NBA $15,000 Thursday Team Tips

The NBA season went to another level this week with the blockbuster trade between the Clippers and the Pistons. Blake Griffin, a five time All Star in his nine seasons with the Clippers has been traded to Detroit for a package of players including Avery Bradley and Tobias Harris and some draft picks. This is huge news for a player who recently signed a monster contact to be with the Clippers for the next five years. There are eight matches to choose your teams from today with the highlight being the Heat taking on the Cavaliers. Tip-off is at 11.10am AEDT, so make sure your teams are in by then.

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Here is a team you may consider for the NBA $15k+ Thursday competition

Point Guard

Ben Simmons ($16,150)

Ben Simmons has been looked over for a second time for the All Star game. With an injury to John Wall, Simmons was snubbed once again in favour of Andre Drummond. After his first snubbing, Simmons dropped a huge triple-double resulting in 63 DS points. Will he do it again? He gets a great matchup against the Nets to put his name in front of the All Star selectors. Hopefully it is third time lucky after yesterday’s injury to Kevin Love.

Jerian Grant ($8,950)

Grant has been in decent form recently, filling in for the injured Kris Dunn. Grant has the ability to have a big game, which we saw when he finished on 55 DS points against the Pelicans. You need cheap starters who can have a huge game if you want to finish at the top of the leaderboard, especially if they are not highly owned. Grant ticks all of those boxes, making him a good value selection for today’s games.

Shooting Guard

Josh Richardson ($10,800)

The Heat are absolutely flying. They are currently sitting in fourth spot in the East and will overtake the Cavaliers if they can beat them. This is crazy seeing as they did not play in the playoffs last year with basically the same team. Richardson has been killing it lately, scoring over 30 DS points in six of his last eight games. Another performance like that and he is well worth his salary.

Wesley Matthews ($9,600)

Matthews can be a little up and down from time to time, but gets a good matchup against the suns. The Suns are horrid defensively, especially against outside shooters, which Matthews is. Matthews had a big game last week against the Rockets where he finished with 52 DS points. Hopefully he does something similar here.

Small Forward

Jayson Tatum ($10,250)

Tatum has been great so far in his rookie season and would be a strong candidate for Rookie of the Year if it wasn’t for Ben Simmons. Tatum is incredibly efficient as a scorer and also grabs a lot of rebounds, making him a good fantasy option. He gets a good matchup against the Knicks who are coming off back to back games. Tatum looks like a good selection.

Evan Turner ($7,100)

Turner has been solid for the Trail Blazers this season. Whilst he doesn’t get a lot of usage because of other players in the lineup, he is still able to score reasonable well. Turner is a decent rebounder and can contribute a few assists, which means that he is a decent fantasy option at a low salary.

Power Forward

Julius Randle ($11,750)

Randle has been huge all season when he has been getting minutes, the only issue is that he has been constantly overlooked by his coach. Randle has recently started to get consistent minutes and his output is on the up. He is a double-double machine, recording three in his last four matches. You can expect another one against Orlando in his next match.

Ersan Ilyasova ($8,850)

Ilyasova is a nice cheap option who will get decent minutes for the Hawks. The Hawks are having a little purple patch in what has been a dark season for them, winning five out of their last ten matches. Ilyasova has been reasonably consistent in that time, scoring over 20 DS points in twelve of his last fifteen matches. He is very cheap for a starter, so any score around 25 DS points puts you well on your way to winning.

Centre

Hassan Whiteside ($15,950)

Whiteside has gotten back to his beastly best in the past couple of week, scoring over 45 DS points in 4 out of his last seven matches. Whiteside is the best rebounder in the league on his day and is a fantasy machine when firing. He gets a great matchup against the Cavs who are in freefall and are without Kevin Love. They were torched by Andre Drummond in their last game and you can expect a similar result here. Back the big guy in to deliver a huge stat line here.

The Line Up

PG: Ben Simmons ($16,150)

PG: Jerian Grant ($8,950)

SG: Josh Richardson ($10,800)

SG: Wesley Matthews ($9,600)

SF: Jayson Tatum ($10,250)

SF: Evan Turner ($7,100)

PF: Julius Randle ($11,750)

PF: Ersan Ilyasova ($8,850)

C: Hassan Whiteside ($15,950)

Salary Remaining: $600