3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 1/30/17

Kyrie Irving, PG, Cleveland Cavaliers

FanDuel Price: $8,600

Kyrie Irving has been red hot recently, averaging 47.4 FanDuel points over his past five games. He looks to carry that success into tonight's matchup against the Dallas Mavericks, who have performed very well against points guards from a fantasy perspective but don't have the personnel to keep up with Irving in this one.

With Deron Williams and J.J. Barea both out of the picture, Irving will be defended by the likes of Devin Harris and Yogi Ferrell, who rank 65th and 80th among 87 qualified point guards in defensive real plus-minus and have no prayer of staying in front of Irving.

In the past two games without Williams and Barea, the Mavs allowed Russell Westbrook to post 45 points on 55 percent shooting, followed by 16 points to Tony Parker on 75 percent shooting.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will be without Kevin Love in this one, which offers a huge boost to the fantasy outlook of both Irving and LeBron James. Per NBAWowy, Irving's usage rate jumps from 27.8% with Love on the floor to a team-leading 33.6% with him off. His FanDuel points per minute has risen from 1.02 without Love on the floor to 1.16 without him this season. In games without Love over the past two seasons, Irving has averaged 38.2 FanDuel points, as opposed to 32.2 in games with him.

This game will likely be one of the slowest-paced games on the slate, which somewhat limits Irving's ceiling, but given his recent production and his numbers without Love, he profiles as one of the top scoring point guards on the slate and comes at quite a discount from the likes of Isaiah Thomas and Eric Bledsoe.