Thursday brings lots of moving parts as the trade deadline comes to pass, which will make for a wild NBA slate, which locks at 7:30 p.m. ET on FanDuel and DraftKings. With the dynamics of the NBA season, we’re diving into the top NBA DFS building blocks and picks for today. Let’s break down the best options for Thursday’s slate like Brandin Podziemski as the leading discount dandy.
NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today: Thursday, Feb. 6
NBA DFS Picks Today: Building Blocks
Brandin Podziemski: Warriors at Lakers
NBA DFS Projections
DraftKings: 30.5 | FanDuel: 29.79
NBA DFS Ownership Projections
DraftKings: 77.6% | FanDuel: 62.1%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $4,400 | FanDuel: $5,100
Get ready for a rollercoaster with all sorts of insanity created by the conclusion of the NBA trade deadline, plus teams that made trades prior to Thursday, the various injury situations and, of course, five teams being on the second legs of back-to-backs.
Golden State has moved Andrew Wiggins and Kyle Anderson to Miami for Jimmy Butler, with Dennis Schroder going to Utah as part of the overall deal.
Draymond Green (calf), returned to action on Monday. The veteran rejoined the first five, playing 28.9 minutes then and another 34.3 minutes last night as the Warriors dropped a close game in Utah, 131-128. Conventional wisdom expects that he will sit tonight, but with the mercurial Green, who knows until the starting lineup is announced?
Moses Moody (back) was out last night and is questionable tonight, as is Trayce Jackson-Davis (knee), who has missed three of the last four games. Expecting the same starting lineup makes sense given coach Steve Kerr does not have many options at the moment. Be wary with Quinten Post, who has averaged 18.1 minutes per start since earning the promotion four games ago, though with Gui Santos (knee) doubtful, all predictions are dicey.
Stephen Curry, Buddy Hield and, of course, the young legs of Brandin Podziemski are viable options in all game formats tonight. Podziemski played 40 minutes last night, with Curry (35), Green (34) and Hield (31) doing the rest of the heavy lifting. Kevon Looney led the bench with 23 minutes of run, while Santos, Gary Payton II, Jackson Rowe and Pat Spencer mostly split the rest of the 53 minutes.
The Lakers, of course, traded Anthony Davis and Max Christie to Dallas for Luka Doncic, though the Slovenian is not going to play tonight. Dalton Knecht and Cam Reddish departed as part of the Mark Williams deal that the Lakers struck with Charlotte last night, taking more options out of the picture. LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, Dorian Finney-Smith and Austin Reaves are strong options tonight, and Shake Milton is a wild card option.
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Ivica Zubac: Clippers vs. Pacers
NBA DFS Projections
DraftKings: 39.95 | FanDuel: 39.49
NBA DFS Ownership Projections
DraftKings: 31.7% | FanDuel: 22.5%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $7,200 | FanDuel: $7,500
Do not worry about the dip in production from Ivica Zubac; with the Clippers being crushed by 25 points at the hands of the Lakers, Zubac played only 36 seconds in the final frame.
He will be far more involved tonight given the Clippers are 5.5-point home favorites and the Pacers are putting out a sizable frontcourt.
Zubac is posting career highs with 31.9 minutes, 15.1 points, 12.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.8 combined blocks and steals. There are no center-only options that are more popular than Zubac, which has things rather diffused tonight. For those wondering, Nikola Jokic is trending to be right around 10% on both DraftKings ($12,800, 9.7%) and FanDuel ($12,900, 7.1%).
Considering there are so many moving parts, tonight the best information can be found on the Stokastic NBA Live Before Lock Show at 5:30 p.m. ET on YouTube.
Today’s Top Sports Betting Pick
Jalen Green has bubbled up in the model for the under on his 22.5 rebounds prop tonight against the Timberwolves in Minnesota.
The screenshot of Portfolio EV shows that this wager projects to win 55% of the time. That combined with the -115 odds on DraftKings leads to a steady 3.1% expected value when accounting for the -123 “True Odds.”
Stokastic’s Advanced NBA Statistical Projections have Green projected for 33.7 minutes and 20.21 points. Green is averaging 21.3 points this season, which is above his 19.6 from last year but below the 22.1 of his sophomore campaign.
Fred VanVleet and Jabari Smith are out, freeing up more offensive opportunities for the remaining Rockets, but that is offset by the tough Minnesota defense and this matchup taking place on the road.
