3 NBA DraftKings Studs to Target on 1/22/20
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.
Karl-Anthony Towns, C, Minnesota Timberwolves
DraftKings Price: $10,400
It's been only three games since Karl-Anthony Towns returned to the floor from a lengthy absence, but he seems to be rounding into form quickly. After notching just 34.75 and 29.0 DraftKings points in his first two games back, Towns produced 28 points and 50.5 DK points in the Minnesota Timberwolves' seven-point loss to the Denver Nuggets on Monday. He played eight more minutes (35) than in his prior contest and 1.5 above his season-long average (33.5) to this point.
Towns' 9-for-19 shooting against a tough Denver defense was impressive, but we might have seen something closer to a floor game than a ceiling game. Averaging 11.1 boards, KAT accounted for only eight, and he's yet to crack double-digit rebounds in these three games. He accomplished that feat 18 times in his first 23 games -- 78.2% of them -- this season.
Thankfully, he and the Wolves draw the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night. The host Bulls are ninth in defensive rating, yet they sit 28th in rebounding rate, according to NBA.com. Towns could enjoy a big night as we project him for 25.7 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 51.7 DK points.
Bam Adebayo, C, Miami Heat
DraftKings Price: $8,400
Center is absolutely loaded. We're talking two options here, but Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond and Nikola Jokic all check in over $9,000, and two red-hot centers -- Deandre Ayton and Rudy Gobert -- are more expensive than Bam Adebayo. Others might even consider lower-priced options in Nikola Vucevic and Domantas Sabonis, so Adebayo has the potential for low ownership given the dearth of players at his same position. But he shouldn't.
On Wednesday, the Miami Heat are 9.5-point home favorites against the Washington Wizards, who are fourth in pace, averaging nearly five more possessions per game. Combined with their league-worst 115.4 defensive rating, they're allowing 119.8 points per game and rate dead last in rebounding.
By individual matchup, all signs point to success for Adebayo. Per Fantasy Pros, the Wiz are the only team giving up more than 60 DK points per game to the center spot, a number that includes 18.8 boards and 3.8 assists. In either format, Adebayo makes a lot of sense at this price.
DeMar DeRozan, SG/SF, San Antonio Spurs
DraftKings Price: $8,200
If you're not down with rostering two of the higher-priced centers this evening, DeMar DeRozan presents a nice alternative at a small discount to Adebayo. After rising quickly, his price has dropped by $200, as well, but it's his recent play that has him in play on a night like tonight.
In looking at DeRozan's monthly splits, we see that he's averaging 26.6 points, 45.9 DK points and 35.6 minutes per game in January. He's shooting 56.7% -- a 5.1% improvement on December's rate -- with a higher usage rate (27.2%) and an assist rate of 30.2%. His 6.5 helpers a game are better than one more than in any month prior and they would constitute a new career-high if he were to maintain that over the remainder of the season.
DeRozan will look to keep it going on the road against the favored New Orleans Pelican (-3.5), however, the San Antonio Spurs guard has put up 3.8 more DK points per game away from home while shooting 11% better from the floor en route to 24.6 points per game. The Pels' top five pace should only push the Spurs to make use of more possessions, and with DeRozan, more total points should equate to fantasy production. Our models project the veteran for 40.2 DK points in 34.4 minutes.
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__14. 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.
