NBA Postseason Best Bets (5/3)
Alex Christenson
Jarrett Allen has missed the past two games for the Cavaliers and reportedly is still having too much pain when he raises his arms over his head, which is a problem for a professional basketball player. If he’s out again, I would expect Marcus Morris to be the most popular player on the cheaper end of the salary grid. He’s logged 26 and 27 minutes and scored 18 and 14 DK points, but that’s included 5-for-16 from the field. If he can get the shot to work even a little bit better at home, he could turn into a need on your roster for just $3,200 on DK.
We’ve seen Wendell Carter Jr. grow into this series, missing a double-double by one rebound last game and three points in Game 5. Most importantly, he’s logged 33 and 36 minutes in the past two games, as the experiment with Jonathan Isaac at center didn’t fully work in this matchup. Carter is still under $6,000, and that offers us some nice flexibility. For instance, if you play him as captain, you could then play Paolo Banchero, Donovan Mitchell and Marcus Morris (potentially) in the next three slots and still have over $7,600 per player left on DK. That’s not a terrible place to be salary-wise with two more slots.
That has come without Allen in the lineup, but Max Strus has started to find the range from beyond the arc. He’s taken over 30 attempts during these six games but only hit nine, well below his 34.6% rate on the season. Sometimes Game 7 produces some unlikely heroes, and Cleveland has home court. While Strus is not the best 3-point shooter in the league, he shot 511 of them during the year and has played 30, 40 and 39 minutes in the past three games. There is some appeal since he’s under $7,000 and has a ceiling – evidenced by his 36.5 DK points in Game 5.
