Another jam-packed Highly Touted and Recommended section today that includes a lot of value play. A lot of the value plays come from the Bulls roster. With Butler and Wade both out, someone is going to have to pick up the slack. All nine games tonight have a Vegas total of 200+ including five with totals of 215+. The largest ones on the board are Hornets/Rockets at 227.5 and Blazers/Lakers at 224. Best of luck!
The numbers in the parenthesis are the number of experts that picked that player to give you more context as to the gaps between players and the tiers. Also listed projected ownership percentages for Cash and GPP leagues to help determine which players will be the chalk and which players could be a good, low-owned contrarian play.
Here are the Industry Consensus picks for tonight.
Highly Touted
- Kawhi Leonard (13x) – 50% Cash / 36% GPP – The most popular pick on the board, Leonard has bounced back from his sickness. Posting 22.7ppg in the last three. With no LaMarcus Aldridge tonight, Leonard should see a bump in points.
- Mason Plumlee (10x) – 34% / 25% – A nice low-priced GPP play. He has a double-double in three of the last four. The odd thing? He’s done it with rebounds and assists in the last two falling two points shy of a triple-double in each game.
- Paul Millsap (10x) – 34% / 25% – Will he be traded? For now, he’s still a Hawk. Posting 20.5ppg and 9.5rpg in four January games.
- Michael Carter-Williams (9x) – 24% / 20% – Coming off a solid 15-point performance. Still not getting much in the other categories. Tonight is the night to play the low-priced Bulls with Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade out.
- Jeremy Lamb (9x) – 24% / 20% – Low-priced GPP option. Scored 13 points and grabbed 8 boards his last time out.
- James Harden (8x) – 21% / 19% – Coming off a triple-double which was his fourth in the last six games. Did have 10 turnovers in his last game though (so he had a quadruple-double??).
- Dwight Howard (8x) – 21% / 19% – Superman has three straight double-doubles. In those three games, he’s posted 13.3ppg and 14.3rpg.
- Marcin Gortat (8x) – 21% / 19% – In the last five, Gortat is averaging 14ppg and 13rpg.
- Julius Randle (8x) – 21% / 19% – He has picked up his scoring considerably of late. In the last ten games, he’s posting 17.6ppg to go along with 8.8rpg and 5.5apg.
- Dennis Schroder (7x) – 19% / 16% – Schoroder is putting up 19.3ppg and 6apg in four games this month.
- Kyle Lowry (7x) – 19% / 16% – After a slow start to the season, he’s been great. Posting 25.6ppg in the last ten and lit up the C’s for 34 points in the season’s earlier matchup.
- Taj Gibson (7x) – 19% / 16% – As I said above, with Butler and Wade out, someone is going to have to score for the Bulls tonight. Gibson provides some nice GPP upside.
Recommended
- Damian Lillard (6x) – 15% / 14% – Since coming back from a bum ankle, Lillard has posted 20.3ppg, 6.7apg and 7.7rpg.
- DeMar DeRozan (6x) – 15% / 14% – Still playing at a really high level. In five games this month, he’s scored 30.4ppg and grabbed 5.2rpg.
- DeMarcus Cousins (6x) – 15% / 14% – Has two straight double-doubles though they aren’t the typical ridiculous numbers that we’ve seen from him.
- Al-Farouq Aminu (6x) – 15% / 14% – Aminu has back-to-back games where he’s scored 16 points, pulled down 8 boards and dished out 2 assists.
- Marcus Smart (5x) – 13% / 12% – He seems to be figuring out the NBA game. In the last two games, without Avery Bradley, he’s averaged 18ppg and 7apg.
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (5x) – 13% / 12% – Posting 10.4ppg and 8.8rpg over the last five.
- Isaiah Thomas (5x) – 13% / 12% – Thomas has scored 34.8ppg in the last five and 32.8ppg over the last ten.
- Tim Hardaway, Jr. (5x) – 13% / 12% – He’s seen bigger minutes over the last four games. It’s translated to 19.3ppg over that stretch.
- Doug McDermott (5x) – 13% / 12% – Expect McDermott to see quite a few minutes tonight with no Butler and Wade.
- Nikola Mirotic (5x) – 13% / 12% – Same as McDermott. He’s scored 10.6ppg in the last five.
- CJ McCollum (5x) – 13% / 12% – He’s been white hot in the last five games. Averaging 35ppg, 5.4apg and 4.8rpg.
Suggested
- John Wall (4x) – 11% / 10%
- Bradley Beal (4x) – 11% / 10%
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (4x) – 11% / 10%
- Reggie Jackson (4x) – 11% / 10%
- Andre Drummond (4x) – 11% / 10%
- Derrick Favors (3x) – 8% / 8%
- Al Horford (3x) – 8% / 8%
- D’Angelo Russell (3x) – 8% / 8%
- George Hill (3x) – 8% / 8%
- Rodney Hood (3x) – 8% / 8%
- Kevin Durant (3x) – 8% / 8%
- DeMarre Carroll (3x) – 8% / 8%
- Rudy Gobert (3x) – 8% / 8%
- Pau Gasol (3x) – 8% / 8%
- LeBron James (3x) – 8% / 8%
Hope you find the right combination to cash! Follow me on Twitter @mbutlerok
