3 NBA DraftKings Studs to Target on 12/5/19
While building a daily fantasy basketball lineup, it's important to make sure you find the right studs to anchor your team. As the most expensive players in your lineup, they need big-time production to match their high price tag.
You may find it hard to fit some of these guys in while staying under the salary cap, but you can check out our projections to find value players for your rosters. Let's take a look at the top high-priced DraftKings plays of the day.
Joel Embiid, C, Philadelphia 76ers
DraftKings Price: $9,700
James Harden ($12,000) is just too pricey for the matchup tonight. The Toronto Raptors are the NBA's fourth-best defense, according to NBA.com's defensive rating rankings, and bring a pace-down spot to Houston.
As for Joel Embiid, he draws a dream matchup at quite the discount. His Philadelphia 76ers travel to take on the Washington Wizards, against whom they are 7.0-point favorites, per FanDuel Sportsbook, in turn giving them an implied total north of 120 points.
If the environment wasn't enough, it gets better for Embiid. According to Fantasy Pros, the Wizards are the second-worst team against opposing centers, allowing 60.2 DraftKings points per game and the single-most assists (4.67).
JoJo enters Thursday's game with 53.9 DK points per game and a 31.3% usage rate over the last four contests. We project him at 48.1 DK points at a return of 4.96 points for every $1,000.
Pascal Siakam, PF/C, Toronto Raptors
DraftKings Price: $8,400
Pascal Siakam is fresh off one of his few down games all year. Against the Miami Heat -- and namely Bam Adebayo -- Siakam was limited to 15 points and 32.0 DK points in 39 minutes.
And it is worth mentioning that Kyle Lowry returned from injury, soaking up some usage and shots that were going to Siakam for an extended period. However, on the year he's averaging 1.18 DK points per minute with Lowry, compared to 1.22 without him, according to data from NBA Wowy. The difference isn't drastic enough to point us away from Siakam for a home game versus the Rockets.
At home, Siakam is averaging fewer minutes but his fantasy production is up by 3.1 on a per-game basis. He also has a higher effective field goal percentage (57.3%) and rebound rate (13.1%) at Scotiabank Arena.
Dial up Siakam in a pace-up spot against a Rockets team ranked third-worst against the power forward position.
Brandon Ingram, SF/PF, New Orleans Pelicans
DraftKings Price: $8,200
As has become tradition in this piece, Brandon Ingram finds himself in this third slot simply because he remains too cheap for both the type of numbers he's putting together and the fantasy promise he has shown in his peripherals. The fourth-year player is tops on the New Orleans Pelicans with a 28.5% usage rate en route to career-high clips across the board, including 25.4 points and 2.3 threes a night.
Thanks to his scoring and contributions all over the box score, the young forward is averaging 44.5 DK points -- or 5.42-times value at this price. But for the most recent seven-game stretch, he's managed 45.2 DK points with all but one game exceeding 41. And that includes a 4-for-21 stinker and two blowouts of 20-plus points.
In a close game, Ingram is almost a lock for 40-plus fantasy points. And tonight, he gets that in the form of a 3.0-point spread in the Pels' favor as part of a contest carrying a 233.5 over/under. A high-scoring game could result in a true ceiling outing for Ingram, with a strong possibility of him going for 50-plus against the Phoenix Suns.
Brett Oswalt is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Brett Oswalt also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username BrettOswalt. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her 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.
