 What's going on and welcome to the NBA DFS Q&A show. My name is Tom Vecchio. I'm here for the next 30 minutes, taking your questions about tonight's 11 game NBA Slates. Loaded with options across the board, obviously an ever-changing injury situation for so many different teams around the league. The big news that we got in the middle of the day is that Giannis Attente-Cumpo has been ruled out for this game, so that obviously changes where we're looking to prioritize positions, what we're looking at for value. We have a few injuries we need to be monitoring in terms of Tre Yong being listed as question mark, Karthik Towns set to play, and then the Jazz have a number of injuries when it comes to their lineup. And that's actually where I want to start is with the Utah Jazz, because Mike Connolly is good to go. Donovan Mitchell's list is probable. But then Bolyan Bogdanovich, Royce O'Neill, and Rudigo Bayer are all listed as questionable, and Rudigo Bayer did not go through the morning shoot-around. So this is obviously something that could open up a ton of value. We could be getting Hassan White's hat as the starting center for the Jazz, and we could be seeing Rudy Gaye potentially in the starting lineup. So this'll be something with their rotation already thin as it is. Joe Ingalls is out of there. We could be seeing two, three players not playing for the Jazz, and getting two or three players that are 5,300 and below in the starting lineup set to play, 30 or so minutes, is obviously something that we want to be focusing in on. So the Jazz are an important team. Trey Young is also very, very important. He's been super hot as of late. He's in a phenomenal matchup. Going up against the Sacramento Kings, a team that just does not play defense, specifically against point guards, allowing the second most feigned points for game-opposing point guards. And we have this game sitting with a 230, a 235 over-under, and a two-point spread is absolutely phenomenal. And this is a pace-up spot for Atlanta. They're down at 23rd, Sacramento's up at 5th. So, like, everything is shaping up for this to be just an awesome spot for the Hawks. And we're just waiting on this Trey Young news. And if he does not start, you know, the chance that we could see DeLon right in the starting lineup as the point guard, they could shift Skyler Mays to point guard and put, you know, Gallo in there at the four and just shift everyone down a little bit. Number of different options for the Hawks. And all of them are really in a good spot. On the other side, Damian Jones should be a popular option, again, at the set of position for some value. The value plays that on big on tonight are gonna be Trey Lyles for the Detroit Pistons. He's starting at center for them. Awesome matchup for him going up against the, excuse me, going up against the Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte Hornets dead last in league against centers. We've seen Trey Lyles start two recent games for the Pistons. They haven't been back to back games. He missed a few, but in his two most recent starts, he's playing over 30 minutes, which is good to see great matchup against the Hornets. We want to be going back to him. Also gonna be big on Kiefer Sykes and Dwayne Washington. They should be just massively popular again as they were last night. The Paysers are just missing so many players that seeing 35 or 37 minutes for both Sykes and Washington tonight against the Nets is something that should be expected. They're both gonna be super chalky. You can expect to see them across, you know, cash games and tournament lines, especially Kiefer Sykes down at $3,700. Certainly gonna be looking there. And then if Rudy Gopay, Rudy Gopayer is out, Hassan White's title would be popular. If Bogdanovic or O'Neill are out, we could be seeing Rudy Gay in the lineup. So we need to be focusing in on the jazz as well. I think this slate is really shaping up to be an awesome one. I think we have a lot of higher scoring totals. You know, seemingly a few higher than we normally have on a slate this big. I think that we've seen some good trends upward in terms of the scoring and that presents a lot of obviously fantasy upside. Steve on Facebook is asking Capella a good play. I love Capella tonight. I mean, first of all, it's a good matchup just on paper. Right from the jump, Sacramento, you know, sixth worst in the league against centers along with 56.06, finger points per game to center. So Capella immediately in a good spot. As I mentioned, this is a pace up spot for the Hawks, their 23rd in the league, Sacramento's a bit of a fifth. You know, pace up spot, high over under, sitting at 230, 235, excuse me, with a two point spread. All of that's great. Like that's exactly what we want. Pace up spot, high over under, close spread, et cetera, et cetera. And if Trey Young gets ruled out, that should put maybe even more of a priority on Capella. So I understand that Embiid and