3 Under-the-Radar Daily Fantasy Basketball Plays for 3/7/17
Brandon Ingram, SF, Los Angeles Lakers
FanDuel Price: $3,700
Why He Will Go Overlooked:
Brandon Ingram and the Lakers easily have the lowest implied team total on the slate, coming in 10 points lower than the next-highest team.
If punting the small forward position, daily fantasy players are more likely to roll with Bojan Bogdanovic, who has shown more upside in his new role with the Wizards and is in a much more favorable matchup against the Phoenix Suns.
Why You Should Use Him:
Ingram's production has been as inconsistent as they come, but one thing that has remained consistent is his playing time. The rookie is averaging 36.1 minutes in five games following the All-Star break, and following the trade of Louis Williams and the benching of Luol Deng, Ingram should continue to see all the minutes he can handle on the wing.
Admittedly, he draws a terrible matchup against the Mavs, but has shown the ability to do damage in slow-paced games over the past couple months, with totals of 23.4, 24.3, and 30.2 FanDuel points against the San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, and Miami Heat, respectively.
The Lakers have shown the tendency to play small recently, often utilizing Ingram as a small-ball power forward. In their last game, with Ivica Zubac out, it was expected they'd be forced to play Tarik Black and Timofey Mozgov more minutes against the big lineup of the New Orleans Pelicans, but neither topped 17 minutes. Ingram played 39 minutes -- 28% of which came at the power forward position, according to nbawowy.com.
As a result, he collected six boards -- his highest total in a month.
Both Ivica and power forward Larry Nance Jr. are questionable, which could open up even more minutes for Ingram at power forward against the Mavs, who rank dead last in rebounding rate (46.5%). While that mark is embarrassing, coming in one percentage point lower than the next-lowest total, their rebounding numbers with their current starting lineup are really a joke.
Per nbawowy.com, when the Mavs have utilized a their small-ball lineup featuring Yogi Ferrell, Seth Curry, Wesley Matthews, Harrison Barnes, and Dirk Nowitzki at the center position, they have accumulated a 44.3% rebounding rate, which is lower than any team has posted over the past five seasons.
Ingram has shown the ability to completely disappear on the offensive end, making him hard to trust as anything other than a tournament play, but it is hard to ignore someone that has the potential to see 40 minutes at near-minimum price on a three-game slate.
