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0 This upcoming Wednesday night, we have an eight-game slate which offers plenty of options across the salary scale, including some particularly welcoming matchups given some of the most vulnerable defensive teams in the league will be taking the floor.
As customary, we’ll highlight multiple advantageous positional matchups to exploit at each position for your Yahoo Fantasy lineups, as well as a good trio of candidates that may be best to steer clear of due to a combination of circumstances/salary.
Starting with the guards, Donovan Mitchell is set for a premium matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks, who he just lit up for 55.5 Yahoo points three games ago. Mitchell also has tallies of 73.4, 52.1 and 57.1 within his last five games, so there’s no questioning the ceiling he carries is befitting of a higher-salaried player. With Luka Doncic questionable due to lower back tightness, Mitchell serves as a safer and more affordable alternative than the Mavericks’ star. The fact that the Bucks are allowing a co-NBA-high 31.5 offensive efficiency rating to point guards and the third-most Yahoo points to the position in the last 15 games (53.9) only serves to brighten Mitchell’s prospects.
Another guard to consider is Jaden Ivey, who has been quite impressive this season, particularly following Cade Cunningham’s seven-game absence due to a knee injury. While that absence is due to come to an end Wednesday, Ivey remains very much in play against a Hornets backcourt that just traded away Terry Rozier and should therefore have less resistance to offer than usual on the defensive end. Ivey’s salary remains reasonable for his ceiling, considering he’s scored 34.2 to 46.8 Yahoo points in six of his last seven games, and he also put up 27.4 over just 23 minutes against Charlotte back in the second game of the campaign.
Forwards are looking particularly strong for Wednesday’s slate, with Karl-Anthony Towns being a popular pick given his matchup and recent body of work. The T-Wolves star scored a career-high 62 points in his last game on the way to 67.6 Yahoo points against the Charlotte Hornets. Towns now faces a Washington Wizards team that’s allowed the sixth-highest offensive efficiency rating to power forwards (30.0), along with 52.0% shooting to the position. Washington is also conceding 49.1 Yahoo points per contest to fours in the last 30 games, and the Wizards have surrendered an NBA-high 57.9 rebounds per contest.
Another forward to consider is Jabari Smith Jr., who has shed his injury designation going into Wednesday after tweaking his ankle against the Jazz on Saturday. Smith put up 46.5 Yahoo points in that contest over 41 minutes and should be well rested after having the last three days off. He’s also put together another couple of spike performances in January that especially stand out due to his salary – he scored 38.5 and 39.4 Yahoo points against the Bucks and Bulls on Jan. 6 and 10, respectively. The likely tired Portland Trail Blazers could be hard-pressed to prevent another strong performance, considering they already check in allowing 49.3 Yahoo points per game to power forwards in the last seven contests.
Finally, we have Chet Holmgren, who carries a very reasonable salary for a player of his upside. The second-year pro comes in with some solid momentum as well, having scored 41.5 Yahoo points in his last game. Holmgren is set to face the San Antonio Spurs, the same matchup that Joel Embiid just scored a 76ers franchise-record 70 points in.
As for guards and forwards to avoid, Malcolm Brogdon is a player who has provided some very useful DFS tallies of late, scoring 34 to 52.4 Yahoo points in three of his last four contests. However, the veteran guard was down to 26.9 against the Thunder on Tuesday, and he’ll be on his fourth game in six nights Wednesday after having played between 33 and 37 minutes in the first three. The chances he truly gives you a tournament-winning-worthy return at his slightly elevated salary is likely low versus a Rockets team that’s also been much improved defensively this season. Another player to avoid is Caleb Martin, who is carrying a bit of a higher salary than he should Wednesday. The veteran wing has been under 20 Yahoo points in three of his last five games, and he hasn’t scored more than 23.1 in any of his last seven dating back to Christmas Day.
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