 Hey, what's going on? I am Greg Sussman joined today by Tom Vecchio Fandle was here to break down tonight's NBA Slate. What's happening, Tom? I'm doing good. You know, nine games tonight. We had six last night. Let's keep it going. Let's keep it rocking a much bigger slate tonight. I just had a couple more games out there. We start the top stud on today's slate and that is James Harden. Why do you like Harden tonight more than any other night? Harden tonight is going to be really the player of the slate. We already know that Russell Westbrook is ruled out. They announced it a few days ago. He's going to be out tonight. Westbrook will play tomorrow. And, you know, we look at Harden's production. You know, he put up 74 Fandle points in his most recent game. That was with Westbrook on the court, and then we should be seeing even more of that tonight. 237 point over under against the Atlanta Hawks tonight is going to be an unbelievable spot for fantasy production. Houston right now is third overall in pace. We have Atlanta sitting at fifth. So a very fast-paced game, very high scoring. We know Atlanta is not good on defense. And then when we adjust for Westbrook being off the court, we see that Harden sees an 8.9% increase in offensive usage, putting him at 46.8%, producing 1.74 Fandle points per minute. That is just absolutely unbelievable. I mean, we want to be locking him into cash games, GPPs. It really doesn't matter. 70 points with Westbrook on the court. We could easily see him push towards, hopefully, 85 points tonight. 85 points tonight? That's nuts, Tom. But hey, why not without Russell Westbrook? As Tom Eckeo mentioned, the numbers go up for James Harden. The usage rate is almost up 9%, which is ridiculous for an already high usage player. James Harden should be locked and loaded into all lineups tonight. Up next, let's go to New Orleans, Pelicans, where Brandon Ingram is in a good spot tonight. Why do you like Ingram as one of your top plays on tonight's sleep? So with Drew Holiday being out of the lineup for the Pelicans, we actually see Josh Hart enter at shooting guard, and that means Ingram is lining up as the power forward, which is interesting because Chicago is actually halfway decent against the guards and small forward, and they are terrible against power forwards and centers. One thing I always say, you always want to attack them via big men. Right now we have Chicago coming in dead last in the league. 49.4 Fandle points per game allowed to power forwards. Really just an ideal spot. And with Holiday off the court, we see an increase in usage for Brandon Ingram. We see a 224 point over under. It is a slight pace down spot for the Pelicans. I'm not too too worried about that because the extra shot volume will be there for Ingram with Holiday off the court combined with the amazing defensive matchup. That usage rate is up at 33.8% with this current starting lineup for the Pelicans. And 9.3 tonight, we're looking at another player that could easily go for 50 Fandle points, great matchup, great game environment. Really everything going for Ingram tonight. Without Drew Holiday and the lineup, Brandon Ingram is in the position to lead his team to victory. A lot to like tonight for Brandon Ingram and the Pelicans will get Ingram into your lineups. One more star to mention and we've talked about him earlier this week. It's Nikola Vuchovic for the Orlando Magic. No Jonathan Isaac for the foreseeable future. Vuch has got to step up. He has. Why do you think he will do it again tonight? Like you said, no Jonathan Isaac and we look back at Vuch's game logs and I just look at it. I just see consistency, right? I see double doubles, Isaac in the lineup, Isaac not in the lineup. Aaron Gordon in and out of the lineup and it's still double doubles. Every game usage rate 28%, 1.18 Fandle points per minute. It really doesn't matter what the matchup is for Vuch. He's just producing every single night. The 8.8 price tag I think is pretty modest for him and it's a massive pace up spot for the Magic. They are 29th overall in the league and pace. Washington is up at 7th and we actually just saw them play on January 1st. Vuch played 30 minutes in that game posted 39.4 Fandle points. So we're just looking at consistency. We're locking in about 40 Fandle points. I don't think we really need to worry about him. I don't know if there's too much of a ceiling here, so I like him more for cash games tonight compared to GPPs. Fair enough, putting him in the cash games where you just want to get right and get the most points rather than be contrarian makes a lot of sense to get Nicol Buczak in your lineups. So consider putting the Orlando center in there. Let's move on to some of the value plays. In order to get the stars, you got to save some money. Where are we going to save money tonight? Well, Daniel Gafford, of course. Tom, who's that? And so Daniel