A full slate of NBA action on tap tonight for the first Friday night of the season. Now that every team has played at least one game, we have a little bit of an idea of how minutes might be distributed. Not too many high priced players on the list tonight, as it looks like a lot of experts are riding the hot hand early in the season, selecting some players who might still be underpriced here early in the season.
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. So without further delay here are the Industry Consensus picks for opening night…
Highly Touted
- CJ McCollum (7) – Impressive opener with 37 points, price is still reasonable
- Nikola Mirotic (7) – Averaging almost a double-double through first 2 games
- Julius Randle (7) – Played 30 minutes in the opener and put up a double-double
- Danilo Gallinari (7) – Filled up the stat sheet in the opener
Recommended
- Emmanuel Mudiay (6) – If he can cut down on the turnovers, he could be huge at a good price
- Russell Westbrook (5) – Highest ranked high priced stud for tonight
- Jonas Valanciunas (5) – Put up 21 points and 15 rebounds in the opener
- Ricky Rubio (5) – Carried DFS teams into the money on Wednesday
- Festus Ezeli (5) – Cheap option
- Derrick Favors (5) – Should be able to do some damage against the Sixers tonight
- DeMarcus Cousins (4) – Capable of a monster game any night
- Greg Monroe (4) – Led the Bucks in scoring and rebounds in their opener
Suggested
- Damian Lillard (3) – The main man in Portland
- Eric Bledsoe (3) – Looking for a bounce back after a slow game in the opener
- Klay Thompson (3) – Watched Steph Curry go off, now it might be his turn
- Marvin Williams (3) – Cheap option at forward
- Karl-Anthony Towns (3) – Looked like the real deal in the opener putting up a double-double
- Andre Drummond (3) – Adjusting nicely to life without Greg Monroe
- Elfrid Payton (3) – Messed around and almost had a triple-double in the opener
- Demar DeRozen (3) – Has big game upside with a solid floor
- Kawhi Leonard (3) – Has increased his scoring and rebound each year as a pro
- Kenneth Faried (3) – Chance for a double-double every night
- Meyers Leonard (3) – Fairly cheap big man
