The very first vertebrates to walk on our planet might have done so in the great ocean deep, millions of years before their later relatives transitioned to the land.
In 2018, scientists were shocked to find the little skate fish (Leucoraja erinacea) and some basal sharks were capable of footing it along the ocean floor using many of the same neural circuits that we use to walk today.
Generally, it’s thought that vertebrates only learned to walk when they began to eschew the sea for the shore, roughly 380 million years ago. But further models based on the little skate fish – one of the most primitive animals with a backbone – suggest a much deeper origin, possibly more than 400 million years ago.
Using published video data on the scuttling dynamics of this benthic creature, mathematicians have developed a model to investigate how early leg-like motions might have evolved in the deep sea.
The simple model they have created predicts the most efficient, controlled, and balanced type of walking in a neutrally buoyant environment: The best result requires a left foot-right foot alternating pattern very similar to the little skate’s waddle.
What’s more, this type of trudging does not require any extra energetic cost and could be reinforced over time using a simple learning scheme.
“In the context of our model, these results suggest that, despite the vast solution space of gaits, a left-right alternating bipedal control strategy can and will be discovered and is the optimal solution for energy efficient locomotion,” the study authors write.
Finding a real-world example of this ancient organism is akin to discovering a “needle in a haystack”, the team admits, but they say only rudimentary legs would be needed to achieve this pattern of foot placement. After those feet-like fins evolved, the ancient creature would then have needed to gain only minimal neuronal control over their new and improved limbs.
After four episodes of learning in the model, a one-legged locomotion strategy began to emerge. After 200 episodes, a two-legged walking pattern took over. By the 600th episode, the modeled creature began to alternate between left and right steps.
Running roughly 50 instances of learning for 5,000 episodes, including various learning parameters and rewards, the authors found the best solution matches the little skate’s walking gait in 70 percent of all cases.
This simple control strategy suggests walking in the deep sea is a robust and efficient behavior similar to passive walking, like the slinky toy that “walks” down a slope without the need for complex control, just gravity.
The little skate, of course, is not a completely passive plodder. Its brain cells still control six muscles for motion, but the authors say this system exploits the same principles as a passive one: “Sustained locomotion under a constant energy source without feedback control.”
The authors aren’t sure why the little skate developed a slow seafloor walk, but they suggest it is more efficient and cost-effective than swimming at a similar pace. Further metabolic studies on the deep sea creature will need to verify this idea.
Sometimes in the wild, the little skate will use both its legs at the same time to “punt” forward and quickly kick-start its left-right walking pattern. This sort of movement was not found in the model, but the authors think it might be favored when faster acceleration is needed and energy efficiency isn’t as important. This unusual punt requires a bit more work.
“The combination of a reliable low gravity environment and a legged-body morphology may well have helped pave the way for bipedal gaits before our aquatic ancestors transitioned to terra firma,” says applied mathematician Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan from Harvard University.
“As our ancient ancestors transitioned to land, the control strategy likely became more complex. But in reliably homogeneous environments, like the sea floor, perhaps a simple strategy was all that was needed.”
To complement this theoretical model, researchers even built a simple bipedal robot based on similar deep sea conditions. In the end, the behavior of this robot showed striking similarities to their model’s ideal walker. Its regular footstep pattern requires no extra energy and undulates on both sides of the body for stability.
The robot, however, tends to walk slightly faster than what is seen in the little skate.
The authors admit they may never know exactly how the first walking gait arose, but their model helps refine some of the passive dynamics and neural circuits seen in living organisms.
“Understanding how the brain, body and environment worked together in heterogeneous aquatic and terrestrial environments likely needed to include proprioceptive feedback,” the authors suggest.
“But in reliably homogeneous environments, perhaps the simple strategy quantified here was where it all started.”
The study was published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
And yet even Republicans who have been open to more liberal immigration policies are shutting the door to that approach now as the party rails on President Joe Biden for not doing more to contain the crisis, meaning finding the necessary 60 votes in the evenly divided chamber to advance any immigration bill remains a daunting task.
The likely result: Legislative gridlock, especially on a comprehensive immigration bill resembling one passed out of the Senate with 68 votes eight years ago, with Republican advocates of that bill abandoning it now and top Democrats saying there’s virtually no chance enough GOP senators will back a plan that includes a pathway to citizenship to the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
“The world has changed in eight years — dramatically,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican architect of the 2013 bill, which stalled that year in the GOP-led House.
Asked if he would back a comprehensive effort now, Rubio said: “Not in one big bill, no. You have to do it in pieces.”
But doing it in pieces opens up a whole suite of other problems.
As the House looks to advance two piecemeal bills this week — to provide legal status to migrant farm workers and create a pathway to citizenship for people brought to the US as children, known as the DREAM Act — taking on such measures will be complicated to approve in the Senate where Democrats would need 10 Republican backers to move ahead.
Senior Senate Republicans are demanding stringent border security provisions and restrictions on asylum seekers to include in any such proposal. Yet if Democrats agree to such an approach, they are bound to invite backlash among progressives — particularly in the House
“It is going to be very easy to do something if this administration wants to control the borders, which right now, they don’t want to,” said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, when asked about moving piecemeal proposals.
“I’ve said for a long time: The right wants to load up 11 million people and get them out of the country or they ain’t going to vote for the bill, and the left wants to legalize, or give everybody citizenship yesterday,” Grassley said. “And you can’t get 60 or 70 votes when that’s what you’re faced with.”
Rift among Democrats
The tension between abandoning a comprehensive approach this early in Biden’s presidency spilled into the open after Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN Monday evening that he did not see a path forward this Congress to give 11 million immigrants in the country illegally a path to citizenship, even though he personally supports that approach.
“I think we are much more likely to deal with discrete elements,” Durbin said.
Some Democrats pushed back on those comments.
“I don’t wave a white flag before I try,” said Menendez, a lead sponsor on Biden’s comprehensive immigration plan. “I don’t know how many people (Durbin) does see a legalization for, but certainly I hope it would be more than just Dreamers,” referencing recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which aimed to help immigrants brought to the US as children.
“I don’t think that’s acceptable,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said Tuesday night when asked how the base would react if Democrats don’t push through a plan with a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a New Mexico Democrat, added: “I do not believe that any of us should abandon moving forward for trying to get more support for comprehensive immigration reform. … I will not concede making progress on comprehensive immigration reform.”
And even senators up for reelection are sticking with that approach.
“We need to do deep, comprehensive immigration reform,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona who has spoken with Biden about the humanitarian situation at the border. Asked if he views the situation at the border as a crisis, which the White House has declined to do, the swing-state Democrat said: “Yeah. I mean it’s an incredibly challenging situation.”
But some top Democrats seem to be siding with the White House’s rhetoric.
“I wouldn’t call it a crisis,” Durbin said. “But it certainly is a challenge.”
Some Democrats eye budget process to advance party-line vote on immigration
Abandoning a comprehensive immigration overhaul isn’t an option for Menendez, who has begun floating the idea of trying to use a budget process known as reconciliation to legalize millions.
Using that budget tool would allow Democrats to pass the bill without a single Republican vote if they were unified, a tactic they used to approve the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill on a straight party-line vote in the Senate. But given the strict rules associated with the budget tactic, it’s not clear changing the country’s immigration laws would be permissible under the rules.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, hasn’t said whether he would use the reconciliation process for immigration legislation — and ultimately that call would be up to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“To do reconciliation you have to have every Democrat’s vote. We haven’t had those conversations yet to know whether we would have every Democrat’s vote on that,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, said instead of reconciliation, he wants his party to “get back to regular order.” “You cannot just assume everyone is against everything just because this place has become so (full of) tribalism. Somebody has got to try to put it back in place.”
