Thursday has a giant nine-game featured slate, locking at 7:00 p.m. ET for the single-game slate on FanDuel and DraftKings. There’s a lot to get into, so let’s not waste time finding the top NBA DFS picks and building blocks today like Karl-Anthony Towns and De’Aaron Fox.
NBA DFS Picks Today – Building Blocks: Thursday, Feb. 20
Elevate your DFS game with FREE DFS Sims! Sign up with one of our partners and receive a free month of Core DFS. Even better, you can stack multiple partner signups to extend your access for months! Click here to get started.
NBA DFS Picks Today: Building Blocks
Karl-Anthony Towns: Knicks vs. Bulls
NBA DFS Projections
DraftKings: 56.99 | FanDuel: 54.13
NBA DFS Ownership Projections
DraftKings: 52.1% | FanDuel: 38.3%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $9,700 | FanDuel: $9,900
The Knicks are hefty 12.5-point home favorites as they welcome the Chicago Bulls to Madison Square Garden. O.G. Anunoby (foot) is questionable, having missed the final five games heading into the All-Star Break, and Josh Hart (knee) has been ruled out.
Karl-Anthony Towns moves from 1.4 fantasy points per minute to an elite 1.5 in his 257 minutes without Hart alongside him this season. Similarly, Jalen Brunson increases from 1.2 to 1.4 fantasy points per minute.
Across the last 15 games, Chicago had the fifth-worst defensive efficiency rating, allowing 118.7 points per 100 possessions while playing at a top-4 pace with 101.9 possessions per 48 minutes. Despite its reputation as a stalwart defensive squad, New York allowed 117.6 points per 100 possessions in this same span. If the Bulls are able to hang around, Towns and Brunson should see action into the final frame, which is what DFS gamers are counting on tonight. Hart is vacating 37.8 minutes, 10.2 field goal attempts, 14.7 points and 9.6 rebounds. This is only the second game he has missed this season, with the last being in mid-December. Precious Achiuwa drew the spot start in that game, and it makes sense that he will remain with the first five, even if Hart is able to suit up.
Towns and Brunson each land in the top 5 with their median fantasy point projections on both DraftKings and FanDuel, and while their current popularity is likely to subside as more news is released, each can be considered a foundational building block in all formats. Brunson’s scoring is down 2.5 points from last year to 26.1 per game, though his 7.5 assists and 0.9 steals are personal bests. He also has a 55.5% effective field goal rate, which is the highest mark during his time in the Big Apple.
Nikola Vucevic, Josh Giddey and Coby White are the most likely Chicago starters to see 30 minutes of run. Each has a similar fantasy point-per-dollar ratio on the blue site, though Vucevic stands a level above his teammates on DraftKings, where gamers can roster two centers. Rookie Matas Buzelis stands out on the secret site (Yahoo, $12), though he is only in play for the three-game evening sub-slate on DraftKings.
De’Aaron Fox: Spurs vs. Suns
NBA DFS Projections
DraftKings: 44.89 | FanDuel: 43.58
NBA DFS Ownership Projections
DraftKings: 50.9% | FanDuel: 30.7%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $7,900 | FanDuel: $8,900
It sounds like Victor Wembanyama (illness) will be getting the night off, which means more offensive opportunities for recent acquisition De’Aaron Fox.
In his five games with San Antonio, the former Sacramento King averaged 35.8 minutes and 16.0 field goal attempts with a 50% success rate. He has struggled from beyond the arc (28.6% on 4.2 attempts per game), but overall his 21.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.8 steals are a good baseline expectation tonight.
There should be a solid trickledown effect for Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vassell, who will see additional rebounding and scoring chances with Wembanyama on the sidelines. The French phenom is averaging 33.2 minutes, 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He is leading the league with a career-high 3.8 blocks per game, looking to wear the crown for a second consecutive season. It will be hard for anyone on San Antonio to fill his shoes defensively, particularly with Charles Bassey (knee) out for at least another week.
Update: Victor Wembanyama is out for the season with a blood clot in his shoulder.
The team did have Bismack Biyombo (6-foot-8, 255 pounds) on a 10-day contract, which gives them the chance to sign him to a second one before he would need to be converted to a rest-of-season contract. Last year the seventh overall selection of the 2011 NBA Draft played 30 games for Memphis, and he appeared in 10 more for Oklahoma City. The 32-year-old was on the court for one minute as a Spur on Feb. 12, though he did not record a stat. Sandro Mamukelashvili (6-foot-9, 240 pounds) is the other option to man the pivot while Nick Richards (7-foot-0, 240 pounds) is on the court. Both are at the minimum $3,000 salary on DraftKings, with Mamukelashvili also having power forward eligibility. Each is only available at the center position on FanDuel, which is not particularly appealing with serious opportunity cost in Towns, Vucevic, Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid.
Chris Paul may get a few more offensive opportunities tonight against one of his former squads, which gives him a bump in his median projection. Fellow future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant is the most popular Phoenix player, pushing 15% on DraftKings but mired in single-digit popularity (6.9%) on FanDuel. Aside from Cody Martin, who has yet to suit up for the Suns, everyone is available tonight.
Today’s Top Sports Betting Pick
Trae Young stands out in the sports wagering world with the under on his 40.5 points + rebounds + assists (PRA) prop on SugarHouse, BetRivers and Unibet. They currently have this wager listed at -110, which is well above the -130 offered at most books, with some even dropping the PRA threshold to 39.5 at worse odds.
The screenshot of Portfolio EV shows that this wager projects to win 55% of the time. That combined with the -110 odds on SugarHouse, BetRivers and Unibet leads to a fantastic 5.8% expected value when accounting for the -124 “True Odds.”
Wondering what is Portfolio EV? Well, it’s the best sports betting tool on the market! Check it out now and start building your bankroll.
Stokastic’s Advanced NBA Statistical Projections have Young projected for 36.3 minutes, 23.91 points, 3.16 rebounds and 9.89 assists for 36.96 PRA. Young is leading the league with 11.5 assists per game, though his 23.7 points are the fewest since his rookie year all the way back in 2018-19.
In the 10 games that Young played since Jalen Johnson (shoulder) was lost for the year, the former Oklahoma Sooner averaged 37.0 minutes, 26.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 10.9 assists for 40.1 PRA. It is the scoring that is key in this wager, and with the tough matchup against Orlando, the odds are in favor of under 40.5 PRA. There is also value in under 27.5 points at -112 on SugarHouse, BetRivers and Unibet, which actually has a 6.4% expected value.
Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today
Don’t forget to check out the Stokastic NBA Live Before Lock Show at 5:00 p.m. ET on YouTube for expert analysis and key news you need to dominate tonight’s NBA DFS slate!
