Daily Fantasy Sports – football, baseball, basketball, hockey

Dear friends and fellow competitors,

We are back at it again with the second installment of a new series I will be running each Friday called “Tiers and Dears.” For those not familiar I will be taking one NBA position per week and tier up the players for Friday nights giant slate of games. On top of that, certain players have drawn my ire or caught my attention and those players will get a short “Dear John” type letter from me where I will either give them some ribbing or simply thank them for contributing to my success thus far. So follow along, as as we look deep into every position the NBA on Fanduel has to offer.

SMALL FORWARD

Tier 1

Lebron James, SF Heat – His $9,900 dollar salary could be $19,900 and it still would not matter to most Fanduelers. He is the definition of a must start as he is producing his best and most efficient statistical season in his pro career. Even while battling a case of flu like symptoms last week he produced close to 60 points. His average should approach close to 50 as the season progresses and on days he is available you see him in 99.9% of all lineups, pay no mind to his last few below average games as tonight he gets to beat up on the defenseless Knicks.

Dear LBJ,

Thank-you for taking your talents to my team on the daily.

Dear Wade,

Thank-you for being made of glass and keeping Lebron’s stats where they should be all season – out of this world.

Tier 2

Kevin Durant, SF Thunder- This guy is a natural scorer and over his last 10 games he has ramped up his production in the help categories. The team I have been touching on is that you want guys who produce at elite levels across the board and KD is finally doing that. His last 10 games he is averaging 28 points, 7 boards , 3 assists , 2 blocks and 1 steal per contest. As long as he contributes in the peripheral categories he remains a must-start player worthy of his lofty price tag.

Dear Kevin,

Remember when Oden was supposed to be better than you? …Yea I do too.. hehe

PS. I hate your nickname — Durantula? Really? Cmon – we can do better than a spider often times kept as a pet that is not even harmful to humans!

How bout Kevin ‘the Brown Recluse’ Durant?

Perfect! – From this day forth you shall be named “The Brown Recluse” and just for irony’s sake you shall develop a severe case of agoraphobia……moving on.

Carmelo Anthony, SF Knicks - This Knicks team is falling flat in every phase of the game. Since the wrist injury Melo is not the same player he was to start the season , which is understandable since he is shooting about 4% from the field in the last week! All the talk last week in the City that never sleeps was that Melo needed to defer to his teammates and become more of a playmaker. Melo instead became nothing but a pass only offensive player which is NOT what they want or need from him. Right now he is playing to both extremes – we have one game where he jacks up 30 shots in a loss to the Nuggets and then another where be barely shoots at all scoring 1 point in a win vs the Bobcats. Maybe it’s time we see the less selfish, but still offensively aggressive Carmelo this Knicks team desperately needs. 

Dear Melo,

Your act is wearing thin in NYC , don’t think for one minute that media doesn’t realize EXACTLY how selfish you are being by playing uber-passive as if to make a point. Stop being a roundball schizo and find balance in your game. Let Amare be the Yin to your Yang and play ball. Also, until you get your act together Recluse is going to get more run in my lineups, so shape up.

Sincerely,

Joey from the block.

Tier 3

Andre Iguodala, SF Sixers – Iggy is a very competent Fanduel option because of his versatility. While his scoring is down a bit versus his career average , he remains a great playmaker and adequate fantasy rebounder. In the right matchup he will exceed his salary by no less than 1000 dollars simply because he contributes in every stat across the board. Tonight he plays the Bobcats and a prudent daily player should take note of this.

Danilo Gallinari, SF Nuggets – He plays horrible defense, is slow laterally and can’t jump; but I must admit this guy can flat out play basketball. He will only keep getting better as he gets more and more accustomed to the NBA style of play and less intimidated by his opponents tattoos. I am all in on the “Rooster” and I suggest you do the same.

Shawn Marion, SF Nuggets – Dirk gets hurt and all of a sudden Marion goes bonkers? Really? It begs the question why wait until now to show up? The entire team has been struggling all season offensively and the German was barely shooting or scoring before his injury. Regardless , right now he is the best buy at the position and someone you can roll out there on the cheap tonight in a great matchup vs. the Jazz.

Tier 4

Kawhi Parsons, SF Sprockets – Let’s be honest , Kawhi Leonard and Chander Parsons are exactly the same player at roughly the same price so let’s combine them into one uber valued SF who play for some awesome team that needs to be added to the association, right NOW! I don’t see either of them getting much run tonight with so many elite options available. But, if you’re feeling froggy and have a thing for the Jetsons and always wanted to work at Spacely’s Space Sprockets, well I can not argue against their recent production at their current price. My theory is – fantasy sports is meant to be fun and if you find it fun to go against the grain and start some guys you think other duelers will not be starting then Chander Leonard is your guy.

Joe Hoffman is the head icon over at iconfantasysports.com. He was a 3-time repeating fantasy sports player of the year from 2008-2010 on rtsports.com. Follow Joe on Twitter @iconfantasyJoe, for expert advice. Like Joe on Facebook to stay connected.