3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 2/24/21

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-salaried 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 a heavy salary to roster someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, getting a dud from a stud is likely going to leave your lineup lacking.

Let's get right into it and look at which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today.

Dejounte Murray, PG, San Antonio Spurs

FanDuel Salary: $7,500

Given that his salary is well under $8,000, Dejounte Murray isn't the typical "stud" we see listed here, but he is a damn-near must play tonight.

Due to COVID protocols, the San Antonio Spurs haven't played a game in 10 days -- and they'll return to the court without the services of DeMar DeRozan, Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, Derrick White, Rudy Gay, and Quinndary Weatherspoon at the very least. They could also very well be without LaMarcus Aldridge, who is currently questionable. This game is scheduled for 8 PM Eastern Time -- so if by chance, it does get postponed, there will be plenty of pivots to turn to.

If you want to know the upside Murray brings to the table, you don't need to look past his last four games -- he had performances of 55.4 and 65.0 FanDuel points in two of those four contests.

In addition to everything else, Murray also gets the benefit of having a titillating matchup -- the Oklahoma City Thunder have ceded the sixth-most fantasy points to point guards throughout their last 15 games, according to FantasyPros.

LeBron James, SF, Los Angeles Lakers

FanDuel Salary: $10,400

So we've got this LeBron James in a game against the league's top team with a projected total of 218... that'll play.

King James is our algorithm's top-projected scorer on tonight's slate, and he's also numberFire's fourth-best point-per-dollar play at small forward. If you're worried about the matchup against the Utah Jazz' second-best defense, your concern should be somewhat alleviated knowing that they've surrendered 57.0 FanDuel points to Tobias Harris, 65.0 to Giannis Antetokounmpo, 47.5 to Gordon Hayward, and 45.8 to Jerami Grant...all in the month of February. Oh, and this is LeBron freakin' James we're talking about here.

In his last 17 games, James has dropped at least 43.7 fantasy points in all but 2 of them, and that includes eight contests with more than 51. Over his last 10 outings, LeBron's posted 54.1-plus five times -- our model has him projected for 53.5.

Karl-Anthony Towns, C, Minnesota Timberwolves

FanDuel Salary: $9,700

I often shy away from recommending centers in this piece, since you can only start one and there are usually many solid options to choose from -- but I'm deviating from that today for Karl-Anthony Towns.

Of the 21 players with salaries higher than $7,600 on tonight's slate, none are projected to be a better point-per-dollar play than KAT. The 25-year-old is our model's second-highest projected scorer, behind only LeBron.

In his last four games, Anthony Towns has had outings with 52.1, 53.5, and 60.0 FanDuel points -- he only needs 48.5 to accrue our baseline value figure at tonight's salary. Luckily for us, Towns faces a Chicago Bulls team that ranks 26th against centers this season, according to numberFire's DvP tool.

This matchup between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Bulls features teams that are ranked sixth and seventh in adjusted pace, according to Gdula. These two squads also rank 20th and 24th in adjusted defensive efficiency. As a result, it should come as no surprise that this game has a projected total of 229.0, which is second-highest on the slate. Rostering KAT is a great way to get exposure to all those points.