NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 11/20/19

Russell Westbrook's numbers are down this season, but he's still shown excellent upside and is coming off a triple-double performance on Monday. Who else is worth paying up for on Wednesday?

Basketball is the most consistent sport for daily fantasy purposes.

A top slugger in baseball will have his fair share of 0-for-4 days, and an elite fantasy football player is at risk of having games where his team's offense as a whole is shut down. A high-priced NBA stud is generally going to get his, though. With so many possessions in a game providing opportunities to produce, top fantasy basketball options will be posting high scores just about every night.

While this consistency puts us in a good position to identify top plays, it also means you can't afford to miss when you're paying up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud is likely going to leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.

Let's get right into it and look at which top players should be the focal points of your lineups tonight.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, SF, Milwaukee Bucks ($12,100)

After opening the year with some surprisingly solid numbers, the Atlanta Hawks have fallen to 23rd in defensive rating while playing at the 13th-fastest pace and sitting at 16th in total rebound rate (49.7%). They're also giving up both the most steals and blocks per game to opponents, giving a huge boost in fantasy upside to players who can do both thanks to the high weight FanDuel scoring gives those stats.

Getting burned in every stat category makes this an especially great spot for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has turned in 30.3 points, 14.0 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game on the year. That's been good for a league-leading 60.6 FanDuel points in 33.0 minutes per game.

That already modest playing time is a concern when the Milwaukee Bucks are 11-point favorites, creating some blowout risk, but their 121.5-point implied total is the slate's highest, and even in a blowout, Giannis should be efficient enough for another dominant fantasy performance.

Russell Westbrook, PG, Houston Rockets ($9,600)

The Houston Rockets get a downgrade tonight against the Denver Nuggets and their league-low pace, but gambling on Houston's high-paced and high-powered offense is still worth a shot. Doing that with Russell Westbrook reduces the risk some, thanks to the big discount you get from James Harden.

Westbrook's 44.7 FanDuel points per game are nothing special at this price point, but we've still seen flashes of his usual upside. He just dropped a season-high 62.6 fantasy points in his last game, marking his fifth time scoring at least 52 in 12 games.

This bounce-back wasn't especially surprising because even playing second-fiddle to Harden shouldn't have his numbers quite this low. He's only got a .454 effective field goal percentage so far, which is his worst mark since the 2010-11 season. He posted marks of .476, .477 and .468 in the last three seasons, so even if his workload doesn't change much (and that's still solid, with a 31.4% usage rate), his scoring should tick up.

Houston's combination of the third-fastest pace and highest offensive rating means that even in a tough matchup there's going to be a ton of upside available.

Spencer Dinwiddie, SG, Brooklyn Nets ($7,300)

Spencer Dinwiddie isn't always a stud, but he fits the bill with Kyrie Irving ruled out again.

Dinwiddie dropped 24 and 28 real-world points (36.2 and 49.0 fantasy points) sans Kyrie in the last two games, with that most recent showing including a season-high 21 field goal attempts. He profiles as a totally different player with and without Irving, averaging 0.95 FanDuel points per minute on a 23.2% usage rate in 137 minutes with Kyrie on the floor this season and then jumping to 1.19 per minute on 34.4% usage in 213 minutes with Irving off.

This offense workload should mean big things against the Charlotte Hornets, who own the NBA's third-worst defensive rating while allowing opponents to shoot a league-high .561 effective field goal percentage.


Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. 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 personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.