3 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on 1/18/18

P.J. Tucker, SF, Houston Rockets

FanDuel Price: $3,700
Projected FanDuel Points: 18.1
Projected FanDuel Value: 4.88

On Wednesday, the NBA announced that Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green will be banned two games for the parts they played in the locker room incident following Monday's game between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers. As a result, the Rockets will be fairly thin on the wing, with those two players accounting for a combined 62.9 minutes per game this season. P.J. Tucker will likely be asked to step up and play close to -- if not more than -- 30 minutes against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The dilemma for us is how we attack this situation since Luc Mbah a Moute and Eric Gordon should see a boost in value, too. But there's a few reasons to plug in Tucker.

Tucker's price is too cheap if he's starting -- or at least getting big minutes off the bench. When he's started, he's played an average of 29.2 minutes, turning out 18.5 FanDuel points per game in that role. But when he's been forced to play more than 30 minutes, the defensively-minded Tucker has averaged 22.1 FanDuel points with 1.3 steals over 33.5 minutes a contest.

In truth, the Rockets will be a good source of value their next two games, and our models have Tucker and Mbah a Moute as nice value plays tonight.