Tonight’s Top NBA Picks                 3-2-15

JJ Barea- $7,100 – PG Dallas  (VALUE PLAY)

Dallas plays New Orleans tonight.  Dallas is beat up, Chandler Parsons and Tyson Chandler have already been ruled out with injuries.  Dallas will go with a small lineup, and Barea will slide over to the SG role tonight, and face up against Eric Gordon.  Gordon isn’t a fantastic defender AND he played 32 minutes last night, he may be slightly tired.   You can pay for 28 minutes of Barea’s production for a 14 minute price.  When JJ plays 25 PLUS minutes he performs well, he had a really nice stretch a few weeks back when he started for an injured Rajon Rondo.  Barea won’t score you 40 points tonight, but at $7,100, he doesn’t need to.  (If you are feeling ballsy, Rondo might be a nice sneaky pick tonight as well…………..)

Deron Williams- $11,900- PG- Brooklyn

Williams has played BRILLIANT since regaining the starting PG position from Jarrett Jack.  Williams gets Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors tonight.  Curry’s defense takes a decline the second night of back-to-back sets, and The Warriors played last night.  Over his career, Williams has averaged 17 PTS, 10 ASSISTS, 1 Steal, and 3 Reb per game against GSW.  I said it last week, I’m gonna say it again, pay the 11K pricetag and get 16K worth of production on Deron tonight.

Loul Deng- $11,500- SF- Miami- $11,500- MIAMI

Deng will either play SF or PF tonight, I’m not exactly sure.  Regardless, he either gets PJ Tucker, or Markieff Morris, both complete bums on defense.  The thing I really like about Loul is his Minutes Per Game recently, he is averaging over 35 minutes per game since the All Star break.  If you haven’t watched a Phoenix Suns game recently, it’s pretty disgusting, they can’t stop ANYBODY, and looks like they don’t really want to.  There are too many question marks on Miami right now to load up your lineup with Heat players, so I will take the guy who has been playing the most minutes.  Deng is my “Safest” pick of the night, he might not get you 50, but he will get you 30.

Spencer Hawes- $7,300- PF- LA Clippers (VALUE PLAY)

Hawes’ minutes have fluctuated since taking over for Blake Griffin last month, making him a risky play.  He could play 18 minutes, or he could play 32 minutes.  I do like his matchup tonight against The T-Wolves.  It looks like Pekovic won’t play, and Dieng will start at Center.  That means Hawes gets a 53 year old Kevin Garnett or some other secondary defender all night tonight.  I would love to see what Hawes could do with 35 minutes against a bad D like The Wolves.  You can’t count on a big stat sheet for Hawes tonight, however, that possibility is there, and at $7,300, its worth a shot. 

Alexis Ajinca - $7,500- C- New Orleans (VALUE PLAY)

Ajinca is in a similar situation to Spencer Hawes tonight, their stats at the end of the night might be pretty close.  Ajinca won’t start (although he should), but will see minutes in the mid 20’s.  The thing I really like about Ajinca tonight is I don’t think anybody is going to be able to rebound against him.  Dallas is starting Rondo, Barea, Ellis, Richard Jefferson, and Dirk Nowitzki tonight, none of these guys stands a chance against Ajinca or Asik.  I don’t like Aski as much because his minutes rarely go above 25, and he played last night.  If New Orleans had any balls, they would start Ajinca, and have Asik play 18-20 minutes with the second unit, but they won’t.  I like Ajinca tonight for a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds.