NBA

5 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Friday 11/18/22

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 one of these lower-salaried options into your lineup.

Let's take a look at some players who can help fill in the gaps in your lineup on FanDuel tonight, using numberFire's daily fantasy basketball projections as a guide.

Dillon Brooks, SG/SF, Memphis Grizzlies

FanDuel Salary: $5,000

The Memphis Grizzlies will be without Desmond Bane for tonight's matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and that bodes well for Dillon Brooks.

Brooks, with Bane off the floor this season, has a great 27.9% usage rate. That's a boost of 3.5 points from his number when sharing the floor with Bane.

Brooks puts up only 0.74 FanDuel points per minute in that split but is a 0.80-per-minute guy on the full season. Therefore, he should see better numbers moving forward when tied to a 27.9% usage rate.

numberFire projects Brooks for 18.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists on his way to 30.2 FanDuel points (6.04 per $1,000 in salary).

Klay Thompson, SG/SF, Golden State Warriors

FanDuel Salary: $5,500

Klay Thompson has generally been a consistent producer when he's suiting up, and that includes at least 25.0 FanDuel points in five of his past six games. Tonight, he's up against the New York Knicks in a game with a stellar 234.5-point over/under.

Thompson, in total, has one of the best composite matchups (spread, total, and defense-versus-position combination) of anyone on the board tonight.

The best part about Thompson is that his shot attempts are very sticky: he has had at least 13 in eight straight games, a span during which he has averaged 18.0 shot attempts per game. Not many value plays are guaranteed looks quite like that.

Bol Bol, C, Orlando Magic

FanDuel Salary: $5,300

We've seen the minutes elevated for Bol Bol in recent games: 30.9, 30.7, and 34.8 over his past three games. For the season, he's averaging only 24.7 minutes, so he's clearly being called upon to soak up minutes for a thinned-out Orlando Magic squad.

With Paolo Banchero and Cole Anthony off the floor, Bol has a 21.3% usage rate with a per-minute average of 1.04 FanDuel points. That's a usage bump of 1.6 points. The per-minute production is actually down from when he shares the floor with them, but the added minutes really help out.

Bol has generated 29.5, 27.8, and 49.9 FanDuel points over the past three games and saw his shot attempt volume in his last game (21) equal what he had in the two prior. The arrow is up.

Theo Maledon, PG, Charlotte Hornets

FanDuel Salary: $4,400

The Charlotte Hornets are going to need Theo Maledon tonight. They're without LaMelo Ball and Cody Martin and list Gordon Hayward and Dennis Smith as doubtful.

Maledon is projected for 33.2 minutes and 28.5 FanDuel points. That makes him the second-best FanDuel-point-per-$1,000 option on the board with a rating of 6.48.

Maledon has sustained a nice 0.97 FanDuel-point-per-minute rate without those four aforementioned Hornets on the floor over a decent sample of 142.4 minutes.

Andrew Nembhard, SG, Indiana Pacers

FanDuel Salary: $3,500

The only player with a better point-per-dollar projection than Maledon, according to numberFire, is Andrew Nembhard, who is available to roster at minimum salary.

Nembhard's ceiling has been low (he hasn't had more than 29.1 FanDuel points in any game this season); however, he has put up a respectable 0.82 FanDuel points per minute.

What really helps -- in addition to the minimum salary -- is that Nembhard is part of the game with the highest total of the night. He actually has the best composite matchup rating of any player on the board.