3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 4/5/23
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 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 post high scores just about every night.
While this consistency puts us in an excellent position to identify top plays, it also means you can't afford to miss when you're paying up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud will likely leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.
Which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today?
Kawhi Leonard, SF/PF, Clippers ($10,200)
The Lakers-Clippers clash is a huge contest for the West's final playoff seed, and in that pseudo-playoff environment, Kawhi Leonard isn't a bad place to turn at small forward.
L.A. has been operating without Paul George due to a knee injury, and as you'd expect, that's thrust quite a bit onto Leonard's plate. He's held a team-best 28.7% usage rate since George went down, amassing 49.2 FanDuel points per 36 minutes.
Due to a couple of blowouts and an odd game where Leonard left at halftime to stay fresh for a back-to-back, he hasn't really gotten a back-and-forth affair often, but he's eclipsed 50 FanDuel points in two of the three contests that fit that description.
We're expecting one at Crypto.com Arena tonight. The Clips are a three-point favorite with the total projected at 231.5 points. With some uncertainty that either Giannis Antetokounmpo or Jayson Tatum even play tonight, Kawhi is an easy choice on the wing.
Kyrie Irving, PG/SG, Mavericks ($9,000)
The best game environment of the day is in Sacramento.
The Mavericks' play-in tournament hopes would require a victory tonight against the Kings, and the 241.5-point total is an accurate representation of these two defense-optional squads. They both had bottom-11 defensive ratings during the month of March.
There's no shortage of star power here, either. I couldn't fault anyone for looking at Sacramento's tandem of De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, and Luka Doncic is the highest-salaried player in the entire pool. Still, I'm looking at this reduced salary for Kyrie Irving as the can't-miss spot in this one.
In a vacuum, Irving's role is solid for this mark. He's held a 28.7% usage rate since the trade deadline that he's turned into 43.2 FanDuel points per 36 minutes. In fact, Kyrie has topped 42 FanDuel points in 8 of his last 11 games. There's just a steady floor for a salary this low, and the environment can provide the upside.
Dejounte Murray, Immanuel Quickley, and Jrue Holiday should be popular choices in light of injury circumstances, so Irving might be a bit contrarian, too.
Jaren Jackson Jr., PF/C, Grizzlies ($8,200)
I'm a simple man. When Ja Morant sits, I roster Jaren Jackson Jr.
Morant is doubtful to play on Wednesday with a hip issue, which is a huge dent to the Grizzlies' chances to win in New Orleans. Effectively locked into the West's two seed, they probably don't care.
Triple J and the rest of the crew should still be able to compete in this one. The spread is just 6.5 points after the news, and the 227.5-point total isn't very low, so we can still turn here from a daily fantasy perspective.
In that event, Jackson is the biggest beneficiary. He averages a whopping 50.0 FanDuel points per 36 minutes with Morant off the floor, propelled by a team-best 4.8-percentage-point increase in usage rate during that condition.
With Anthony Davis iffy to play, and the aforementioned Sabonis struggling to meet the expectations of his salary recently, the big-man spots badly needed a stud today. Without Ja Morant, Jackson Jr. is one.
