NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 2/15/18

Brett Oswalt  —  @bRo14thekid Feb 15th, 2018
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Jimmy Butler, SF, Minnesota Timberwolves

Price: $9,500

As with Towns, a lot of the same things make Jimmy Butler a top-five projected scorer on Thursday's short slate. His matchup has a high over/under (226.5), his team has the highest implied total of the night and his opponent is reeling on the defensive end of the floor.

But the question here isn't whether Butler can succeed in such a matchup -- it's whether he's worth the price. At $9,500, Butler is the fourth-most costly player and second-highest priced small forward tonight. Unless you're taking a chance on multiple punt plays, it's almost impossible to fit him alongside Giannis. However, on a point-per-dollar basis, our models have Butler stride-for-stride with Antetokounmpo.

Of the four players projected to score 40-plus FanDuel points tonight, Butler is the cheapest by a margin of $500. At the same time, he's projected to play the most minutes (38.1) of the four -- or, for that matter, anyone else on the slate. Out of all the elite options today, Butler might have the best matchup.

This season, the Lakers are 30th in our defense-versus-position rankings, allowing 41.96 FanDuel points per 48 minutes to the small forward position. To make matters worse, that has increased to 51.1 FanDuel points over the last 10 and 60.9 over the last 5. Both of those marks rank second-worst in the NBA.

Considering he posted 45 and 50.1 FanDuel points earlier this year against these same Lakers, what's not to love about Jimmy Buckets tonight?


Brett Oswalt is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Brett also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username BRO14THEKID. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her 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.

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