Yoakich and towns are all great options. I would certainly have Yoakich and Embiid ahead of towns tonight. But a little bit further down, Clint Capella at $8,300, absolutely love this matchup for, like I said, him even more if Trey Young is out tonight. Grim on YouTube is asking, Kiefer Sykes, Dwayne Washington, or Skyler Maze for value savings, or go with Horkmas. So I'm gonna be big. If I have to choose out of any of those four players, I mean, as of now, it's Kiefer Sykes, Dwayne Washington, absolutely those two, number one and number two in that order. Skyler Maze, I think is fine. Horkmas, I also think is fine. If Trey Young gets ruled out, Skyler Maze could jump to two. I think, I still think Sykes is gonna be ahead of Washington. I'll take the $400 savings from Sykes over Washington. A nice scoring ceiling from him. Solid matchup against the Nets. We saw the Nets, I wanna say in November and December, kind of look a little bit strong on defense. They had some strong trends going for them and that is certainly taking a step back at the end of December and now to start January. So this matchup for the Pacers is going to be a good one. I think that we're gonna see some good scoring back and forth as the 225 over under indicates. So of that group, Sykes, Washington, Maze and Horkmas in that order. For Ken Horkmas, I think is a fine option overall. We see the production from him. It's highly variable, which is just something that's gonna happen in a lineup with usage players like Embiid and Tobias Harris that are well ahead of him. And dealing with what is it, a nine point spread in this game? For the 76ers, yeah, nine point spread, like Horkmas is okay. It's just not my favorite tonight. I would certainly think there are, all those options are ahead of him. You're looking for a line of powers been out for three days snowing. Yeah, that's certainly a tough situation. I hope you're doing well. We're not giving out lineups here, even more of the process. DJ is asking Isaiah Roby, Omar Yurt seven, Ordenian Jones at the center position. First of all, Yurt seven has just been crushing it when it comes to rebounds. And I've been playing a few of his rebounding props recently, just an absolutely unbelievable level of consistency for him, which is obviously great to see a player stepping into the starting lineup and absolutely performing well. So I'm always on board with Yurt seven. I like this match up overall. And I think that this game for Utah, excuse me, not Utah, Miami and Portland is gonna hit the over, actually already took the over in this matchup. The heat surprisingly, our team that's hitting the over at a decent clip this year. So I like the scoring upside for Miami. I'm certainly gonna be going to Yurt seven, but we're talking about players that are a little bit different when it comes to their salaries. Yurt seven is $6,700, which I think we'd all clarify as a mid-range play. But Damian Jones is far cheaper at $4,400. So it's a little bit of a different question. Like I like them both or all of them for different reasons. You know, I like going to Yurt seven because he's a nice play in the mid tier and you can afford to spend up for Durant or Curry or whoever might be, but going down to Damian Jones, like changes your roster construction a little bit at the center position. So, you know, I like the idea from DJ on Facebook, this question, I just like them for different reasons. If I have to rank them, I think it's a little bit tough again because their salaries are so different. I would take Yurt seven ahead of anyone on that list. So just a little bit like, think of it a little bit differently, not in terms of like, who should you be prioritizing? It's like, when you prioritize Damian Jones, where are you spending that, you know, it was a 23, yeah, 44 to 67, that $2,300 a salary. Where are you spending that in a different spot because you're taking the savings? Don't just like compare them one to one because they're at pretty different salaries. Calvin is asking, is NATO going to be a decent pivot for off of the Pacers guard? So, round NATO always looking to him for some value, $4,200. This matchup, I think is going to be a good one for Washington. Obviously we know that the Rockets don't play like a whole ton of defense. Like we're not worried about that. I'm worried about this being his first game back, right? And will he be good to go for these, you know, the volume minutes that we normally see him do, you know, players returning from the COVID list, are they going to be, you know, dealing with their conditioning, whatever it might be. So I would like to read a little bit more into NATO in terms of his conditioning if there's a report from a beat writer. But if you want to pivot down at that range outside of him, let's see, in this like lower range of players. I mean, Simon's is a little bit more expensive. We know that he should be seeing the starting lineup again for the Portland