On Tuesday, Schumer wouldn’t rule out attempting to pass a comprehensive bill, telling reporters: “My strongest desire is to pass comprehensive immigration reform.” He added that “we’ll do everything we can to explore that area.”
For many Democrats who have spent years trying to craft comprehensive immigration bills, the political reality is that many of their Republican colleagues who were willing to negotiate a comprehensive immigration reform bill or vote for it are gone — or unwilling to come back to the table
“I think what Sen. Durbin had in mind is to try to put together pieces of immigration reform. It seems like a more realistic way to go,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. “Republicans have always been fearful of their own shadow when it comes to immigration reform.”
Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, added: “Sometimes you have to start with modest bipartisan proposal and see what else you can build on top of it.”
In the House, Democratic leaders plan to schedule votes later this week on two bills aimed at giving recipients under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, a path to citizenship and at expanding the country’s agricultural workers program. The bills passed the House in the last Congress and are expected to pass again, but even those bipartisan measure face an uphill climb in the Senate.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and author of the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill, told CNN that now isn’t the time for legislation to legalize recipients of the DACA program.
“I am all for taking care of the Dreamers, but you don’t want to take care of them and at the same time incentivize another way to legal immigration so the window right now to do anything doesn’t exist because that flow on the border has to be controlled,” Graham said.
Other Republicans say that any effort to legalize Dreamers or expand visas for farm workers will need to come with robust border security provisions, which could alienate progressives from backing a final deal.
“I think there are a number of us who are willing to work on immigration bills, but it does have to be very targeted and deploy some of the vetting practices we want to see,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa.
This story has been updated with additional details Tuesday.
CNN’s Sarah Fortinsky and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
President Biden won the White House because the coronavirus let him stay hidden in his basement, protecting his campaign from its biggest liability — the candidate himself, a new book says.
The Biden camp ran partly on the strategy of “you put your dumb uncle in the basement,’’ referring to the Democratic candidate, according to “Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency.’’
Even former President Obama initially refused to support his 78-year-old ex-vice president and friend, worried he could become a “tragicomic caricature of an aging politician having his last hurrah’’ if not protected from himself, the book says.
President Joe Biden speaks about efforts to combat COVID-19, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, March 2, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
The work’s authors — Jonathan Allen of NBC News and Amie Parnes of The Hill — write that time and again, “the stars aligned’’ for Biden, a previous two-time loser presidential hopeful who succeeded on his third try despite himself.
And no one was more caught off guard than the Trump camp.
The tome says that in May, Trump watched Biden give a CNN interview and afterward asked top aide Kellyanne Conway, “What do you think?’’
Conway replied, “I think if we lose to him, we are pathetic,’’ the book says.
Trump laughed, say the book’s authors, who also wrote “Shattered’’ about Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid in 2016.
“Until the COVID thing came, we were winning four hundred electoral votes,’’ a source familiar with Trump’s internal numbers around February 2020 claimed to the authors.
Even one of Biden’s top advisers, Anita Dunn, allegedly told an associate at one point, “COVID was the best thing that happened to him.”
BIDEN SAYS COVID-19 VACCINES WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR ALL US ADULTS BY END OF MAY
In mid-March 2020, Biden’s team converted the basement of his home in Wilmington, Del., into a makeshift studio from which he could safely issue statements.
“They used coronavirus as an excuse to keep him in the basement, and it was smart,’’ a Trump adviser told the authors.
“Biden was able to hide his biggest weakness, which is himself. And he did it with an excuse that sounded responsible.”
But Biden’s broadcast the night of the March 17 primaries was just bizarre, the book says.
“There was a hostage-video quality to the broadcast. It was cloudy and dark,” the book describes.
“As he spoke, there was an ever-so-slight time delay, putting Biden’s words out of sync with the movements of his mouth. This was the guy who would send Donald Trump to Mar-a-Lago for good?”
One Biden aide told the authors, “I cringed the entire time. He looked like he didn’t know what he was doing.’’
Meanwhile, Obama “seemed to be enamored with former Texas congressman, Beto O’Rourke,’’ as a presidential contender, although he eventually put his clout behind his former vice president, who he once likened to a brother, the book says.
And by fall, Trump had become “his own invisible enemy,’’ the book says.
“With less than month to go until the election, Trump had just come off a debate performance in which he’d managed to make the challenger look more presidential, he was low on cash, he was discouraging Republicans from voting by mail, he had contracted a disease that had killed more than two hundred thousand of his fellow Americans, and he was ignoring advice to show just an ounce of humanity,’’ the authors write.
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“He couldn’t see he was hurting himself.’’
Within a month, Biden would have won the presidency with “a bland message and a blank agenda,’’ the authors say.
Reps for the president did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post on Tuesday.
Flags of U.S. and China are displayed at American International Chamber of Commerce (AICC)’s booth during China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, China, May 28, 2019.
Jason Lee | Reuters
BEIJING — A recent U.S. strategy paper on China that’s widely read in Washington, D.C., has drawn only a passing response in Beijing where limited public discussion has focused on one point: The author got China wrong.
“The Longer Telegram” released in late January proposed how the new U.S. administration should deal with a rising China by laying out a detailed critique of the Communist Party government under President Xi Jinping.
An effective U.S. approach on China requires the “same disciplined approach it applied to the defeat of the Soviet Union,” the paper said. “US strategy must remain laser focused on Xi, his inner circle, and the Chinese political context in which they rule.”
The anonymous author is a “former senior U.S. government official,” according to the D.C.-based think tank Atlantic Council that published the lengthy paper.
The piece attempts to echo a historic document that shaped Washington’s policy on the Soviet Union — named the “The Long Telegram,” it was sent from Moscow in February 1946 at the dawn of the Cold War.
So far in Beijing, major state media have not discussed the paper much, except for the vociferous state-backed tabloid Global Times, and even then, almost entirely in English. “‘Longer Telegram’ a late-stage hegemonic farce,” read the title of one op-ed.
On the official news website of China’s People’s Liberation Army, an article in Chinese portrayed the strategy piece as holding an outdated mentality, and contrasted its view of the country with a recent state media report about a Chinese woman’s ability to rise from poverty.
US strategy must remain laser focused on Xi, his inner circle, and the Chinese political context in which they rule
anonymous
The Longer Telegram
China’s foreign ministry — in response to a question from a Global Times reporter — criticized “The Longer Telegram” for its call to contain China.
The ministry said, according to an official translation, that such comments against the ruling Communist Party were “a collection of rumors and conspiracy theories” and attempts to drive U.S.-China relations toward conflict would result in “total failure.”
The sparse state-level comments come as tensions brew between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies and run by vastly different government systems.
“The Longer Telegram” generated much controversy in the U.S. foreign policy world, with critics saying the paper mischaracterizes China and puts too much emphasis on the role of Xi. But many agree with the paper’s call for a more thought-out U.S. policy on China.
That growing cohesion around a tougher U.S. stance on China is a source of concern in Beijing.
“The Longer Telegram” doesn’t represent China’s reality and isn’t a good starting point for dialogue, said Shen Yamei, deputy director and associate research fellow at state-backed think tank China Institute of International Studies’ U.S. department.
