3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 2/28/20

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 nursing a back ailment, but he's being listed as probable, and this game is not part of a back-to-back set, so there doesn't seem to be anything to worry about here.

Today's matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder is very much the same story we've seen with Giannis all season. The Milwaukee Bucks are favored by double-digit points, but he's been efficient enough that blowout risk isn't especially concerning.

The Greek Freak's 1.86 FanDuel points per minute are on pace to be the most ever for a player with at least 500 minutes played in a season. There have been only three other instances of a player finishing above 1.70, and one of those three was Giannis himself last season.

Antetokounmpo leads the NBA with 57.6 FanDuel points per game, and he's worth firing up again tonight.

Nikola Vucevic, C, Orlando Magic ($9,000)

Karl-Anthony Towns is still on the shelf, and that makes the Minnesota Timberwolves a dreamy fantasy matchup for centers.

The Wolves' total rebound rate has gone from 50.7% with Towns on the court to 47.4% with Towns off this season. For context, 50.7% would rank a modest 13th in the NBA on the season, while 47.4% would rank dead-last, behind the Washington Wizards' 47.8%. This is already a team that allows above-average fantasy efficiency at the five, and having KAT out, is icing on the cake.

Nikola Vucevic has been on a tear lately, and he dropped 50-plus fantasy points in four of his last six, also topping 45.0 (5.0 per $1,000) in five of his last seven, with an average of 48.2 per game in that stretch.

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

Spencer Dinwiddie's had a couple down games recently, but he's still topped 5-times value on this salary in four of his last seven games, and he's averaging 38.6 per game (5.3 per $1,000) in 37 contests without Kyrie Irving this season. That's come with a big increase in volume, going from a 26.4% usage rate in 28.4 minutes per game to 31.2% usage in 32.9 minutes.

It's hard not to like that increased usage against an Atlanta Hawks team that combines a 28th-ranked defensive rating with the NBA's 7th-fastest pace, surrendering the NBA's 2nd-most points and 11th-most assists per game.

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.