Point Guard

DJ Augustin ( $3,500 ) – DJ Augustin badly outplayed Brandon Jennings last night, earning praise from coach Stan Van Gundy, who bluntly admitted that Augustin was the better player that night.  Except Augustin to continue to earn 25-30 minutes each night as this battle over the starting point guard position continues.  Tonight’s matchup with Minnesota is terrific.  The Timberwolves are a fast-paced team that that struggles defensively, consistently giving up big games to opposing point guards last season.  At this price, Augustin will be a staple of both my cash game and GPP lineups tonight.

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Chris Paul ( $9,300 ) – The Thunder lost a tough road game last night against Portland.  Their reward is a fresh Clippers team opening their season in LA.  Russell Westbrook was unable to carry his team to victory last night, and tonight’s game is shaping up to be somewhat of a blowout.  While I prefer the value you get with Augustin, CP3 is a safe option with significant upside given his ability to both score and dish out a hefty number of assists.  My only issue here is that he may not see much court time, if any, in the fourth quarter, though the production you do get from him will probably be enough to justify his salary anyway.

Shooting Guard

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ( $3,600 ) – From a fantasy perspective, KCP had a less than stellar evening last night, scoring only 7 points and pulling down 7 rebounds.  What’s important, however, is that he jacked up 19 shots, but made only 3 of them.  That’s just a very poor night of shooting.  If KCP has the green light to shoot that much going forward, he’s a terrific bargain at this price.  He’s not going to shoot 15% from the field every night.  Tonight’s matchup with Minnesota should be fast-paced, and with both teams playing a back-to-back, the defense will probably be  a little worse,  assuming that’s even possible for these two teams.

Monta Ellis ( $7,700 ) – I prefer going the value route with KCP at SG tonight, but if you’re playing multiple lineups, or just don’t feel comfortable with him, I would recommend spending on Ellis.  The other options are not very good.  I wouldn’t touch Burks or Hayward traveling to Dallas after playing Houston last night.  That has blowout written all over it.  Ellis will be on the other side of that, and while a reduction in minutes tonight will hurt his overall fantasy performance, he’s still a good bet to earn you a resaonable score of 30-35 points.  That production is just fine if you nail the other positions.

Small Forward

Tobias Harris ( $5,800 )  – Channing Frye is almost certainly out again tonight, so we should see the Magic roll with a similar lineup and rotation as opening day.  What this means is that the offense will continue to revolve around Harris and Vucevic.  Washington is coming off a tough loss in Miami last night, and is now traveling to Orlando for a road back-to-back.  Orlando isn’t a good team, but given the circumstances, this game should remain competitive until the very end.  Orlando will continue to lean on Harris heavily.  He posted some monster games when he was originally shipped out of Milwaukee over to Orlando, and how that he’s fully healthy, that upside is back.  If I made 20 lineups tonight, I’d have a tough time not putting him in all 20 of them.

Power Forward

Thaddeus Young ( $6,700) – Young is clearly going to be the primary scoring option for the Timberwolves, at least right now.  He put up 18 shots yesterday, with Ricky Rubio coming in second with 12.  Facing a Detroit team that just got completely dominated by Kenneth Faried, I really like Young’s chances to have a big game.  His price is too good to pass up, and like Harris, I will have a tough time not putting him in every lineup I make.

Kevin Love ( $9,000 ) – It’s going to be interesting to see how usage is distributed with three guys, Irving, Love, and James, who used to be their respective team’s primary option, all playing together.  However, Kevin Love at $9,000 is really tough to pass on, especially given he may be matched up with Amar’e Stoudemire defensively.  This game is the slam dunk blowout of the year, especially given how awful the Knicks looked last night, but in three quarters, Love is capable of putting up ridiculous numbers that can end your night if you don’t have exposure to him.

Center

Nikola Vucevic ( $8,000 ) – Vucevic started the season off by posting a monster stat line against a tough New Orleans front court.  Tonight’s matchup with Washington, while still somewhat difficult, shouldn’t be as imposing as facing Anthony Davis and Omer Asik.  I like Vucevic to have another big night scoring and rebounding.  Orlando just doesn’t have anyone outside of Harris and Vucevic to shoulder the scoring load with Channing Frye injured.  Orlando will lean on them heavily, and Vucevic has the upside to be one of the top fantasy performers this evening in a game that should be determined in the final minutes.

Andre Drummond ( $8,600 ) – Last night we saw the fun of rostering Drummond.  And by fun, I mean relentless pain as he couldn’t stay out of foul trouble.  That’s what you get from Drummond.  He’s a guy with monster upside, but he can really tank a lineup if he can’t play nicely and keep his hands to himself.  I think he bounces back tonight against Minnesota, a team he should have no trouble dominating on the glass.  As always, though, don’t use Drummond across the board.  He’s too risky in that regard until he learns to stay on the court more consistently.

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