NBA

3 NBA DraftKings Value Plays to Target on 10/24/19

P.J. Tucker should be in the starting lineup for the Rockets tonight and comes in under $4K. Is he one of the top value plays on the slate?

A major key to success in daily fantasy basketball is uncovering potential value plays. If you're looking to roster a stud or two, you need to consider squeezing one of these lower-priced options into your lineup.

Let's take a look at three players who can help fill in the gaps in your lineup on DraftKings tonight.

Wesley Matthews, SG/SF, Milwaukee Bucks

Price: $3,500
Projected DK Points: 21.7
Projected Value (DK Points/$1,000): 6.19

With a total set at 229.5 points, tonight's game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets has the highest total of the night and is one to target on DraftKings. Outside of the big names like Giannis, Harden, and Westbrook, the game features a compelling amount of veteran value, and one of the players that looks the most appealing is Wesley Matthews.

Matthews signed a two-year deal with the Bucks in the offseason, and the journeyman who played for three teams last season will settle into the starting shooting guard role for his new team. Priced at only $3,500 ($400 lower than his lowest point last year), Matthews should get more than enough run as a starter to return solid value this evening.

Matthews' output has been consistent, if not exciting, over the past few years. His per-36 averages of 14.5 points, 2.9 boards, and 2.8 assists last year are an exciting prospect at this price point, and his preseason numbers suggest that he can continue a similar type of output for his new team. In four preseason games, Matthews put up 7.5 points, 3.0 boards, and 2.3 dimes in 21 minutes, good for per-36 values of 12.9, 5.1, and 3.9, respectively.

His 0.74 DraftKings points per minute in the preseason isn't an exciting number, but it's more than enough to return value at his salary and projected run. He's put up at least 21.0 DraftKings points in nine of his past 10 games against the Rockets. We have him projected to play 30.7 minutes tonight and return 21.7 DraftKings points a projected value of 6.19 points per $1,000.

Jabari Parker, SF/PF, Atlanta Hawks

Price: $3,800
Projected DK Points: 27.7
Projected Value (DK Points/$1,000): 7.28


Wes isn't the only player who is debuting for a new team tonight. Fellow journeyman Jabari Parker will be donning an Atlanta Hawks uniform tonight, and he presents one of the best value opportunities of the evening, even if it comes in a bench role.

We saw massive fantasy outbursts from Parker last season, which helped people to win a lot of money in DFS, but he often would follow up those performances with duds, rendering lineups useless. That type of up-and-down production can be frustrating, but it's a lot more tolerable at a price point of just $3,800.

Parker saw solid run with the team during five preseason games, and put up respectable averages of 11.4 points an 7.4 boards in just 22.5 minutes of run, good for 0.98 DraftKings points per minute, which is a compelling number for a player we project to play 27.2 minutes tonight.

Parker's 53.5% effective field goal percentage (eFG%) last season set a new career best, as did his per-36 8.8 boards and 3.2 assists. We project Parker to finish with 14.6 points, 6.7 boards, 2.3 assists, and to return 7.28 DraftKings points per $1,000 tonight, making him our top projected value play of the night.

P.J. Tucker, SF/PF, Houston Rockets

Price: $3,900
Projected DK Points: 22.4
Projected Value (DK Points/$1,000): 5.74

With his penchant to rack up defensive stats, P.J. Tucker was a slightly more effective option on FanDuel than DraftKings last season, if only by 0.4 points per game, and it will almost certainly be the case again this year as the guard-heavy Rockets look to make a push to the NBA Finals for the first time since The Dream donned a Rockets uni.

Tucker is rarely an exciting player to use in daily fantasy, but he's consistently one of the better punt options when you're building a top-heavy cash lineup, which could be the case tonight on a three-game slate where you can legitimately fit in three high-end options into your lineup as only Giannis Antetokounmpo is priced at $10,000 or more.

He may not provide much per-minute fantasy output, but his defensive ability keeps him on the court for huge amounts of time, which will be needed tonight if the Rockets have any hope of slowing down Giannis. Tucker's 34.2 minutes per game last year were the 17th-most in the league. He's one of only four players who played at least 30 minutes and averaged fewer than 10 points per game.

No other player who played more than 34 minutes averaged lower than 16.6 points per game. Fortunately, Tucker helped make up for that by putting up 5.8 boards and 1.6 swipes per game, en route to 22.5 DraftKings points per game. We project him to just about match that output tonight, projecting him for 22.4 DraftKings points, which would be good for 5.74 points per $1,000. He's not going to win you a tournament, but he will help give you a solid floor in those 50/50s this evening.


Ian Goldsmith is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ian Goldsmith also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username zoidbergs_revenge. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.