According to Shen, the mistake the paper makes is that it isn’t applicable in this situation, since China didn’t say it wanted to replace the U.S. She added that it’s the U.S. that cares about whether it will lose its central position in the world.
Critics say China’s state-dominated system benefited from being allowed to join the World Trade Organization in 2001 without rapidly incorporating the sort of free-market and rules-based system that countries like the U.S. have advocated.
A history of the long telegram
To counter these developments, “The Longer Telegram” says the U.S. should set clear red lines and points of national security for Beijing that, if crossed, would induce a firm U.S. response.
Some of these red lines include a Chinese military attack or economic blockade on Taiwan, according to the report, which also said the U.S. should push back more firmly on any Chinese threats to U.S. global communications systems.
The author of the original “Long Telegram” in 1946 was American diplomat George Kennan, who responded from Moscow to a U.S. State Department query on Soviet foreign policy. Kennan published a related article the next year in the Foreign Affairs magazine under the pseudonym “X” and in 1952 began a brief term as U.S. ambassador to Moscow.
In his paper, Kennan held that the Russians were set on expanding the Soviet system worldwide and against coexistence with the West. He believed that rather than appeasement, the U.S. should use pressure to achieve cooperation with the Soviet government, or potentially even its internal collapse.
For more than 70 years — including the Soviet Union’s disintegration in 1991 — the U.S. led a so-called liberal world order in which international institutions set rules for a global system.
That’s begun to shift in the last decade or so, with China’s growing economic and technological clout, alongside former U.S. President Donald Trump’s single-handed approach to foreign policy.
The online response
It’s not yet clear what action President Joe Biden will take, but he is sticking to a tough stance on China, albeit with a calmer tone than the previous administration.
“The challenges with Russia may be different than ones with China, but they’re just as real,” Biden told European allies in a speech last week.
Biden held his first phone call as president with Xi earlier this month. The U.S. president and first lady also issued a video greeting for the Lunar New Year, which was shared widely on Chinese social media.
Scattered online commentary about “The Longer Telegram” have remained dismissive.
In a roughly 30-minute video from Feb. 5 that has more than 900,000 views, Fudan University professor Shen Yi dismissed as a joke the paper’s attempt to replicate Kennan’s efforts.
An online article from Feb. 7 by Zhongnan University of Economics and Law professor Qiao Xinsheng said in an online article the strategy paper fails to accurately analyze the Soviet Union’s own difficulties and that the U.S. should not expect China to “disintegrate.”
This is our primary in-depth NBA DFS article, and it will be free this season. The goal of this article isn’t just to give you a few plays to plug into your lineup, but to dig a little bit deeper into why projections may (or may not) like certain players. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll have a better feel for the slate as a whole. Combining the context from this article with the raw data that is available in our Boom/Bust tool, Projections and Ownership Projections should allow you to build strong lineups and make optimal NBA DFS picks for any type of contest on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Be sure to catch the Awesemo NBA Daily Fantasy Strategy Show every morning on our Awesemo YouTube Channel to get ready for the day’s slate of action on DraftKings and FanDuel!
I plan to update this article with notes at the top until about 5 p.m. EST each day. After that, be sure to check out the Deeper Dive show with Loughy and I from 5 to 6 every weekday and Live Before Lock in the hour leading up until lock each day on the Awesemo YouTube channel.
If you have any questions after reading the article, always feel free to DM me in Slack.
Note: This article takes a very long time to write, especially on slates with a lot of games. In order to get information out earlier in the day, I will post the first few games and then update with the remaining games as I write them on bigger slates. Be sure to check back for updates throughout the afternoon.
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NBA DFS Deep Dive: DraftKings + FanDuel Picks | Feb. 23
Detroit Pistons at Orlando Magic (-3.5): 209.5
Detroit Pistons
Update: Wayne Ellington is also out for Detroit. Josh Jackson is the most likely candidate to start in his place and it would allow us to project Jackson’s playing time more confidently. We also could see more minutes for Svi Mykhailiuk with Ellington sidelined.
Delon Wright, Blake Griffin, Killian Hayes and Jahlil Okafor are all still out for the Pistons.
Dennis Smith Jr. started in place of Wright last game but played only 15.4 minutes. Saben Lee played 32.6 minutes off the bench. I really have no idea what to make of this. It would make sense for the Pistons to get Lee extended minutes so that they can develop him, but if that was their intention, why didn’t they just start him and keep Smith in his normal role off the bench? If Smith starts again tonight, I’m going to expect this to be more of a 50/50 split with either player having the opportunity to play more minutes if they are playing well. If Lee starts, I’m going to assume that he gets the bulk of the minutes. Both players are low-floor options who project relatively well for their salaries if you assume they are going to split 48 minutes on average. Lee is the “safer” of the two on DraftKings since he is close to the minimum salary. Both players are priced up on FanDuel and much riskier options.
Mason Plumlee and Jerami Grant should be the best fantasy producers with Griffin and Wright out. Plumlee has averaged 33.8 minutes per game with 1.09 DraftKings points per minute in seven games without Griffin or Okafor this season. He only has a 13.6 percent usage rate in those games, but he also has an 18.1 percent rebounding rate and 22.8 percent assist rate. Grant has averaged 37.5 minutes per game and 1 DraftKings points per minute with a 28.7 percent usage rate in 10 games without Griffin. Neither player stands out as a top option on the slate in a game that is expected to be low scoring, but they have the most upside from Detroit.
Josh Jackson played 32.3 minutes against Orlando on Sunday and we could continue to see him get extended playing time with Detroit short-handed. Jackson has averaged 0.99 DraftKings points per minute with a 26.1 percent usage rate this season. His salary isn’t particularly appealing, but he offers some upside as a lower mid-range forward option.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Jerami Grant ($7,600), Mason Plumlee ($6,700), Saben Lee ($3,200)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Jerami Grant ($7,600), Mason Plumlee ($7,000)
Orlando Magic
Cole Anthony, Markelle Fultz, Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Karim Mane are out for Orlando.
Nikola Vucevic has averaged 34.7 minutes per game over the last month. He has played six games with Gordon sidelined and Evan Fournier active this season. In those games, he has averaged 1.62 DraftKings points per minute with a 31.7 percent usage rate, 22 percent rebounding rate and 25.2 percent assist rate. For the season, he has a 28.7 percent usage rate, 18.3 percent rebounding rate and 20.4 percent assist rate, so he has seen an increase in his rates across the board without Gordon — which makes sense since Gordon was contributing as a scorer, passer and rebounder prior to his injury.
Fournier and Michael Carter-Williams are the other scoring options in the starting lineup. Fournier has averaged 1.21 DraftKings points per minute with a 30.4 percent usage rate and 26.9 percent assist rate in his six games without Gordon while Carter-Williams has averaged 0.78 DraftKings points per minute with a 17.6 percent usage rate and 23.7 percent assist rate in three games alongside Fournier and Vucevic without Gordon. Pricing on all three players is more favorable on FanDuel and Carter-Williams is especially cheap compared to DraftKings.
Al-Farouq Aminu started last game for Orlando. He was on a minutes limit and ended up only playing 19 minutes. Aminu has averaged 0.74 DraftKings points per minute since last season, so we would probably need to hear he can play at least 24 minutes tonight before we start considering him, even at near minimum salary.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Nikola Vucevic ($10,200), Michael Carter-Williams ($5,500)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Nikola Vucevic ($9,900), Evan Fournier ($6,800), Michael Carter-Williams ($4,500)
Atlanta Hawks at Cleveland Cavaliers (+7.5): 228
Atlanta Hawks
Update: Cam Reddish is now questionable and Rajon Rondo is probable. If Reddish sits, Danilo Gallinari is most likely the biggest beneficiary. It could also open up additional minutes for Kevin Huerter and John Collins as well.
