Monday's NBA showdown is a one-game slate, GSW @ DEN, with a captain slot that scores 1.5x points at 1.5x salary under the usual $50,000 cap. Lock is 10:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. PT).
Jamal Murray tops our model's ranking at $9,600, with a ceiling of 62.0 against a DraftKings average of 42.4. That gap between average and ceiling is the loudest signal on the board. Nikola Jokic costs $13,000 and carries a 57.2 ceiling and a 57.3 DraftKings average, so he sits closer to his ceiling than anyone else but needs the most salary to get there. Yaxel Lendeborg of GSW is the third piece of the top tier at $7,800, with a 57.0 ceiling and a 39.4 average.
The value plays come from the middle of the board. Trevon Brazile of DEN is only $5,400, yet his ceiling is 38.5 and his average is 26.6. Brandin Podziemski of GSW at $7,000 has a 46.3 ceiling, and Stephen Curry at $8,600 reaches 48.6. Brandon Williams of GSW is the cheapest of the group at $5,800 with a 35.3 ceiling, but he carries a Q tag from DraftKings, so check his status before lock. The same tag sits on several others on this slate, including Cameron Johnson of DEN and Gui Santos of GSW, while Jimmy Butler and Kristaps Porzingis of GSW are listed OUT.
The fact sheet doesn't include ownership figures for this slate, so we can't say where the crowd is leaning. With one game and a short pool of viable plays, expect heavy overlap on the top names anyway.
Our model's top lineup uses $49,200 of the $50,000 cap. Jamal Murray takes the captain slot at $14,400. The UTIL spots go to Christian Braun at $6,000, Stephen Curry at $8,600, Trevon Brazile at $5,400, Yaxel Lendeborg at $7,800 and Brandin Podziemski at $7,000. Murray at captain locks in the highest ceiling on the slate, and the Brazile and Braun salaries make room for Curry and Lendeborg.
Lock is Monday at 10:00 p.m. ET.
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