NBA DFS Core Plays for December 4: Top Targets on Tonight’s Slate

Woke up sick today, so that’s fun. 5 NBA games on the board tonight, and all 5 are conveniently starting between 7-8 ET. We’ve also got quite a few stars missing from a few teams, which opens up quite a bit of value.

Onward.

DraftKings Core Plays

Austin Reaves ($8,300)
Payton Pritchard ($6,800)
Derrick White ($7,500)
Oscar Tshiebwe ($3,000)

The major absences are Jaylen Brown for the Celtics and Luka Doncic for the Lakers. We also just got MPJ ruled out for Brooklyn.

Austin Reaves consistently godded out when Luka missed games earlier in the season. It’s worth noting LeBron also missed those games, but this will still be the Reaves show offensively. Matchup against Toronto is fine, and AR is probably a $10,000 player without Doncic. We’re getting a substantial discount.

This will be Brown’s first missed game of the season, but it’s fair to assume we’ll see elevated usage for Payton Pritchard and Derrick White. Pritchard (1.26 FP/minute) and White (1.17) have both been extremely productive without Brown/Tatum/Porzingis/Holiday on the floor since the beginning of last year, and they’re playing the fuckin’ Wizards. Anfernee Simons will also be a popular salary-saver who should see elevated usage off the bench, while Sam Hauser, Neemias Queta, and even Josh Minott look playable. It gets gross.

There are going to be so many builds with Pritchard/Reaves/White. It’s admittedly hard to get away from it, but you’ll have to be pretty cognizant of the projected ownership of the rest of your lineup as a result. A ton of these lineups are also going to have Sandro Mamukelashvili because Jakob Poeltl is out for the Raps, which leaves you with just 4 spots to get different. Fading one of the core guards is not a bad idea, even if it’s scary. Reaves is the one I’d be least inclined to fade.