3 NBA DraftKings Value Plays to Target on 12/21/18

Ricky Rubio, PG, Utah Jazz

DraftKings Price: $5,600

The Western Conference, like usual, is loaded. Only one team has fewer than 10 wins (and all the others have 14-plus), compared to four such teams in the East. Despite the strong competition, the Utah Jazz--last year's number five seed who went 48-34 in the regular season--should not have a losing record in late December. Yet, here we are.

It's never the fault of one player when a team doesn't live up to expectations, but Ricky Rubio's output has matched his team's underwhelming performance so far. While his numbers are generally in line with last year's, he's turning the ball over at his worst clip since his rookie season (and on a per-minute basis, this year's rate is much worse), and he's shooting a downright awful 38.5% from the field. He's never been a good shooter (he shot below 40.0% in each of his first five years in the league), but this is a big step back from last year's 41.8%.

He can still get it going on occasion, however, and tonight's opponent--the Portland Trail Blazers--gives him a good a chance to help make that happen. Other than a 10.5 DraftKings point effort against them in a blowout loss last February, Rubio has dominated the Blazers in the past couple of seasons. He's scored at least 28.5 DraftKings points against Portland in his other five most recent games against them, averaging just over 1.1 DraftKings points per minute in those games.

We project him to bounce back from his doldrums tonight with 30.1 DraftKings points this evening, which would equate to a value of roughly 5.4 points per $1,000.