3 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on 8/7/20

One of the keys to finding success in daily fantasy basketball is uncovering potential value plays. If you're looking to roster a stud player or two, you need to consider squeezing in one of these lower-priced options into your lineup.

Let's take a look at three players who can help fill in the gaps in your lineup.

Derrick Favors, C, New Orleans Pelicans ($5,200)

I may skip Sunday's NBA slate to attend church and thank the lord that the Utah Jazz are not on the main slate with their game at 1 pm eastern on Friday, as they are essentially resting their entire starting lineup. That allows a fairly normal value slate, which starts with Derrick Favors as a great option at the center position.

The Washington Wizards objectively are not good at basketball compared to NBA teams, but especially defense, giving up the points in the league, and having the worst defensive rating in the NBA (114.9). Favors' problem is not production, at 1.07 FanDuel points per minute, but rather minutes, but all of a sudden, Thomas Bryant is a force to be reckoned with, and at 6'11", he may be too big for the minute-restricted Zion Williamson to check. That may mean more minutes for Favors than the 23.6 minutes he is averaging in Orlando so far.

Al Horford, PF, Philadelphia 76ers ($4,800)

A lot of great per dollar plays opened up on the Philadelphia 76ers with Ben Simmons realistically out for a good bit of time with a dislocated kneecap. I am not huge into Joel Embiid given his ownership and facing the number one defense against opposing centers in terms of FanDuel points per game, but will use Al Horford and Shake Milton ($4,700) a lot at these small price tags, and Tobias Harris, who is primed to take a good chunk of usage as well.

Simmons' usage actually is not that high for a starting point guard at 21.0%, so his minutes are the largest replacement opportunity, and expect Horford to slide into the starting five at power forward, with Milton and Josh Richardson in the backcourt. Minutes have been the issue for Horford to produce off the bench, but he is projected for nearly 31 of them on Friday, so expect a bounce-back for the former all-star in this one.

Luguentz Dort, SG, Oklahoma City Thunder ($3,700)

Outside of the Philadelphia situation, the next most notable absence is Dennis Schroder for the Oklahoma City Thunder. With Schroeder off the floor, however, no player sees a large usage spike, as it is spread evenly as a few percentage points amongst Danilo Gallinari, Chris Paul, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. However, Schroeder's 30.8 minutes per game are up for grabs, and I would anticipate the two largest beneficiaries in terms of security are Luguentz Dort and Hamidou Diallo.

Dort, though, may not have needed the security. He's played very well for OKC inside the bubble, as he has averaged 32.3 minutes per game as the starting small forward. Dort eclipsed 20 FanDuel points in each of his last two games, which would beat value again here, and without Schroeder, there is no threat to his playing time even if he is struggling, as was the case earlier this year. The only other bench player regularly seeing over 20 minutes beyond Hamidou Diallo is Darius Bazley, and there is plenty of room for all three without the German point guard.

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.