slate is loaded with decision points, making it the perfect opportunity to highlight the top NBA DFS building blocks and best picks of the day. Let’s break down Monday’s core plays like Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, Miles Bridges and a host of Hornets.
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NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today: Monday, Dec. 30
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NBA DFS Picks Today: Building Blocks
Jamal Murray: Nuggets at Jazz
NBA DFS Projections
DraftKings: 40.27 | FanDuel: 39.73
NBA DFS Ownership Projections
DraftKings: 22.7% | FanDuel: 19.5%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $7,700 | FanDuel: $8,100
Aaron Gordon is out, so that gives a slight boost to each of the starting five for Denver. Jamal Murray had 48-plus fantasy points in four of his last five games, and he has been logging heavy minutes as the Nuggets try to stay relevant in the Western Conference standings.
Russell Westbrook has been starting in place of Gordon, and that is likely to continue tonight. The Triple-Double King is a better option for the evening sub-slate than the featured tournaments.
Nikola Jokic is the top fantasy option, projecting for 16 more median fantasy points than Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid. James Harden looks good as a non-center option, with Kyrie Irving close behind.
Christian Braun rounds out the Denver plays on DraftKings, while Michael Porter Jr. gets those honors on FanDuel. Utah is expecting John Collins (hip) to be out for a couple more days, which means less rebounding competition for Walker Kessler (yet another center) and Lauri Markkanen. Jordan Clarkson has been in the starting lineup, which looks like it will be the case again tonight.
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Miles Bridges: Hornets at Bulls
NBA DFS Projections
DraftKings: 41.66 | FanDuel: 39.63
NBA DFS Ownership Projections
DraftKings: 42.1% | FanDuel: 72.4%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $7,300 | FanDuel: $6,900
LaMelo Ball is dealing with a sore wrist and a balky ankle, which have him as doubtful for tonight. Brandon Miller is also doubtful with an ankle issue, and both players are trending towards missing their second consecutive game. The hits just keep coming with Cody Martin (knee) also likely to miss tonight’s action, which means there will be several Charlotte players ascending to tournament prominence.
Miles Bridges has missed 13 games this season with a variety of maladies, though he participated in the last seven. Focusing on the last three, he averaged 33.7 minutes and 16.7 field goal attempts with a 44.1% conversion rate. Bridges is not afraid to fire away from downtown, and more often than not he is attempting six-plus 3-pointers. When he finds his mark, that gives him access to ample upside, augmenting his per-36-minute rates of 8.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 1.5 combined blocks and steals.
Vasilije Micic is a Euro guard who found his way to the NBA last season. He is going to be 31 years old next month and tends to get the “hot hand” approach when it comes to playing time. Isolating his nine starts this season is a reasonable baseline proxy, which works out to 30.6 minutes, 11.6 field goal attempts, 13.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 0.6 steals. In 80 career games, he has 30 starts and scored 20 or more points on five occasions.
Tidjane Salaun is the type of player who will give you nightmares. If he is in your roster, he fails … a lot. If you avoid him, well, he has the ability to break your heart. Keep in mind he is only 19 years old and was the sixth overall selection in the 2024 NBA Draft after playing in the top French league. His per-36-minute rates of 9.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists are not particularly appealing, but he does have half a dozen 20-fantasy point games, including 32 and 30 in his best efforts.
Mark Williams is a decent center option, though there are several in the player pool tonight who rate out better from a fantasy points-per-dollar perspective. Seth Curry is a deep punt play, but seeing him on the court for more than 24 minutes would be a surprise, even if he starts. He played 22 minutes on Saturday, notching 17 fantasy points.
Ayo Dosunmu is doubtful, but Josh Giddey and Zach LaVine are good to go, as is Coby White. This trio makes for strong secondary plays, though none is a “must have” tonight as their salaries are all reasonably accurate, even accounting for a terrific fantasy matchup. Nikola Vucevic is one of many center options, and he should push for a 20-10 game against the weakened competition.
Today’s Top Sports Betting Pick
Make no mistake, Jonathan Kuminga has been on a two-game heater, but the under on his 28.5 points + rebounds + assists (PRA) prop is an appealing wager.
The screenshot of Portfolio EV shows that this wager projects to come to fruition 55% of the time. With the -110 odds, this results in a solid 4.1% expected ROI when accounting for the -120 “True Odds.”
Hard Rock and BetMGM are offering -110, which exceeds the True Odds of -120 and the -125 or worse odds posted at the other books.
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Stokastic’s Advanced NBA Statistical Projections have Kuminga projected for 29.2 minutes, 18.21 points, 5.76 rebounds and 2.12 assists for 26.09 PRA, which is under the 28.5 threshold that is prevalent on most books. We can see that FanDuel has -111 odds but lowered the line to 27.5, solidifying the higher target on BetMGM and Hard Rock as the books to utilize.
Kuminga has been scorching over the last two games, coming off the bench yet logging 35.6 minutes, 34.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists. However, if we look at his season-long per-36 minutes rates, we see that more often than not his 16.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists (23.7 PRA) would still be well below the 28.5 milestone tonight. Plus he has a tough matchup against Cleveland. Yes, this is already factored into the numbers, but sometimes visualizing these variables helps in understanding why the wagers are appealing.
Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today
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