Update #2: Reddish is now doubtful and Rondo is available.
Reddish is probable and Rondo is questionable. De’Andre Hunter, Kris Dunn and Bogdan Bogdanovic remain out.
Trae Young has averaged 36.4 minutes per game over the last month and 1.36 DraftKings points per minute this season. He is priced a little bit higher than his per-minute production suggests he should be, but his 33.8 percent usage rate and 42.6 percent assist rate show that he has plenty of upside in tournaments — especially against a Cleveland team that has been the least efficient defense in the league over the last month.
Clint Capela’s playing time has been inconsistent this season, but he has exceeded 30 minutes in four straight games. There is no guarantee it happens again tonight, but he has averaged 1.32 DraftKings points per minute this season so, if it does, he is likely to outperform his salary. Collins hasn’t played more than 30 minutes in any of Atlanta’s last four games. If Capela plays fewer than 30 minutes, there is a good chance that Collins gets 33 or 34 minutes, and in that scenario, he would be getting more minutes at center as well. Collins has averaged 1.03 DraftKings points per minute this season and his salary is falling since his playing time has been down recently. Capela and Collins are both strong GPP options, but I don’t love the idea of rostering them together since their playing time has some negative correlation and Collins’ most productive minutes also come without Capela on the floor.
Huerter isn’t the best per-minute fantasy producer, but he has averaged 0.77 DraftKings points per minute and 34.1 minutes per game in 11 games with Hunter out and Gallinari active this season. His salary has decreased as a result of four consecutive poor performances. In those four games, however, Huerter shot 12 for 34 (35.3 percent) overall and 4 for 22 (18.2 percent) from 3. For the season, Huerter has a 42.5 percent field-goal rate and 37.6 percent 3-point rate. Nothing about his role has changed recently, he is just shooting worse than normal and that has caused his salary to decrease.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Trae Young ($9,700), Clint Capela ($7,900), Kevin Huerter ($5,000)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Trae Young ($9,600), Clint Capela ($8,200), Kevin Huerter ($5,300)
Cleveland Cavaliers
The injury situation for Cleveland remains the same. Andre Drummond, Kevin Love, Matthew Dellavedova, Marques Bolden and Larry Nance Jr. are out. Taurean Prince is doubtful. Assuming that Prince doesn’t play, Cedi Osman should draw another start.
Jarrett Allen’s salary has not increased quickly enough after Drummond’s removal from the rotation. Allen has averaged 33.5 minutes per game in five games without Drummond and 1.36 DraftKings points per minute. Overall, since joining Cleveland, Allen has averaged 1.22 DraftKings points per minute in 415 minutes without Drummond on the floor.
Collin Sexton and Darius Garland see an increase in usage without Drummond since Allen has a 20.4 percent usage rate with Cleveland and he is replacing Drummond’s 31.9 percent usage rate. Sexton has only averaged 0.85 DraftKings points per minute with a 26.4 percent usage rate in five games alongside Allen and Garland without Drummond but he has averaged 0.99 DraftKings points per minute with a 29.4 percent usage rate in 448 total minutes without Drummond on the floor this season. Garland has averaged 0.94 DraftKings points per minute with a 22.9 percent usage rate and 30.6 percent assist rate in the five games without Drummond and with Sexton and Allen. He has averaged 0.96 DraftKings points per minute with a 24.6 percent usage rate and 30.2 percent assist rate in 365 total minutes without Drummond on the floor this season. Both players are likely to play 36-plus minutes if this game is competitive.
Osman and Isaac Okoro should both play big minutes tonight if everything goes according to plan, but neither looks particularly appealing in the context of the slate. Osman is likely to play about 32 minutes and he has averaged 0.85 DraftKings points per minute in 253 minutes alongside Sexton without Drummond. Okoro is likely to play 36-plus minutes, but he has only averaged 0.52 DraftKings points per minute in 219 minutes alongside Sexton without Drummond this season.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Jarrett Allen ($7,200), Collin Sexton ($7,200), Darius Garland ($6,100)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Jarrett Allen ($7,600), Collin Sexton ($6,900), Darius Garland ($5,900)
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Boston Celtics at Dallas Mavericks (+1.5): 224
Boston Celtics
Marcus Smart and Romeo Langford remain out for Boston.
The Celtics get a good matchup against a Mavericks team that ranks 29th in defensive rating over the last month. All three of Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are expected to play, however, so they are a little bit less valuable than they have been in many games recently where one of them sits. The trio has played a total of nine games together this season.
Walker has averaged 1 DraftKings point per minute and 30.6 minutes per game in those nine games. Brown has averaged 1.13 DraftKings points per minute in 35.2 minutes per game. Tatum has averaged 1.17 DraftKings points per minute in 35.6 minutes per game.
Daniel Theis and Tristan Thompson started alongside each other last game and I am assuming that we get the same lineup tonight. Theis’ per-minute production decreases alongside Thompson, but he played about 34 minutes in regulation last game so there is still some potential value. On average, we can expect about 28 to 30 minutes from Theis and about 0.82 DraftKings points per minute. Thompson played about 30 minutes last game and he has averaged 27.3 minutes per game in the five games that he has started alongside Walker, Brown and Tatum this season. He has averaged 0.9 DraftKings points per minute in those games, which makes him look like a decent value if he remains in the starting lineup.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Jayson Tatum ($8,900), Jaylen Brown ($8,000), Kemba Walker ($6,400)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Jayson Tatum ($9,400), Jaylen Brown ($8,400), Kemba Walker ($6,600)
Dallas Mavericks
Update: Porzingis and Kleber are both out tonight. This opens up a lot of minutes. I expect Hardaway or Brunson to join the starting lineup with Finney-Smith playing the four. Powell and Cauley-Stein should split center minutes. Whichever of Brunson or Hardaway comes off the bench is still likely to play at least 28 to 30 minutes.
We don’t have an injury report yet since Dallas played last night. Kristaps Porzingis missed that game, so I am considering him questionable tonight. Maxi Kleber left the game early, so I am considering him questionable as well. Dwight Powell started in place of Porzingis and played 26.7 minutes. Dorian Finney-Smith and Tim Hardaway Jr. would most likely get more minutes if Kleber is out.
Luka Doncic disappointed in 33.1 minutes last night after an eight-day layoff. Doncic has averaged 1.55 DraftKings points per minute and 33.4 minutes per game in 11 games without Porzingis this season compared to 1.68 DraftKings points per minute and 36.4 minutes per game in 17 games with Porzingis active this season. This is the same thing that we saw last season, so I’m not sure why people keep assuming Doncic is a better play whenever Porzingis sits. I don’t expect him to be worse long term, but I think we should be viewing him similarly with or without Porzingis.
Josh Richardson and Hardaway are both reasonable value options and they could see increased playing time if Kleber sits — particularly Hardaway. Richardson has averaged 0.69 DraftKings points per minute and 32.7 minutes per game in 9 minutes alongside Doncic without Porzingis this season while Hardaway has averaged 1 DraftKings point per minute and 30.4 minutes per game in 11 games under those conditions.
