3 NBA DraftKings Studs to Target on 12/8/17
Nikola Vucevic, C, Orlando Magic
DraftKings Salary: $8,100
Nikola Vucevic is someone that ordinarily is best targeted when his price is floating around the low $7,000 range, as it has for the past couple weeks. He's been very strong (51.7-DraftKings-point average over his past three games) as of late, though, which has caused his price to rise to a point that may eliminate him from cash-game consideration on a slate where you almost have to allocate 23.6% of your salary to DeMarcus Cousins.
While the price has risen, Vucevic has shown the ability to easily crush value at this price tag, with finishes of 59.0 and 61.5 DraftKings points already this week. He has the potential to access that type of upside again in a dream spot against a depleted Denver Nuggets squad.
From a game script perspective, it doesn't get much better than this for the Orlando Magic, who have the second-highest implied team total (110.5 points) as part of the game with the slate's highest over/under (219 points). They're expected to exceed their season average by three points, even without the help of Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross, who have averaged a combined 27.3 points per game. The absence of Fournier is a key point to note for Vucevic, as he has been markedly more effective with Fournier off the court this season. The offense has flowed through Vucevic in such instances, as his usage rate goes from 25.0% to 30.1% and his DraftKings points per minute jumps to an elite 1.44. For reference, Kevin Durant has averaged 1.36 DraftKings points per minute on the year.
The other thing going for him is the Nuggets will again be without both Nikola Jokic and Paul Millsap, their two best interior defenders. Their rebounding rate sits at 51.7% on the season, which is ninth-best in the NBA. With both players off the court, though, that number has dropped to 48.5%, which would rank 24th.
Their only options for slowing down opposing centers are Mason Plumlee and Kenneth Faried, who are both inept defenders. Plumlee has the size, but has looked so lost in defending the pick and roll that he has seen his minutes limited over the past few games. Even in a game in which Cousins was abusing Denver, Plumlee got just 23 minutes -- only 11 of which came with the first unit. The Magic utilize the pick and roll at the third-highest frequency in the league, and Vucevic is sixth among bigs in points from this situation. The price is up, but everything adds up for a monster game from Vucevic. He is an awesome tournament play, where he should carry low ownership.
Jacob Gibbs is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jacob Gibbs also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jagibbs23. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