Trailblazers. Obviously coming off a career game the other day. Skyler Mays, is he listed as a guard as well or a point guard as late? He's 4,600, just shooting guard. So you could be going to him potentially as a pivot, especially if we see Trey Young ruled out. So I just, I want a little bit more clarity on his conditioning, his minutes, first game back, all that sort of thing before I look to a player like NATO. I would, I would ultimately just eat the chalk with some of those Pacers guards. If I'm like uncertain about his minutes or there's not a whole lot of clarity for Steve on Facebook saying Kyle Lowry or Van Vleet tonight. That's a good question. For me, in that like a one-to-one matchup, I would take Kyle Lowry because I don't think he's going to be as popular. Van Vleet is playing like absolutely amazing right now. Like don't get, don't get me wrong on that. We've seen a salary jump up. We've seen this production be unbelievably consistent, like dating back to, you know, the games before he missed. Like this is awesome, but he's going to be popular tonight. So I'd rather go to Lowry, who's obviously cheaper and just not going to be as popular. That's just the angle that I play. Like play Van Vleet tonight if you have the option of running out like multiple lineups. I like them for different reasons. Like Lowry not going to be as popular, also less expensive. Van Vleet brings you a high ceiling, which I don't think that Lowry has as much of an access to that high of a ceiling as Van Vleet has shown recently. So this slate overall, like we have some really consistent options. We have really solid value options overall. I will say sticking in the same game after we got a tentcouple ruled out, drew holiday. That took his prop at, what is it, 33 and a half, 34 and a half for points, rebounds, assists combined. This will load. I got 35 and a half now. I think I got it at 34 and a half. I took the over for drew holiday because we saw a tentcouple ruled out. Like he's getting there. And these are games when a tentcouple return. So, you know, we saw his obviously high ceiling potential when yes, both the tentcouple and Middleton were out of the lineup, but we did see just some of those games with Yanis being out. So I looked the over on holiday, his points, rebounds, assists combined. I got it at 34 and a half. It's up to 35 right now, but it's only minus 104 juice. I think that's certainly a possibility for him. Good matchup against Toronto as well. Like I said, I took the over in the Miami Portland game. That's sitting at 216 and a half. I took the over on that. I have interest when it comes to the Utah Jazz player props, but we're obviously dealing with a lack of information when it comes to who's like literally going to be available or and or starting for them. So let's see if we get some updates here on the injury front. This is all this old stuff. So waiting on the jazz news because if we see some props for Jordan Clarkson, see some props for Hassan White side obviously Donovan Mitchell, like I'll besides or outside of Donovan Mitchell, I should say because he's listed there, but Jordan Clarkson, Jordan Clarkson threes, Hassan White side, maybe Ruby Gay, like those players I have some interest in, especially if some of them are going to be starting. So that's another spot that I'm on. Also took, where else did I take? Can't remember any off the top of my head that I took. Oh, I also took the Thunder plus nine. I took the Thunder plus nine tonight. I liked them in this spot, a little bit of uncertainty with the timbre with the Atlanta returning, you know, how much continuity they're going to have on the court. So I like the Thunder plus nine tonight. I think that's a, might be a little bit of a long shot for some people, but I'm certainly going there as well. Now, we know we're going to be seeing holiday. We know we're going to be seeing Middleton as popular options. Jordan Wara at $4,600. If he is good to go for tonight's game, he could be in the starting line if we have seen him play big minutes when a tense Kumpo has been out of lineup. We could expect him to be decently popular as well. So let's say he starts, you can certainly look there. And then with Indiana, we know that, you know, Kiefer Sykes and potentially Dwayne Washington are going to be popular options. And that just leaves us with, you know, so much room when it comes to, you know, building a lineup. I'm big on Trey Lyos tonight. I certainly like him. The matchup against Charlotte is also under dead last in the league against centers. You know, we could be seeing extra minutes for Rudy Gay and we have, what is this? Four options, five options in the lineup and half of them or all of them are below $5,000, you have $9,700 going full stars and scrubs tonight is something that I love to do. You can get up to Embiid, you can get up to Jokic, you can pay for Durant, you go to Durant and Jokic and you still have 8,200 with two players