Powell and Willie Cauley-Stein will most likely combine for 48 minutes if Porzingis is out tonight. Powell played about 27 minutes last night and Cauley-Stein played about 21 minutes, but we could certainly see the gap narrow tonight on the second leg of a back-to-back. Powell has averaged 0.76 DraftKings points per minute this season while Cauley-Stein has averaged 0.84 DraftKings points per minute. If Powell starts, he will be the “safer” option and I would like pivoting to Cauley-Stein in tournaments if Powell is getting a lot of ownership.
Jalen Brunson is also inexpensive and played about 28 minutes last night. He has averaged 0.88 DraftKings points per minute in 10 games alongside Doncic without Porzingis. He could also benefit if Kleber is out and more minutes become available.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Luka Doncic ($11,200)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Luka Doncic ($11,200)
Sacramento Kings at Brooklyn Nets (-6.5): 242
Sacramento Kings
Harrison Barnes is questionable. Glenn Robinson is out. DaQuan Jeffries started and played 39.6 minutes in place of Barnes against Milwaukee on Saturday. I don’t expect 40 minutes again, but I do expect another start for Jeffries if Barnes is out. He is only $3,800 on DraftKings and would be worth a look as a risky, low-floor value option if he starts. He can be left alone on FanDuel at $4,700.
De’Aaron Fox is always the starting point with the Kings and he gets a nice matchup against the Nets. Brooklyn is no longer playing defense at a historically bad pace, but they’re still 24th in defensive rating over the last month. Fox typically plays 35-plus minutes in competitive games and has averaged 1.19 DraftKings points per minute this season.
Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield are viable tournament options in a game that should be high scoring — particularly if Barnes is out. Haliburton played about 35 minutes against Milwaukee on Saturday and has produced 0.98 DraftKings points per minute this season while Hield has averaged 0.86 DraftKings points per minute and typically plays 34-plus minutes in competitive games. Neither player stands out as a top option like Fox does, but they both are volatile enough players that they have the ability to pay off their price tags in this matchup.
Marvin Bagley has quickly gotten more expensive, but it doesn’t appear he is on much of a minutes limit. He played 35.3 minutes with Holmes and Barnes both out on Friday and then played 28.9 minutes without Barnes on Saturday in a game where he lost first half minutes to foul trouble and second half minutes to a blowout.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: De’Aaron Fox ($8,000)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: De’Aaron Fox ($7,900)
Brooklyn Nets
Kevin Durant remains out. Jeff Green and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot are questionable. Iman Shumpert is probable.
James Harden and Kyrie Irving are essentially the Nets’ entire offense with Durant out. Harden has averaged 1.56 DraftKings points per minute with a 27.9 percent usage rate and 39.9 percent assist rate in seven games alongside Irving without Durant. He also has an excellent 13.9 percent rebounding rate. He has had at least a 33 percent usage rate in three of his last four games, however, and I expect that to continue to be the case going forward. Irving has averaged 1.39 DraftKings points per minute with a 34.1 percent usage rate and 30.6 percent assist rate in his seven games with Harden and without Durant. I expect his usage rate to end up around 30 to 31 percent as the sample size gets larger.
DeAndre Jordan should be extremely productive whenever he is on the floor tonight against a Kings team that has allowed the second most offensive rebounds per game and 11th most total rebounds per game over the last month. His playing time has been somewhat inconsistent this season, but he has played at least 23.4 minutes in seven straight games and at least 27 minutes in five of those games. In his last game against Sacramento, he played about 27 minutes off the bench. If Green is out tonight, it should solidify Jordan’s playing time.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: James Harden ($10,700), Kyrie Irving ($8,800)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: James Harden ($11,000), Kyrie Irving ($8,800)
Philadelphia 76ers at Toronto Raptors (+1.5): 222
Philadelphia 76ers
Seth Curry is listed as probable.
Most of the 76ers are priced up from recent games without Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons.Embiid remains a strong pay-up option, however. He is coming off a 25-point, 17-rebound performance in about 36 minutes on Sunday and he gets the same matchup against Toronto tonight. Maybe the most impressive part of Sunday’s performance was that Embiid scored 54.25 DraftKings points despite shooting 6 of 20 from the field. It’s always difficult to prioritize Embiid since he is expensive and plays the most premium position on the slate, but you should be happy whenever you’re able to fit him into a lineup.
Curry is priced up on DraftKings but is only $4,000 on FanDuel. He is the fourth option offensively and has only averaged 0.71 FanDuel points per minute this season, but he played about 35 minutes on Sunday and it is likely that we get another 32-plus minutes from him tonight if this game is close. Shake Milton is a risky option off the bench, but he played 28.5 minutes on Sunday and closed the game. He has been a productive fantasy producer this season with 0.92 DraftKings points per minute and he is only $3,900 on DraftKings. His minutes are volatile but, if he gets 24-plus minutes tonight, he is likely to be a good value.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Joel Embiid ($10,600)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Joel Embiid ($10,800)
Toronto Raptors
Kyle Lowry is questionable. DeAndre’ Bembry started the first half in his place on Sunday and Aron Baynes started the second half. My guess is that Baynes starts either way tonight and Norman Powell heads to the bench if Lowry is active.
If he is active and not limited, Lowry is a strong value at $7,100 on DraftKings and $7,400 on FanDuel. He produces at a similar per-minute rate to Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam and plays similar minutes on average, but they are both much more expensive. If he is out, both of VanVleet and Siakam become more appealing options despite a difficult matchup with the Sixers.
Nick Nurse said before Sunday’s game that he liked the small lineups that he has been using recently but that he didn’t think he could use them against Joel Embiid. He then proceeded to start the game with Siakam at center because, once again, NBA head coaches forget that they actually have control over what lineups they use. Baynes played about 12.5 first half minutes, however, and then started the second half over Bembry. He finished the game with 29.5 minutes played and I’m expecting him to start tonight because he is the Raptors’ best chance at slowing down Embiid (though it still isn’t a particularly good chance). Baynes is only $3,200 on DraftKings and has produced 0.77 DraftKings points per minute this season, making him a good point-per-dollar value if he is in the starting lineup.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Kyle Lowry ($7,100)/Fred VanVleet ($8,500), Aron Baynes ($3,200 if starting)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Kyle Lowry ($7,400)/Fred VanVleet ($8,200)
Golden State Warriors at New York Knicks (+3.5): 220
Golden State Warriors
Stephen Curry, Kevon Looney and James Wiseman are listed as questionable. It was reported yesterday that Curry was expected to play tonight after being scratched after lock last game, but he is listed as questionable on the injury report so we’ll have to wait and see. If he is out, Brad Wanamaker will see plenty of minutes and there will be increased usage for Kelly Oubre and Andrew Wiggins. Draymond Green’s assist numbers would likely take a hit since Golden State would be missing their best shooter.
If Wiseman and/or Looney play, it would most likely hurt Green who has seen an uptick in playing time, rebounding rate and block rate with both centers out. Wiseman also would add usage to the lineup if he starts, which could slightly lower the usage for Curry, Oubre and Wiggins.
If everyone is active, I don’t have much interest in this team. If Wiseman and Looney are out, I still don’t have much interest in this team but it would increase Curry’s upside and it would also open up Eric Paschall as a sneaky value option. He has been the back-up center for most of the season but it was reported after their last game that the Warriors want to use him at power forward in the future. He played 28.5 minutes on Friday, including closing both halves alongside Green. If Wiseman and/or Looney are out, we could see Paschall start in place of Toscano-Anderson or he could play big minutes off the bench as his back-up.
