3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 1/6/20
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 ($11,400)
Giannis Antetokounmpo is listed as probable, but he's played a couple of games in a row without restrictions now, so we can count on him being fine for tonight's contests as well.
Ranking second in the NBA with 57.6 FanDuel points per game and first by a huge margin with 1.86 per minute (min. 500 minutes played; the next-highest mark is 1.65), we know he's got no shortage of upside on any given night.
The success of the Milwaukee Bucks has held those per-game numbers back somewhat, as he's played fewer than 30 minutes on 14 occasions this season, with 12 of the 14 being games decided by 13 points or more. That means we can project him for a better workload than usual tonight, as the Bucks check in as big but not crazy 7-point favorites against the San Antonio Spurs. A full complement of minutes for Giannis at $11,400 is hard to pass up on.
Nikola Vucevic, C, Orlando Magic ($8,500)
Nikola Vucevic typically offers a great combination of a reasonable floor with a huge ceiling. He's scored at least 37.4 fantasy points in nine straight games, and that stretch includes a game with a season-high 62.9 — his third time eclipsing 59.0 in his last 17 games.
In 11 games since returning from injury last month, he's averaged 20.2 points, 9.8 boards, 3.4 assists and, a combined 2.1 blocks and steals in 32.3 minutes per game. That has him averaging 42.6 FanDuel points, or just over 5.0 per $1,000 of salary today.
A matchup with the Brooklyn Nets is icing on the cake, as they're surrendering top-five fantasy numbers at the center position.
Jayson Tatum, PF, Boston Celtics ($8,000)
As usual, you're going to want to take advantage of the team matched up with the Washington Wizards tonight. The Wiz allow the NBA's most points, fourth-most assists and 10th-most rebounds per game to opponents, thanks to a combination of a top-five pace and dead-last rankings in both defensive rating and rebound rate.
Jayson Tatum would already be offering some interesting value at this price-point in a neutral matchup, having topped 40.0 fantasy points (5.0 per $1,000) in five of his last eight games, and he gets an obvious boost against the team that has allowed the fourth-most fantasy points per minute to opposing power forwards on the year.
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.
