3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 7/31/20
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.
Luka Doncic, SG, Dallas Mavericks ($10,800)
The NBA's brightest budding star in his sophomore season is Luka Doncic, and he has a great matchup to restart his season. The analytic Houston Rockets are 4th in pace, and as a result, have given up some huge fantasy games to opponents. They have allowed the eighth-most FanDuel points to opposing shooting guards, a lot of that likely contributed to by the sometimes lackadaisical defense of one James Harden.
Doncic's campaign has been so strong because of his do-it-all mentality, leading the NBA with 14 triple-doubles. That has parlayed to a sparkling 1.58 FanDuel points per minute, second only to Giannis Antetokounmpo in the entire league. Doncic has already exploited this matchup to the tune of 41 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists in November, therefore it is wise not to forget him in your lineups on this shorter, six-game slate.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, SF, Milwaukee Bucks ($10,700)
The aforementioned Giannis is the only stud better per minute this season than Doncic, at an astronomic 1.85 FanDuel points per game. It could get even higher against Boston on Friday, as Giannis should see an uptick in usage with Eric Bledsoe scheduled to sit this one out due to some conditioning issues.
Without Bledsoe this season, Giannis's usage balloons to 38.7%, and a FanDuel points per minute marker of 1.93. That should help him pay off this lofty price tag, even against a Boston Celtics squad that does present a formidable matchup, as the C's are fourth in defensive rating. If Giannis does have an easy path to points, it's on the offensive glass, where Boston gives up the twelfth-most second-chance points in the association.
Damian Lillard, PG, Portland Trail Blazers ($8,900)
The Memphis Grizzlies are not the same plague on fantasy basketball they used to be. The new-look, high-action squad led by Ja Morant is seventh in the NBA in pace, which makes this actually a positive matchup for the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday.
The leader, of course, of those Blazers is Damian Lillard, who is enjoying a statistical career year, including a career-high 47 FanDuel points per game. Lillard was nursing an ankle injury just as the NBA was suspended, but now fully healthy, he should return closer to that season-average, which is good enough for a 5.28 FanDuel value score if he were to match it. Lillard could fill it up very quickly against this Grizz squad, which has had some perimeter scoring issues defensively, as they give up the seventh-most three-pointers made in the league.
Austin Swaim is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Austin Swaim also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username ASwaim3. 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.