If Curry is out, Brad Wanamaker becomes a top value as he would most likely play about 30 minutes and he has averaged 0.78 DraftKings points per minute this season.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Read Above for injury scenarios
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Read
New York Knicks
This is a huge pace up spot for the Knicks, but it’s still difficult to prioritize them since they are close to fully healthy.
Julius Randle has averaged 36.5 minutes per game over the last month, which is almost 7 minutes more than the next closest Knicks’ player (R.J. Barrett). Randle has been excellent this season with 1.26 DraftKings points per minute. He continues to lead the team in usage rate, rebounding rate and assist rate this season. It may be difficult to fit him into lineups, but he offers 50-plus fantasy point upside tonight.
Outside of Randle, there isn’t much to be confident in from the Knicks. That said, there are still spots that we can look to take advantage of the volatility in tournaments. While R.J. Barrett has averaged just shy of 30 minutes per game over the last month, he played 34.2 minutes against Minnesota on Saturday so it is still in his range of outcomes. He is now priced for about 30 minutes, so there is substantial upside if he plays more. The same can be said for Elfrid Payton and Immanuel Quickley. Quickley is priced to play about 22 minutes and Payton is priced to play about 26. If either of them plays particularly well, however, they could exceed those expectations by 5 to 6 minutes.
Nerlens Noel has averaged 29.5 minutes per game and 0.78 DraftKings points per minute in his four starts in place of Mitchell Robinson. Noel is appropriately priced on DraftKings and FanDuel but is viable as a “last man in” if you like the rest of your lineup and need someone at his price point and position.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Julius Randle ($9,300)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Julius Randle ($8,800)
Minnesota Timberwolves at Milwaukee Bucks (-10.5): 232.5
Minnesota Timberwolves
Jarrett Culver and D’Angelo Russell remain out for Minnesota. The Timberwolves also have a new coach, so keep in mind that there is a little bit of an asterisk on everything that has happened so far this season since we have no idea what, if any, changes will be made to the rotation tonight.
Karl-Anthony Towns has now played seven games without Russell this season. He has averaged 1.40 DraftKings points per minute and 32.5 minutes per game. I love Towns as a player and the upside that he offers, but it is going to be very difficult to fit him into lineups on this particular slate.
Malik Beasley has averaged 36.7 minutes per game in his seven games alongside Towns without Russell this season. He has only averaged 0.84 DraftKings points per minute with a 21.8 percent usage rate and 9.9 percent assist rate, however. He offers some value simply because of how many minutes he is likely to play, but I think that we can find better options on this slate.
Towns and Beasley look like the top two options from Minnesota to me, but there’s nothing here that I expect to prioritize over other options tonight.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Karl-Anthony Towns ($9,600), Malik Beasley ($6,600)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Karl-Anthony Towns ($9,700), Malik Beasley ($6,500)
Milwaukee Bucks
Jrue Holiday is still out for the Bucks.
We finally have a team with a lot of strong DFS options as the Bucks get a nice matchup against a Minnesota team that ranks sixth in pace over the last month. There is blowout risk in this game, but that’s not going to do much to scare me away from the Bucks.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton have now played eight games together without Holiday this season. Antetokounmpo has averaged 36.3 minutes per game and 1.80 DraftKings points per minute with a 34.8 percent usage rate, 20.1 percent rebounding rate and 30.1 percent assist rate. Middleton put up a couple of terrible games without Holiday but, overall, he has averaged 1.10 DraftKings points per minute with a 26.3 percent usage rate, 9.0 percent rebounding rate and 24.2 percent assist rate. We should expect his per-minute production to increase as long as those rates stay the same because he has only shot 31.6 percent from 3 over these eight games despite being a 43.1 percent 3-point shooter this season.
D.J. Augustin has started Milwaukee’s last two games and has averaged 29.9 minutes per game and 0.66 DraftKings points per minute. The issue for Augustin is that Antetokounmpo and Middleton are strong passers in addition to hogging all of the usage, but he still offers value if he is on the floor for 28 to 30 minutes.
The rest of the Bucks are less predictable, but they still offer value in tournaments.
Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis each played between 23 and 24 minutes last game. Lopez has averaged 0.80 DraftKings points per minute and 25.8 minutes per game in the eight games without Holiday while Portis has averaged 1.06 DraftKings points per minute in 21.4 minutes per game. Both players are inexpensive enough that if they happen to find themselves on the positive end of tonight’s minutes split, they will be underpriced.
Donte DiVincenzo isn’t the most exciting option, but he has averaged 29.8 minutes per game and 0.85 DraftKings points per minute in the games without Holiday. He remains relatively inexpensive for a favorable matchup against the ‘Wolves.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Giannis Antetokounmpo ($11,000), Khris Middleton ($8,400)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Giannis Antetokounmpo ($11,300), Khris Middleton ($7,200)
Washington Wizards at Los Angeles Clippers (-12): 233.5
Washington Wizards
We don’t have an injury report yet for the Wizards. Russell Westbrook played both halves of his last back-to-back, so I assume he plays tonight, but we will need to look for confirmation closer to lock.
Assuming Westbrook plays, he and Bradley Beal are the top options from Washington as usual. They both played about 39 minutes in regulation last night, and 44 minutes overall, so there is plenty of risk here since they could be on tired legs and the Clippers are fully capable of blowing out a tired Wizards squad. That said, if this game is competitive, at least one of these two is the big reason why. Westbrook has averaged 1.45 DraftKings points per minute and 33.9 minutes per game in 20 games with Beal active, but that includes several games where his playing time was limited and one or two games where he was ejected. Beal has averaged 1.36 DraftKings points per minute and 35.5 minutes per game in his games played alongside Westbrook.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Russell Westbrook ($9,800), Bradley Beal ($9,500)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Russell Westbrook ($9,200), Bradley Beal ($9,800)
Los Angeles Clippers
We don’t have an injury report from the Clippers either so I’m assuming that everyone will be available tonight in a great matchup against Washington.
There were reports that Kawhi Leonard would be limited in his return to the lineup, but he has played 37.8 and 39.3 minutes in his first two games back so those reports appear to have been inaccurate. Leonard gets a great matchup against a fast-paced Washington team and he has averaged 1.33 DraftKings points per minute in 20 games played alongside Paul George this season. George has averaged 1.33 DraftKings points per minute in those games as well. He only played 26.7 minutes in his first game back, but he played 32.5 minutes last game so I assume he will be able to get back to his normal 34 to 35 minutes tonight. Leonard is my preferred option of the two, but there is nothing wrong with going to George in tournaments on DraftKings since he will almost certainly be lower owned or rostering George on FanDuel if you can’t find the extra $1,300 for Leonard.
Patrick Beverley is a very interesting value option tonight. He has averaged 25.8 minutes per game in 15 games played alongside Leonard and George this season. He has averaged 0.78 DraftKings points per minute in those games. He played 28.3 minutes against Brooklyn last game and I expect to get 26 to 28 minutes tonight. The reason I think he has a lot of upside in this matchup is a combination of the Wizards’ pace and the presence of Westbrook. Westbrook is the most turnover prone player in the league and Beverley is known for his defensive prowess. It is difficult to predict defensive stats, but this has the potential to be a game where Beverley racks up 10 fantasy points just from his defense.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Kawhi Leonard ($9,400)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Kawhi Leonard ($9,800)
Portland Trail Blazers at Denver Nuggets (-6.5): 232
Portland Trail Blazers
We don’t have an injury report for the Blazers after their loss to the Suns last night. I am assuming that they have the same players available tonight until I hear otherwise.
