NBA

5 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Friday 2/3/23

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.

Alec Burks, PG/SG, Detroit Pistons

FanDuel Salary: $5,000

Alec Burks holds one of the best projected value outputs (i.e. FanDuel points per $1,000) of any player in action tonight.

Burks and the Detroit Pistons are hosting the Charlotte Hornets in a game with a 241.5-point over/under and a narrow 1.0-point spread.

Burks is projected for 28.9 minutes in this matchup -- plus 28.5 FanDuel points, as well.

In 27 games with at least 20 minutes of action, Burks has averaged 1.01 FanDuel points per minute, and that spikes to 1.14 specifically against teams in the bottom 10 in defensive rating over a six-game sample.

Josh Richardson, SF/SG, San Antonio Spurs
Malaki Branham, SF, San Antonio Spurs

Richardson's FanDuel Salary: $5,500
Branham's FanDuel Salary: $4,400

The San Antonio Spurs can offer us value tonight because they are really thinned out. Jeremy Sochan, Devin Vassell, and Romeo Langford are out, and Tre Jones is doubtful.

Across 215.9 minutes without all four of them on the floor, Josh Richardson has a 23.7% usage rate and averages 1.04 FanDuel points per minute, according to RotoGrinders' CourtIQ tool. Those are boosts of 3.3 and 0.07, respectively.

For Malaki Branham, he has a 224.0-minute sample that fits here, and his rates are up 3.1 and 0.05, as well, to a usage rate of 21.3% and a FanDuel-point-per-minute output of 0.73. Although the per-minute production isn't fantastic, he can overcome that with a lofty minutes projection -- which he has.

numberFire's model anticipates 34.9 minutes and 25.9 fantasy points for Branham against the Philadelphia 76ers at home. That makes him the second-best projected value of the day.

Davion Mitchell, PG, Sacramento Kings

FanDuel Salary: $3,800

The top projected value of the day is Davion Mitchell for the Sacramento Kings in a road game against the Indiana Pacers. The total for this matchup is 236.5, and the spread favors the Kings by 2.5 points.

Sacramento is going to be without De'Aaron Fox, and that'll push Mitchell into the starting lineup if past trends are any indication. In three starts this season, Mitchell has averaged 28.8 minutes and 16.5 FanDuel points. The output is a little worrisome. But he is yet to start against a bottom-tier defense, which the Pacers are.

Mitchell's production is a bit better against bottom-10 defenses (0.68 FanDuel points per minute). In total, he's projected for 30.5 minutes and 26.0 FanDuel points.

Daishen Nix, PG, Houston Rockets

FanDuel Salary: $4,300

Here's another low-salaried point-guard-only option. Daishen Nix is projected for 5.65 FanDuel points per $1,000, thanks to a minutes expectation of 30.0.

Nix has logged 21.1, 26.8, and 32.6 minutes over his past three games. In those, he has scored all over the fantasy map: 7.9, 15.0, and 25.9 FanDuel points.

The Toronto Raptors, though, are far from an elite defense, and against teams outside the top-10 in defensive rating, Nix has averaged a viable-at-30-minutes output of 0.74 FanDuel points per minute.