remaining. So absolutely like all in on some of these value plays tonight. I got proposed Lillard and Levine for Fox and Tatum to accept this. I assume this is a season long question. I don't play season long fantasy basketball for Fox and Tatum. You know, personally, I'd rather be on the side of Levine and Lillard if Lillard's able to stay healthy but that's yet to be seen. I think we've seen Fox take a little bit of step back in the Kings offense with Halliburton taking a step forward. You know, that's like a coin flip in my mind. Like there's positive and negatives on both. I don't play season long fantasy basketball. So I would take Levine and Lillard. What can you tell us about Maxi Kleba, DJ's asking on Facebook, is he worth a look or do I go to a guy like Jason Tate or Kelton Johnson? That's a good question for the Mavericks. You know, this game overall for the Mavericks with a 213 and a half over under. I don't know how much interest I have in this game. If we look to both Golden State, big under team when it comes to their over under record this year, 22 unders this year, along with Dallas, also a big under team. So this matchup, while going to Luca or Steph Curry are fine options, taking some of these peripheral players that don't have high usage rates that generally need to have a better game environment in order to reach value. I'm like Luke Warmon, some of those guys. So Maxi Kleba is not a player I have a ton of interest in tonight. Just do the game environment. Like I don't think it's gonna be super high scoring. In that circumstance, I would rather take Jason Tate or Kelton Johnson just because the game environments for them are significantly stronger, especially Jason Tate. Like this game is a 230 over under. So I'm certainly siding with both of them over Maxi tonight. How long does Devin Vasell go tonight? I mean, let's see how much we have them projected for. But 29 minutes, that's his normal amount. He should be scoring, you know, as usual slightly under one fan two point per minute but still exceeding fancy value at this spot. 25.9 fan two points, 29.79 minutes is what we haven't projected for at numberfire.com. You know, their rotation, I still think it's gonna be a little bit changed. Murray being back is obviously a boost for them but Lonnie Walker is still out if I remember correctly. So, you know, mid 20s, high 20s is what we should be seeing. Upper on YouTube is asking, is there any way you play Brooklyn's big three together tonight? You mean all three of them in the same lineup? That's certainly a big ask. I mean, you, in that circumstance, you would obviously, I think you would wanna also play a few options from Indiana, like take some of those value plays from Indiana. And you're hoping at that point that the Pacers are able to cover the spread because if they're able to cover the spread that means the game staying close and that the big three from Brooklyn should be out there for their full amount of minutes. I will say right from the jump, you know, I mentioned this on the podcast, on the Daily ISO, Irving is too cheap at $8,000. I think we like all agree that given his potential ceiling like 8,000, that salary makes Kyrie like somewhat of a value play, obviously putting the value in quotes not a salary in terms of being valuable but he's just underpriced. So looking to him is fine. We did see that quote earlier in the day if you were following some stuff on Twitter that they haven't announced if Kyrie Irving will be in the starting lineup and they also haven't announced how many minutes he will be playing. I think Steve Nash said like, we don't expect him to play like 38 minutes but we want him out there for a good amount and it was like something along those lines. So will he be in the starting lineup and then do we get any type of clarification on that? Because if he's been playing 30 minutes at $8,000, I think that, you know, he is worth a shot tonight. I don't think Hardin and Durant are gonna be popular tonight. I really don't. So in terms of playing the big three, I don't think playing them together is a route that I'm gonna go at all. I do have interest in Kyrie based on a salary and then I have a lot of interest in Hardin and Durant simply because I don't think they're gonna be popular. And I think that makes an awesome tort of an angle where some people are gonna be worried about, you know, Kyrie returning, taking offensive usage away from both of them which is a very valid concern. But we saw last year that it's not like, you know, Durant and Hardin are incapable of posting 50, 60 fandom points when Kyrie is in the lineup. So if that's gonna be the case and combined with what I said a little bit earlier, we've seen Brooklyn, their defense take a step back in the last few weeks. If Indiana is able to keep this close, that means they're gonna need Durant and Hardin out there. So I'm gonna play that angle of A, I think the next defense is certainly weaker