Damian Lillard only played 28.6 minutes in last night’s blowout loss, so he should be relatively fresh for tonight’s matchup with the Nuggets. His salary dropped as well, which makes him even more appealing. In 16 games played without McCollum this season, Lillard has averaged 1.50 DraftKings points per minute and 35.4 minutes per game.
Enes Kanter will have his hands full with NikolaJokic on the defensive end, but he should play as many minutes as he can handle without getting into foul trouble given the lack of bigs behind him. Kanter has averaged 30.1 minutes per game without McCollum or Nurkic this season and 1.10 DraftKings points per minute. I expect about 32 minutes out of Kanter tonight, making him a good but not great mid-range option on tonight’s slate.
The rest of the Blazers look appropriately priced and don’t stand out as particularly strong options. Robert Covington is playing 35-plus minutes in competitive games and his rebounding numbers benefit from the absence of Harry Giles, but he is also expensive. Gary Trent Jr. is a reasonable option at $5,500 on FanDuel based on the likelihood that he plays at least 34 minutes tonight, but there are plenty of other options in that price range as well that don’t have to share the ball with Damian Lillard.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Damian Lillard ($10,400)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Damian Lillard ($10,300)
Denver Nuggets
Paul Millsap, JaMychal Green, Gary Harris and P.J. Dozier are out for the Nuggets.
Jokic is one of my favorite plays on the entire slate as he takes on the Blazers. Portland doesn’t have an answer for him defensively, as most teams don’t. Jokic leads the Nuggets in minutes per game, usage rate, rebounding rate and assist rate this season. He is always one of the top projected players on the slate and tonight is no different. The only question is whether you’re able to get him into your lineup since there are so few center options.
Jamal Murray has a massive ceiling tonight but his salary makes him much more of a tournament play than a cash play since we can find better point-per-dollar options at the position. Murray has averaged 35 minutes per game over the last month and 1.03 DraftKings points per minute for the season. Jokic’s involvement as a scorer and a playmaker keeps his average rates in check, but Murray is very capable of getting hot and turning the offense into a one-man show. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if parts of this game turn into a duel between the two talented point guards.
Zeke Nnaji started and played 29.9 minutes last game. If I were confident that was going to happen again, I would have interest as him as a near minimum option despite his low per-minute production this season. The problem is that Michael Porter Jr. only played about 18 minutes and didn’t close last game. I think that Porter is normally in the closing lineup over Nnaji and that more often than not we only get 20 to 22 from Nnaji. That does make me like Porter in a nice bounce-back spot, however. We can never fully trust him since he still has some growing pains and Mike Malone may also hate him, but there is no denying that he has a high ceiling for his price point and there is nobody on the Nuggets that should take minutes away from him tonight if he is playing well.
Will Barton is also fairly priced as he should play 33-plus minutes if tonight’s game is competitive. He only played 26 minutes last game, but Denver’s second unit got hot in the fourth quarter and Campazzo stayed on the floor in place of Barton. He has averaged 0.79 DraftKings points per minute and is a useful last piece of a lineup in this matchup.
Top DraftKings NBA DFS Picks: Nikola Jokic ($10,800), Jamal Murray ($8,500), Will Barton ($5,300)
Top FanDuel NBA DFS Picks: Nikola Jokic ($10,500), Jamal Murray ($8,300), Michael Porter Jr. ($5,700)
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The International Monetary Fund has raised its economic outlook for the Middle East and North Africa region’s growth in 2020 by 1.2 percentage points to an overall contraction of 3.8%, showing that despite some progress since the coronavirus pandemic began, it’s still been a brutal year by any account.
Recovery will be varied and based largely on countries’ investments and strategies for vaccine distribution. But there has been one bright spot for the Gulf states in particular — the lifting of the political and economic blockade of Qatar by other GCC countries, the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Director Jihad Azour told CNBC on Wednesday.
While the full details of the reconciliation accord between blockading states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt — and Qatar are not publicly known, Azour told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble that “any improvement in terms of opening up borders, improving economic relationship will provide an additional potential for growth.”
“Of course, this will improve trade, especially at rates in goods and services,” he added. “It will reduce the cost of procuring for example, for Qatar, it will also help the airlines by reducing the cost. Therefore, there is always benefit from improving economic relationships, especially that we are now entering into a new phase in terms of globalization.”
A security guard checks temperature of man arriving at a shopping mall in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on May 4, 2020, as malls reopen after authorities began a partial lifting of the lockdown.
Fayez Nureldine | AFP | Getty Images
The news, which saw a dramatic 3 ½-year dispute come to an end, is a likely boon for investment as well, Azour said. “I think this is good for business in the short term, but also in the long term, in terms of providing a bigger space for investors. And this is something that will be valued.”
Qatar’s Financial Centre alone aims to attract $25 billion of foreign direct investment inflows by 2022 as a result of the rapprochement, CNBC reported in January. Airlines, manufacturing and food production are among the other areas that are likely to see major boosts.
Vaccine strategy will be crucial
In the region more broadly, the improvement in outlook was based on “stronger-than-expected performance among oil exporters, as the absence of the second wave in some countries boosted non-oil activity, and the impact of the first wave was lower than expected,” the IMF wrote in its regional outlook report.
Still, the recovery outlook is patchy and will depend heavily on governments’ vaccine plans. This ranges “from countries with very well-diversified vaccine contracts and production capacity to fragile and conflict-affected states who are largely reliant on COVAX,” Azour wrote in his report. COVAX is a global scheme led by an international vaccine alliance and the WHO, established to ensure equitable vaccine access for every country in the world.
The disparities are obvious: wealthy Middle Eastern states, like the UAE and Israel, are on track to vaccinate half their populations by March and boast the fastest vaccination campaigns in the world, while poorer countries and territories like Palestine are reliant in large part on COVAX and have not received vaccines for their general population yet.
“Our analysis is showing that countries who invested heavily in acceleration, accelerating the vaccination will see the recovery moving faster,” Azour said.
Countries who applied stronger fiscal responses to the Covid-19 crisis “are also expected to have a stronger recovery in 2021, aided by a shallower trough in 2020,” the IMF’s report wrote.
It added that even though several vaccines are now on the market, the battle is far from over.
“While vaccines shine a light of hope, the path will be long and winding,” the report said. “In the short term, the main priority remains ensuring that health care systems are adequately resourced, including funding vaccine purchases and distribution.”
Former President Donald Trump faced significant criticism over the final year of his presidency for his pandemic response, which strayed often from the guidance of his own administration’s health officials and veered often into bizarre territory.
From the pandemic’s early stages, Trump regularly downplayed the risk Covid-19 posed to Americans and predicted often that the U.S. would soon have the virus beat, even as cases spiked around the country. He resisted the best practices recommended by his own public health team, declining to wear a mask in public and holding large-scale rallies, both indoors and outdoors, with thousands of supporters.
Trump frequently touted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19 despite there being no evidence of it being effective. At one point last spring, he suggested Americans should inject themselves with disinfectants to combat the virus.
