National Basketball Association

DFS Picks for Detroit Pistons vs Denver Nuggets on Saturday

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Detroit Pistons vs Denver Nuggets is next on PistonPowered’s Daily Fantasy Picks for Saturday. As usual, these picks will focus on FanDuel Tournaments.

The Detroit Pistons will host two of my favorite fantasy players in this game, Denver Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic and power forward Nikola Jokic. They’re both foul-prone, which does make them risky plays, but that’s likely to keep their ownership percentages below where they should be, and we love that in tournaments.

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Pistons power forward Jon Leuer is going to find his way into my lineups on a regular basis this season. Leuer has played 20-29 minutes 60 times in his career, averaging 11.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.5 blocks, 0.6 steals and 1.1 turnovers in 24.3 minutes per game.

He’s averaging 26.2 minutes per game for the Pistons. He’s still a bargain at $4.1k, and my favorite way to gain exposure to the Pistons tonight.

Nuggets Center Jusuf Nurkic’s inability to not foul-out of games has been the biggest obstacle he’s faced in the NBA. In his career he’s averaging 15.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.6 steals, 2.5 blocks, 3 turnovers and an astounding 6.3 fouls per-36 minutes. Through the first four games, Nurkic is averaging 3.5 fouls per-36 minutes.

He’s my top target even in a poor matchup vs Detroit. You’re paying for 30 FanDuel points , or 5x, but if this game stays close and he plays clean, you’re looking at 38 or roughly 6x his $6k salary based on per-36 minutes.

Nuggets power forward Nikola Jokic has impressive career per-36 minutes statistics of his own. 16.6 points, 11.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.6 steals, 1 block, 2.2 turnovers and 4.4 fouls. Good for about 39.5 FanDuel points or about 7x his $5.7k salary. Fouls are a problem for Jokic, but when he plays a clean game he’s capable of enormous performances.

In 143 minutes this season, Nurkic has averaged 1.14 FanDuel points per minute, and Jokic 0.91 when they have been on the floor together. In 93 minutes last season, the pair averaged 1.14 and 1.10 FanDuel points per minute. Even in a small sample size it seems clear they complement each other well, if they can stay out of foul trouble and in the game.

* Player statistics courtesy of Basketball-reference.com and FanDuel points per minute provided by Nbawowy.com.

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