currently than it was a month ago. And if Hardin and Durant are not gonna be popular, they both have the potential to put up 50, 60 fandom points even if Kyrie is in the lineup. So that's where I'm going with things tonight. I would not play them all together. Now I just wouldn't play them all together. That's how it go. I would go Hardin and Durant in tournaments. Is Walton starting for Detroit? He should not be starting for them. I'm going to Troy Lyles first and foremost for the Pistons when it comes to for really anyone on the Pistons. I just love this match. If he's starting at center, he's listed only as a power forward. Troy Lyles, and that's my number one option from Detroit. So we need updates on Utah. Let's just give this a quick refresh. See if we get any extra updates on their injury situation. Well, nothing important there. So Utah's big. I also will say I took Denver on the money line. That's one of the other spots that I took a little bit earlier. Plus money for Denver at home. Given the uncertainty around Utah and their starting lineup, I think Denver has a bit of value on the money line time. So that was the other spot that I took. Denver money line, OKC plus nine, over on drew holiday points rebounds assist combined and then the over on Miami and Portland. That's what I'm on so far tonight. If anyone out there from a betting angle is interested in that. Do you like Gary Payton in the starting lineup for Golden State Warriors? DJ is asking, he's fine. Again, kind of my same thing about this game overall, not expecting a whole lot of points in this game. And that limits my interest in the players outside of Curry, outside of Luca a little bit. We have seen his scoring be pretty solid. Let me pull it up here. It's a little bit clear here. Payton, obviously the minutes are super consistent for him. He's getting the shot going. He's doing enough in the peripheral stack category. He's only $5,300. So yes, I like him a little bit tonight, but he's just going to be a player that's mixed into my player pool. He's not a player I'm prioritizing. He's not a player, like I'm going out of my way to get into my lineups. Not a player like I'm going to try and overweight the field on, et cetera, et cetera. He's like a player that will just make my player pool because he's 5,300 and has some level of consistency in these recent games. That game, I don't think many of the players in that game will be popular. I just don't love the over-under really at all. That's what it comes down to in that. I'd much rather take players with 2,30 over-under, 2,24. This game's at 2,34. Like they are, I think they're just better games on the slate. Going to Kevin Herter in that same range at $5,200, especially if Trey Young is ruled out. Like I think that the scoring upside for Herter is a little bit higher compared to Gary Payton. So the slate is shaping up to be a good one as long as we get a little bit of clarity. Utah, who's going to be starting for them? Who's actually going to be available? Trey Young, for Atlanta, that's a big one. Again, we need to get just clarification at Carthang Towns and D'Angelo Russell will both play for the Timberwolves. Confirmation on the buck starting on it because at Tetsukumpo is ruled out. Will Kyrie Irving be in the starting lineup for the Nets? Is there any update on how many minutes he will be playing? I think that's important as well. We should see the Rockets return to their normal starting lineup after Porter and Wood were suspended the other night. I'm still going to be big on Embiid. Like this is just an amazing matchup for him. The production we've been seeing from Embiid recently is just one of these like classic runs that he goes on where he's just, it's like a double-double every night. It's like 70 points ceiling on a lot of these nights. So I'm going to him against Orlando time and time again tonight. I certainly do like Yokoch's nights. I like him a little bit more, especially if Rudy Gobert is ruled out. Not even D'Angelo for Detroit. Yeah, I think you can go there. Again, he's the type of player that I think is fine. I'm on board with him simply due to the game environment. Where it's a super high over-under, Charlotte plays super fast, it's a pace up, we're two teams in the top 10 of the league. When it comes to offensive pace, Detroit is ninth and Charlotte is up at two. He's not a player like I like, he's not the first player I'm dropping in my lineups. That's the way I'll put it. Like he's not the first player I'm like, okay, I'm starting my lineup. Who am I going with? It's going to be D'Angelo from Detroit. Like he's fine in my opinion. I know I'll have some shares with him. I think he was in a good amount of my lineups in the first run-through on the optimizer that I did a little bit earlier. But he'll be there. Again, not a player I'm prioritizing. It's just a player that happens to be in the player pool for me. I try and limit my player pool, take some