Fauci’s regular appearances at White House coronavirus briefings made him a household name throughout the pandemic, but his relationship with Trump quickly soured as the NIAID chief refused to fall in line with the then-president’s inconsistent and at-times dangerous Covid-19 rhetoric. Trump called Fauci an idiot and a “disaster,” saying “if we listened to him, we’d have 700,000 [or] 800,000 deaths.” Trump accused Fauci and other health officials of exaggerating the pandemic’s severity and criticized officials for saying early on that masks weren’t necessary.
As the pandemic wore on, Fauci’s appearances at the White House grew increasingly rare, as did contact between the two men.
Fauci said in a news conference with White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday that his work with the Biden administration thus far has been “liberating.” Fauci has said the Trump administration prevented him from making some media appearances and that the White House hampered the flow of public health information.
“You didn’t feel you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be repercussions about it,” Fauci said in the news conference Thursday. “One of the new things in this administration, is if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess. Just say you don’t know the answer.”
Fauci said in an interview Thursday that there is “complete transparency” under the Biden administration.
On CNN Friday, he also said that there was a coronavirus strategy under the Trump administration, but that it “wasn’t articulated well.”
“The separation of the federal government and the states … was really a lesion,” Fauci said on CNN. “You don’t want the federal government to do everything and you don’t want the states to do everything. … What we saw a lot of was saying ‘OK states, do what you want to do.’ And states were doing things that clearly were not the right direction.”
Biden’s Covid-19 strategy has included directing FEMA to establish Covid-19 liaisons to “maximize cooperation between the federal government and the states” and reimbursing states for using the National Guard in relief efforts.
“The best thing to do is to have a plan, have the federal government interact with the states in a synergistic, collaborative, cooperative way, helping them with resources and helping them with a plan, at the same time respecting the individual issues that any individual state might have,” Fauci said.
“They’re going to take advantage of the learning curve,” said Vijay Samant, a former Merck executive who oversaw the production of three successful vaccines during his tenure. Samant said vaccine manufacturers have had months to work out supply bottlenecks and that manufacturing was always projected to speed up in the coming months — a boon for the Biden administration.
“They may get a lot of credit because all of a sudden vaccine doses are going to become available and it’s, ‘Oh, well, we did it,’ ” Samant said. “Let me tell you, that’s how it works. They’re on the right end of the curve.”
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, sounded similarly optimistic Thursday, predicting that vaccine supply will rapidly increase in February and March. The governor was fresh off a call with Pfizer, during which the company “reiterated their plan to significantly ramp up production in February,” said the governor’s spokesman Max Reiss. Much of that ramp-up is taking place even before the Biden administration makes any moves under the Defense Production Act.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared to agree with the assessment Thursday.
In an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden’s chief medical adviser expressed confidence in the President’s once seemingly far-reaching goal to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days.
“I feel fairly confident that that’s going to be not only that but maybe even better,” Fauci said, adding that he had looked at the contractual agreements that had been made. “The amount that will be coming in, we will be able to meet that goal.”
Still, questions remain about where US vaccine supply currently stands. The new administration has touted robust federal plans to launch huge vaccination sites and deploy mobile units to hard-hit communities, at the same time some states are canceling appointments at existing vaccination sites, citing a lack of vaccine supply.
Biden’s team has said it’s flying somewhat blind when it comes to the supply of vaccine and how it has been allocated across the country. A source close to the transition told CNN that the Biden team had been denied access to critical resources it needed to accurately gauge the supply and prepare to take over the rollout before Biden took office.
“The cooperation or lack of cooperation funds from the Trump administration has been an impediment,” White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters. “So we don’t have the visibility that we would hope to have into supply and allocations.”
To be sure, there’s still not nearly enough vaccine available — in the US or worldwide — and the US has stumbled at getting shots into arms quickly. But the Biden administration also appears to be trying to manage expectations, playing up the shambles the Trump administration left behind while figuring out what concrete steps it can take to improve vaccine manufacturing and distribution.
The Biden administration has not clearly articulated what it’s doing to immediately improve vaccine supply, except to task agencies with looking for opportunities to use the Defense Production Act.
Biden “absolutely remains committed to invoking the Defense Production Act in order to get the supply and the materials needed to get the vaccine out to Americans across the country and remains committed to his goal of getting 100 million shots in the arms of Americans in the first 100 days,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
The White House did not address how they would be communicating or working with states, but in a statement to CNN spokesman Kevin Munoz reiterated that they would be “listening to the unique needs of states and tailoring the federal government’s resources and guidance accordingly to ensure we are getting vaccines in the arms of Americans as quickly and safely as possible.”
White House officials said they have asked the Department of Health and Human Services to look for all potential sources of a type of syringe that can help extract more doses of the Pfizer vaccine from each vial. On Thursday, Biden said he would sign an executive order to use the Defense Production Act to direct federal agencies and private industries to “accelerate the making of everything that’s needed to protect, test, and vaccinate and the care of our people.”
A former administration official told CNN that the Trump administration had already implemented the Defense Production Act to assist each of the six vaccine manufacturers, as well as on needle and syringe contracts.
“We’ll be working paying close and careful attention to all of the components of the supply chain to ensure manufacturing keeps up with what we need,” Tim Manning, the White House Covid supply coordinator, told reporters. “The Defense Production Act is a powerful tool — powerful set of tools — and there are many ways we can use it to help ensure that there are adequate and growing supplies of vaccine.”
Samant, the vaccine expert, said the administration would be better off focusing on the availability of raw materials like lipids rather than specialized syringes.
“It’s like the most ridiculous thing to chase after,” Samant said of ramping up syringe production, adding that such a move might, at best, improve vaccine supply by 5%.
For the Biden team, it’s critical to understand how much supply is on hand and how much could realistically be available in the coming months. States have said they need clear and consistent guidance on vaccine supply so they can continue to streamline their vaccination programs.
“We will work to provide projections on supply. We hear over and over from governors and local leaders that they just don’t know what supply is coming and can’t plan. We will absolutely across the next few days to get our arms around what’s going on, make sure that we are communicating with states and localities, so they can prepare, effectively,” Zients added.
According to one health official involved in the vaccine distribution process, hospitals receiving the Moderna vaccine complained of being completely in the dark on when they were receiving it and how much they were getting and, in some cases, were sent scrambling when they received surprise shipments. Moderna declined to comment.
All these problems are now landing squarely in the lap of the new administration.
Some state officials said they’re already concerned about what the administration’s plan will be to allocate vaccines and communicate with states.
Under the previous administration, then-Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Covid task force held regular calls with the nation’s governors during most of the pandemic. While some governors found the calls largely useless, they could at least rely on the briefings as an opportunity to hear from high-ranking medical experts and ask questions of the administration.
A day after Biden took office, state officials told CNN there is still a lot of confusion as to how states will be working and communicating with the Biden administration as the pandemic continues to surge and vaccine distribution is woefully behind.
According to one Republican state official, the National Governors Association has reached out to some of its governors about working with the Biden administration on Covid. However, not all governors are members of the organization and it remains unclear how the administration plans to work with those outside the association.
A Democratic state official said they, too, had not had any regular communication with the new administration.
Dr. Bechara Choucair, the White House vaccinations coordinator, has been in touch with some governors but had not laid out how the administration would tackle vaccine allocations.
Biden said Thursday that each state would be assigned a liaison with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But in a news briefing Thursday, Psaki couldn’t offer any more specifics on how the Biden administration will improve communications with states.
The new Covid team, she said, “will be engaging with governors, Democrats and Republicans, mayors, local elected officials, to gain a better understanding of what’s happening on the ground.”
