12-Game NBA Slate on Wednesday Gives Daily Fantasy Players Plenty to Weigh, With LaMelo Ball in Focus

Daily Fantasy basketball players have a much larger pool to work with on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The NBA schedule features 12 games, a big jump from the four-game slate on Tuesday. More options also mean tougher choices when building DraftKings and FanDuel lineups.

Several All-Stars are expected to play, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokic. Top rookies Caleb Wilson and Yaxel Lendeborg are also part of the player pool.

Some prominent names will not be available. Anthony Edwards and Kawhi Leonard are both sidelined with knee injuries. Their absences could open the door for teammates to emerge as lower-priced options that help players stay under the salary cap.

Guidance on the slate comes from SportsLine's Mike McClure, a DFS professional with more than $2 million in career winnings. He is also a predictive data engineer at SportsLine, where he uses a model that simulates every minute of every game 10,000 times. The model accounts for matchups, statistical trends and injuries.

One of McClure's featured picks is Timberwolves point guard LaMelo Ball, priced at $7,700 on DraftKings and $7,900 on FanDuel. Ball has averaged 14.8 points, 6.3 assists and 2.0 rebounds in a modest start to his time in Minnesota. With Edwards expected to be out for a couple of months, Ball is set to be the team's primary scorer and distributor. His opponent is the Warriors, who have allowed the second-most Fantasy points to opposing point guards on both FanDuel and DraftKings this season.

McClure is also building around Hawks guard CJ McCollum, who costs $5,300 on both DraftKings and FanDuel. McCollum scored 20 points on Monday and has shot 53% overall and 44% from 3-point range this season. Atlanta faces Miami on Wednesday, and McCollum has topped 20 points in each of his last four games against the Heat. Over that stretch he has also averaged 3.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists.

The matchup looks favorable on paper as well. According to the report, the Heat defenses McCollum faced in those earlier games were stronger than the current Miami group, which is allowing 121.8 points per game, the seventh-most in the NBA.

McClure is also targeting another player he believes could produce big numbers because of a strong matchup, but that selection, along with his full lineups, rankings and stacks, is available only through SportsLine.