value plays, go to the stars, take a few options in the mid-range that I'm specifically looking at and then trying to center that or close that in as we get closer to lock, really focusing on the players that I like. Durant, Sabonis or Draymond Green tonight. I think Sabonis is probably going to be the chalkiest out of those. Draymond Green, just another player in the Warriors Maverick scheme. Kind of my same thing there. He's a fine option. I think there are better game environments overall. Sabonis should be more popular than Durant. I think Sabonis has obviously an amazingly high floor and high ceiling as he's always shown for however many seasons now. So I certainly do like him in this matchup. Pace-up spot for the Pacers. They are, it was a 20 second in a league. Brooklyn is sitting up an eighth. Again, Brooklyn not playing a whole lot of defense has a plate. So if you want to go to Sabonis, absolutely. I'm not worried about this recent game against the Knicks last night. Not worried about under one fandom point per minute. He should return to this level of consistency. So I'll go to Sabonis tonight and Durant if I have to choose one of them. If I have to choose one of them, I'm going to go to Durant strictly based on the fact that I don't think he's going to be as popular as Sabonis. So I want to play the tournament angle. Yes, he's obviously more expensive compared to Sabonis by a little bit of $1,000. Might change your line of construction a little bit. But I'd be going to Durant strictly for the fact that I don't think he's going to be as popular. You could say that Sabonis has potentially an equal to projection to Durant or close to it, but I'll still take KD on that one. So tonight's late, certainly a lot of options across the board. I would say, you know, focus in on the players that you like. I know I'm going to be going to a lot of, let's see, a lot of Embiid, it would take some value with, let's just take some value with the Pacers real quick. Let's go to Utah, take some value with Utah, certainly liking there. I like Trey Lyle's tonight, a whole lot. I mean, we have four open spots with 8,100 remaining. You can do whatever you want. If you want to try and jam in Durant, you can still do that and you're dealing with 7,200 remaining. Like this is a very, very fun slate to build lineups on just because we have so much value and going stars and scrubs build will really open up so many different possibilities. You can prioritize spending up at guard. If you want to load up on guards, if you don't want to go to center and you want to take a value like Damian Jones for Sacramento, you just spend up on all the guards and we're small forwards that you want, but that's however many. So tonight's slate is this, you know, kind of slates that I really like to build lineups because there's so many different possibilities in terms of how you prioritize, how you're trying to potentially get away from chalk, which is something that I always like to do from a tournament angle, get away from the chalky options, trying to be different in tournaments and still take players that have high floors along with high ceilings. And sometimes you're gonna have to eat the chalk with the value plays, but you know, that's kind of built into the stars and scrubs. We know that the value is there. It's very clear for a reason on most NBA DFS slates. So it should be a good one again to recap some of the bets that I'm on for tonight. The over on drew holiday points, rebounds assist combined over 34 and a half. That's where I got it. The over in Miami and Portland, again, Miami surprisingly a big over team this year, which is good to see Portland, you know, they're about even, they don't play a whole lot of defense, not really worried about that. OKC plus nine and Denver Moneyline. That's where I've gone so far if I remember correctly. Oh, all of those. Yeah, holiday nuggets, OKC on the spread over in Miami and Portland. So those are, that's where Matt so far, you know, if we, like I said, if we get some updates from Utah, we get those player props listed. I'll have interest in Sun White side, have interest in Jordan Clarkson, Rudy Gay, some of those players, if and when they are listed, hopefully, you know, getting some three point props on Jordan Clarkson, potentially Rudy Gay, et cetera, et cetera. Stefan on Facebook is asking me, Fandle in New York, it's coming. It should be coming within a few weeks. You know, I get those updates the same time you guys do, but it is literally right around the corner. It's been waiting for far, far too long and it is going to be here within a few weeks. I should say it's going to be in New York in a few weeks, not here. It's already here. All right, so that does it for today's Q&A. I'll be back next Wednesday. Take your questions right here on the Fandle YouTube, Twitch, Twitter pages. You can follow me on Twitter at DFS on the support Tom until next time. Good luck in your contests.