NBA Pulse: Tuesday, March 24

The NBA Pulse is constructed to give daily fantasy enthusiasts insight to the most popular picks in a game slate, assessing their viability along the way. In other words, this column is designed to gauge the daily fantasy world's opinion as a whole. We will then take it a step further, telling you when to “join the herd" and when to pivot elsewhere.

Buzz is calculated on a 1-10 scale by considering numerous daily fantasy media outlets picks and general conversation on forums/twitter.

POINT GUARD

Clearly people aren't too bothered by Damian Lillard's poor shooting this season or the buzzsaw that the Warriors have been even against good and healthy teams. The game has just a -7 line, but the blowout potential here seems a lot bigger than that. Lillard's usage rate will be sky high, but he'll need to have some efficiency to keep them in the game.

Russell Westbrook's price continues to skyrocket, but people keep drafting him heavily because he produces every night. There's a major blowout concern here as the Thunder are playing really well and the Lakers simply aren't any good.

Reggie Jackson has been red-hot over the last 4 games with at least 40 DraftKings points in each of them, including a double-double. He takes on a porous Raptors defense tonight.

Stephen Curry is getting some hype in a good matchup, but he seems to be more of a boom or bust play this evening. He's either going to dominate a closely contested game or coast through a blowout, rendering him more of a GPP play.

UNDER THE RADAR: Jeremy Lin will move into the starting lineup at shooting guard tonight to be covered by Dion Waiters. He's going to be low owned today because he hasn't been great and his move into the starting unit hasn't been heavily publicized. Rajon Rondo should pick up a few extra minutes with JJ Barea out in a good matchup with the Spurs.

SHOOTING GUARD

No surprise here, as Dwyane Wade continues to top the list, he and DeMar DeRozan are very comparable plays who have very comparable buzz today. I personally prefer DeRozan against the Pistons are the length of the Bucks wing players can do an effective job of taking away his post ups.

Antetokounmpo and Afflalo are two of the more interesting plays of the evening. The Greek Freak is actually accruing less buzz than you think for how many minutes he's been playing and the statistics he's been producing. He's averaging 38.1 minutes over the past 2 weeks, good for top 5 in the league. Afflalo is interesting because of the Blazers depleted offense. He's been very disappointing for them, averaging less than 7 shot attempts per game, but that can only go up with Aldridge and Batum out.

UNDER THE RADAR: Both Dion Waiters and Anthony Morrow continue to see heavy minutes for the depleted Thunder. They are both upside plays with very low floors, but on a night where there simply aren't any standout shooting guard plays, these guys could be on a lot of winning teams.:

SMALL FORWARD

Not much buzz at the depleted small forward position tonight. It seems the consensus has come down to spending on either Rudy Gay or Kawhi Leonard, maybe even both at this spot. Gay has been slightly more consistent due to more consistent minutes, but Leonard has looked like one of the five best players in the league since the All-Star Break. Choosing between these two will be tough tonight, but it's likely going to be hard to go wrong.

UNDER THE RADAR: Assuming Dorell Wright and Omri Casspi both start tonight for their respective teams, they are both very solid value plays. Neither is generating much buzz because the past production in these situations simply hasn't been there and the minutes have been inconsistent.

POWER FORWARD

Nerlens Noel is a great upside pick, but I'm not sold on him being a lock for providing any value on his price. He had a great 16 point, 12 rebound double-double last time these two teams met, but he dealt with some foul trouble guarding DeMarcus Cousins in that game as well.

Tim Duncan was surprisingly highly owned on Sunday and had a nice game, which would lead me to believe he'll see some carryover into tonight. I love the matchup tonight too, but there's always the risk of limited minutes when you roster Duncan.

Ersan Ilyasova is still too cheap given his current role, so feel free to deploy him – especially on FanDuel where you have to plug in 2 PF's.

UNDER THE RADAR: Mitch McGary and Anthony Tolliver are both being touted as value plays tonight, but Tolliver isn't even that cheap anymore and he's barely seeing 25 minutes with Greg Monroe out. I prefer McGary who has been an incredibly efficient per minute producer off the bench.

CENTER

Everyone is salivating over playing DeMarcus Cousins tonight in the matchup he posted 39 points and 24 rebounds in last time these two teams met. Cousins isn't going to repeat that, but he should have another monster double-double as the Sixers simply don't have anyone that can match up with him.

Enes Kanter and Steven Adams both remain rock solid plays for their prices as the Thunder have now lost Nick Collison as well. They simply have to play heavy minutes, and with the Lakers now starting Ryan Kelly at power forward, have an excellent matchup.

Robin Lopez is getting a lot of buzz with Aldridge out tonight, but I just don't see a ton of upside in a matchup with a very strong Warriors interior. He can probably provide you value in the extended minutes, but the upside is pretty low.

UNDER THE RADAR: Meyers Leonard is the high upside play in the Portland frontcourt and it's likely he'll start at power forward tonight as the stretch-4 sans Aldridge. He's shooting an impressive 43% from three this season and offers some great upside on sites that reward threes with bonus points.