5 Players Who Can Help Your Jan. 16 FanDuel NBA Lineup

Ranking the top five picks for Saturday night’s FanDuel NBA games based on their relative cost.

In what has become typical for the NBA weekend schedule, a number of teams in action Saturday night will be playing the latter game of a back-to-back set.

While the Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards will all have traveled to meet Saturday night’s opponents (the Nets and Hawks are actually playing each other), only the Boston Celtics will be playing their fourth game in five nights when they travel to D.C. to face the Wizards, who will have been in Indianapolis the previous night themselves.

With the scheduling highlights in mind, here are the standout building blocks for your review:

(5) Zach Randolph, Memphis Grizzlies ($6,500) vs. New York Knicks: This has been an odd season for Randolph, as he’s gone from huge disappointment to sixth man of the year candidate to decent starter in a span of weeks.

Regardless of how or why it happened, January has been the best month of the season for the aging doughboy, as his 16.9 points per game in seven games is the only time he’s come close to his 17.0 career average.

Although he hasn’t returned value in his last couple of outings, Saturday night could be an opportunity for him to reward fantasy owners’ patience as his Grizzlies are hosting a Knicks team that is third-worst overall against opposing power forwards over their past five games.

While starting the big who’s facing rookie sensation Kristaps Porzingis may seem counter-intuitive, the Latvian sat out practice on Friday with a shoulder ailment, so that could be a reason for the team’s recent shortcomings.

In any case, the stage could be set for Z-Bo to continue his recent turnaround against a Knicks squad that could be lacking one or two key starters, as Carmelo Anthony‘s availability appeared to be in doubt from the cited post as well.

(4) Paul Millsap, Atlanta Hawks ($8,400) vs. Brooklyn Nets: Millsap has proven to be a bona fide stat sheet stuffer that is capable of garnering rebounds, blocked shots (six vs. Chicago on Jan. 9) and even steals (five against the Knicks on Jan. 3) on a given night.

He had slowed a bit since a four-game stretch from Dec. 28-Jan. 3 where he averaged 46.9 fantasy points, but he’s coming off a 54-fantasy point performance in the team’s OT loss to Milwaukee so he could be poised for a similar run.

Millsap has been just OK in two meetings with Brooklyn this season, but the Nets have regressed from middle of the road to fourth-worst against opposing PFs over their past five games, so the third time could be the charm for the former Louisiana Tech Bulldog.

He’s also playing at home, where he averages 19.6 points per game versus 17.3 elsewhere, and as bad as the Nets have been this season they are comparatively worse on the road (4-14) than at the Barclays Center (7-15).

It can’t be of much comfort to owner Mikhail Prokhorov to look down in the standings and see the Philadelphia 76ers 7.5 games behind his team when they are a young team with upside and he’s stuck with a losing squad that has three players consuming nearly 80 percent of his cap space.

(3) Andre Drummond, Detroit Pistons ($8,700) vs. Golden State Warriors: Amid injuries to key starters, the Warriors have been showing their “human” side lately, most recently in a shocking loss to the Denver Nuggets in which Draymond Green sat out.

Despite Denver’s lack of consistency at the center position, the Warriors are still fourth-worst on FanDuel NBA over their last five games and in the bottom third of the league overall against the position.

Only a team like the Warriors can be considered “down on their luck” when they lose two of their past 10 games, but given their early-season invincibility that’s probably as close as they will get, so this could be one of the better opportunities to legitimately consider a key player from the opposing squad.

While Drummond fared well in the earlier meeting with 14 points and 15 boards, that was back in November when the Dubs were still making history with their unprecedented 24-game winning streak to start the season.

Due to their recent vulnerability, Big Penguin has a chance to build upon that performance, especially at home where he averages 18.9 points and 15.9 rebounds per game as opposed to 16.9 points and 14.8 rebounds elsewhere.

(2) Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers ($9,700) vs. Sacramento Kings: Paul has been among the league’s top point guards for the past several years, as evidenced by his regular appearances on both the All-NBA and the All-NBA Defensive Teams.

But in the fantasy world, he seems to be more of an afterthought, as though he is hopelessly trapped between elite players with unlimited potential like Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook and the Warriors’ Stephen Curry and solid options like the Sacramento Kings’ Rajon Rondo and the Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas, who may be thought of as having similar ceilings but at a lower cost.

In reality, CP3 is a far better scorer than Rondo (18.0 points per game vs. 11.7) and his assist totals easily trump those of the Pizza Guy (9.6 assists per game vs. 6.7); however, his 2.0 steals per game (one of his specialties) actually trail both Curry (2.1) and Westbrook (2.5) in addition to being far behind that duo in terms of points per game (Curry is the league leader at 29.7 points per game and Westbrook isn’t too far behind at 24.8).

Saturday night, he is facing the team that is third-most generous to his position on FanDuel NBA; to that effect, he is averaging 11.0 assists in the two prior meetings with the Kings, which exceeds his 9.6 assists per game overall. In addition, he is playing at home, where he averages 19.3 points per game, which is better than his 18.0 average for the season.

Finally, the continued absence of Blake Griffin (who should return on their next road trip) and possibly DeAndre Jordan places the onus almost exclusively on Paul to carry the team on the offensive side of the ball, especially if J.J. Redick goes cold from the field.

As a result, this could be a night to roster Paul since both Rondo (who Paul will be guarding) and Thomas (who will be playing his fourth game in five nights) are in less than ideal situations.

(1) Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors ($10,700) at Detroit Pistons: For a while Curry appeared to be a risky low floor/high ceiling proposition as the Dubs were showing a tendency to give their starters an early night off when the team built a comfortable lead.

But due to a rash of injuries that impacted their starting lineup (including Curry himself), the team has come back to Earth a bit and their opponents have stayed in games for longer stretches.

Prior to his relatively pedestrian night in Thursday night’s easy win over the L.A. Lakers (no surprise there), Curry had exceeded the 43 fantasy point mark in four consecutive games, so he has shown a recent penchant for returning value as opposed to when it was more of a crapshoot in the early going.

Detroit has been middle of the pack vs. point guards on FanDuel NBA for most of the season; however they’ve recently slipped into the bottom third over their past 10 games due to inconsistent play that culminated with Reggie Jackson sitting out the fourth quarter in favor of Brandon Jennings the team’s heartbreaking loss to the Grizzlies on Thursday.

While there doesn’t seem to be a brewing controversy in the Motor City, even a modicum of uncertainty could be a recipe for disaster with Chef Curry coming to town.

While fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson was the hero of the initial meeting (cited above), Curry figures to be the one to take advantage of the Pistons’ backcourt disarray this time around given the team’s recent lapse in ability to contain his position.

More hoops habit: 25 Worst Individual Seasons In NBA History

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