NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 1/30/20

Jason Schandl  —  @JasonSchandl Jan 30th, 2020
Which players stand out on Thursday's six-game NBA slate?

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.

Kawhi Leonard, PF, Los Angeles Clippers ($10,500)

Paul George is probable to return for the Los Angeles Clippers tonight, but after nine games on the shelf with a hamstring injury, he may not be in for a full complement of minutes as he works back up to speed.

Kawhi Leonard's splits with and without PG are as extreme as they come, jumping from 43.2 FanDuel points per game with to 54.7 without. That average would typically mean he's overpriced with George playing tonight, but a limited George should still leave some extra room for Kawhi to produce.

Kawhi also gets a plus matchup here, as the Sacramento Kings have allowed the NBA's sixth-highest field goal percentage on mid-range shots, where Kawhi is second in the NBA with 6.0 field goal attempts per game.

Pascal Siakam, SF, Toronto Raptors ($8,600)

Pascal Siakam's salary is way up tonight, jumping $1,000 from where it was in his last game. He's still worth it, though.

At $8,600, he needs 43.0 FanDuel points to return 5.0 per $1,000 of salary, which isn't far off his average of 40.0 per game over his last five. His minutes have been down slightly in that time, too, thanks to a blowout on Tuesday. His volume has been up despite the drop in minutes, attempting 20-plus field goals in three of his last four, and he should have no trouble turning that volume into production against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cavs are surrendering the NBA's second-highest effective field goal percentage (.558) to opponents, and they allow the third-most FanDuel points per minute to opposing small forwards.

John Collins, PF, Atlanta Hawks ($7,400)

The opposite of Siakam in many ways here, John Collins has seen his salary drop slightly tonight as he draws a tough matchup. He's been crushing 5-times value on this salary (37.0 fantasy points) lately, topping 36.0 in 7 of his last 11 and averaging 39.3 per game in that stretch.

The Philadelphia 76ers are a rough fantasy matchup for frontcourt players, but Collins is cheap enough that our models still project him for 5.0 fantasy points per $1,000 of salary, having him going for 37.2 tonight.

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.