Gafford is a, what was a bench player for the bulls, rotational big man. But we know that Wendell Carter is out for the bulls. He's out tonight. Some reports say he could be out for a week or two moving forward. And this is kind of the ideal spot that I like to attack. Kind of like a buy low opportunity for Gafford. He's only 4.7. And if Carter is going to be out for an extended period of time, we're probably only going to be seeing Gafford's price increase, right? We're going to be seeing some rotation of Thaddeus Young and Gafford at center. You know, Laurie Markendon also mixed in their power forward, but 4.7 tonight against the Pelicans is really a great spot to attack. They're allowing 51.9 Fandal points per game to centers. That's right around the league average, but we have Chicago playing up in pace. Like I said, it's a slight pace down spot for Ingram. It's pace up for the bulls. He's 4.7 tonight. He only needs 23 Fandal points in order to reach 5X value. And we're looking at 25 plus minutes just because they don't have a ton of options. Markendon is listed as probable. He should play, but we're not going to be seeing Thaddeus Young out there for 35 plus minutes. We're going to be seeing a split and, again, under 5K buy-in now before his price increases. Under 5K for a player that should get a lot of minutes with all the front-court injuries that Chicago is suffering. And Thaddeus Young just cannot play 40 minutes a night at this point in his career, Gafford in a good spot at $4,700. So consider putting in the former razorback in your lineup. Up next, we go to Michael Porter Jr., who's been a fantastic play for Denver as of late. Why do you like Michael Porter? So Will Barton is ruled out for tonight's game. It's just a personal reason he should be back in their next game. So there's no extended injury here, but Porter should be lining up at the small forward position for Denver. Paul Millsap is listed as probable for tonight's game. And like you said, this is a player who's been productive for them as of late. I know that they're very high on him and they want to get more involved in the offense moving forward. He's going to be starting tonight. He comes in at 3.9k when he just under 20 fandal points for him to reach 5x value. Listen, it's a 220-point over-under. It's pretty solid. It's a 2.5-point spread against the Mavericks. Should keep things pretty close. And overall, he's going to be one of the chalkier options on tonight's slate. So this is a spot where you kind of want to buy in. You know, you got to eat some chalk with him, I'm going to say. But it's a good matchup against the Mavericks. They're, you know, league average allowing 40 fandal points per game to small forwards. And although he's listed as a power forward on fandal, he's lining up at the 3 position. Played 3 tonight with Will Barton out and Michael Porter. When he's gotten the minutes, he's been very, very productive for the Denver Nuggets tonight. Hopefully, he'll see that extended action and he'll produce, especially at a really cheap price tag. One final value player to get to, Tom, and that brings us to Patrick McCall. What do you like about McCall? He is expected to see increased minutes, but other than that, why do you like McCall tonight? So McCall tonight, you know, I don't know if a lot of people are going to be on this Toronto and, you know, Charlotte Hornets game. It's a 207 point over under. It's the lowest on the slate. We have Toronto on the second night, but back to back, like you said, the minutes are going to be there for him. He played 35 minutes last night. He's 3.7 K tonight just because their rotation is so, so short due to the injuries on Toronto. We can easily project him for 30 plus minutes. The Hornets right now are allowed in the 10th most fandal points per game to shooting guards at 42.2. So it's a good matchup. The minutes are there for him. The price tag is certainly there for him under $4,000. It's just that the overall game environment isn't amazing with this being a pace down spot for Toronto and a 207 point over under. But he's under 4K playing 30 plus minutes. So I always want to say like he might be a necessary evil in some lineups. If you want to go stars and scrubs, you lock in Porter, you lock in McCall, two guys who are under $4,000 playing 30, 25 plus 30 minutes. A game allows you to spend up for Rooch and Harden in the same lineup. It's a good way to save money and pack it with stars. Not everyone's going to be on Patty McCall tonight. But Tommy is, which means you should be too. That's going to do it for us here at the Fandal Hurry of Time. I appreciate the time. Good luck tonight. Same to you. Talk to you next week. Absolutely. Tomorrow I'll be joined by Jim Sannes. We take a look at divisional playoff weekend made DFS perspective. Have a great night everybody. Enjoy the games and we'll see you back here tomorrow.