Here the Friday's top sleeper candidates:
PG T.J. McConnell, 76ers (at Cavaliers)
NBA fans have seen this before: a previously unheralded guard for the 76ers comiong out of nowhere to put up good numbers. It happened with Jrue Holiday, Michael Carter-Williams and currently injured Tony Wroten. The beauty of a bad team is that there are still points to be scored, rebounds to be snagged and garbage time to pad the rest of the stats.
McConnell wasn't even drafted out of Arizona and yet he finds himself logging DFS-relevant boxscores for Philly. He has been priced at the salary floor the past two games, but that will change; in his past two outings, McConnell has recorded a combined 24 assists, 13 points and 14 rebounds.
McConnell seems like a lock to remain in the rotation because of his ability to set up blue-chip bigs Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor for high-percentage shots, while also providing average defense. For his microscopic salary, McConnell is a good bet in GPP formats.
C Festus Ezeli, Warriors (vs Nuggets)
Andrew Bogut might be a local favorite for the Warriors, but Ezeli is the Festus for the rest of us. Stepping in for the concussed Aussie, Ezeli has put up big stats in limited minutes. He hasn't played more than 25 minutes per game yet this season but he's consistently put up ten points with blocks and rebounds as one of Golden State's only traditional post-players.
Ezeli's DFS peak is probably a double-double with a handful of blocks. The Warriors' matchup against the Nuggets presents an opportunity for the Nigerian to reach that peak. Denver's centers have been hit by the injury bug, with last year's starter Jusuf Nurkic on the shelf for a few more weeks and both Joffrey Lauvergne and Nikola Jokic hampered with back injuries.
With a thin opposition that should feature PF Kenneth Faried out of position at center, Ezeli would be hard pressed to have a better opportunity to showcase his skills both on the boards and as a scorer in the post.
PG Toney Douglas, Pelicans (vs Hawks)
Douglas combines a deadly trifecta of short stature, weak outside shooting and an inability to work as a pick-and-roll distributor. That's a brutal combination - yet somehow the Georgia native has managed to stick around the league as he approaches 30 years old.
That type of resume comes cheap across all of DFS, so the threshold for breaking even is a pretty low hurdle to clear. Douglas has an opportunity at this moment to play a larger role with a struggling Pelicans team that is dealing with its own injury plague.
Tyreke Evans and Norris Cole would both feature heavily in the guard rotation if healthy and starter Jrue Holiday, though in the lineup, has been fighting off his own injuries. Coach Alvin Gentry can't afford another injury to a crucial piece, so expect Douglas to steal some of Holiday's minutes.
Douglas has only appeared in two games this season, but he's tallied a combined 26 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and three steals. With no where else to turn, Gentry and DFS owners alike will take a risk and hope that Douglas' hot play will continue.
