3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 4/6/21

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.

All injury updates are via the NBA's official injury report or numberFire's player news.

Trae Young, PG, Atlanta Hawks

FanDuel Salary: $8,500

A complete and utter dud in his last game -- just 15.9 FanDuel points on Sunday -- gives us Trae Young at his lowest salary of the season. We should pounce.

Prior to Sunday's crapping of the bed, Young had recorded more than 35 fantasy points in all but one of his last 13 outings, including 9 outputs with 41.7-plus. In truth, outside of this blip against a Golden State Warriors defense that's been tough on point guards all season, Young has showcased a rather rock-solid floor.

Tonight, Young and the Atlanta Hawks will go up against a New Orleans Pelicans squad that ranks 26th versus the position in 2020-21, according to numberFire's DvP tool. In five previous matchups against defenses that are bottom-five at limiting opposing floor generals, the 22-year-old has averaged 49.8 FanDuel points -- that includes at least 45.9 in each game.

Per numberFire's Matchup Heatmap, the Hawks' implied total of 114.25 is fourth-highest on tonight's slate, and the three-point spread means that the blowout risk is mitigated.

Our algorithm projects Young to produce 44.1 points of the fantasy variety tonight, resulting in him easily eclipsing a value figure of 5.0 (or 5.0 fantasy points for every $1,000 in salary).

Giannis Antetokounmpo, PF, Milwaukee Bucks

FanDuel Salary: $11,200

Rostering Giannis Antetokounmpo in DFS is nowhere near as straightforward as it was a couple of weeks ago, but that only increases his appeal in tournaments.

Prior to dropping 47 real-life points and 72.4 FanDuel points on the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday, Giannis had topped out at 55.1 fantasy points in his previous six games, including four straight with fewer than 45. While that makes the two-time MVP a scary proposition at a salary north of $11,000, it also means that his roster percentage won't be through the roof on an eight-game slate like the one we have tonight.

For Giannis and the Milwaukee Bucks, the matchup tonight is a beauty. No team on tonight's slate plays at a faster pace than Golden State. Given the fact that Milwaukee plays the second-fastest of the 16 squads suiting up tonight, there's a chance that you'll miss three possessions every time you so much as blink.

The Warriors have also had quite a rough time defending power forwards. On the season, Steve Kerr's unit ranks 29th against the position per 48 minutes.

Milwaukee's implied total of 120 tonight tops the slate and is 5.5 points higher than the third-closest team -- that's points we're going to want exposure to. Giannis is a key way to get there.

Our algorithm projects the Greek Freak to be the top scorer on tonight's slate.

Nikola Vucevic, C, Chicago Bulls

FanDuel Salary: $8,800

Tonight's eight-gamer is absolutely swimming with appealing options at every salary range when it comes to the center position -- but I'd like to zero in on Nikola Vucevic.

It hasn't take Vuce all that long to get acclimated to his new squad, and that's resulted in fantasy outputs of 49.5 and 51.6 in two of his last three games. Tonight's draw of the Indiana Pacers provides an opportunity for him to produce his best performance as a member of the Chicago Bulls.

Over their last 30 games, Indiana has ceded the seventh-most fantasy points to opposing fives, according to FantasyPros.

The usually-stout Pacers have been anything but that in recent play. Throughout their last 11 games, Indiana ranks 20th in defensive efficiency all while playing at the sixth-fastest pace in the league during that stretch. That bodes well for Vucevic's stock tonight.

numberFire's models project Vuce to be the top point-per-dollar play among all players with a salary above $6,700 tonight.