3 NBA DraftKings Value Plays to Target on 2/22/18

D'Angelo Russell, PG/SG, Brooklyn Nets

DraftKings Salary: $5,600

The most obvious source of value today is the Chicago Bulls. With Robin Lopez sitting out and David Nwaba ($3,500) and Cristiano Felicio ($3,000) moved into the starting lineup, everyone will know where to go for punt plays. Instead of beating a dead horse with the Bulls, we'll focus on some other sources of value that may not be quite as obvious.

D'Angelo Russell is drastically underpriced. We saw his price rise to $8,200 early in the season after he put up 36.5 DraftKings points through his first 12 games. While he was on a minutes cap for quite some time, it isn't as if he was playing huge minutes early on this season -- he maintained that 36.5-point average in just 27.3 minutes per game. Russell averaged 34.5 DraftKings points in 28.2 minutes in the three games leading up to the All-Star Break, so it appears he's close to the form we saw earlier on the year. The only real difference is a $2,600 price discrepancy between now and then.

While some may point to the emergence of Spencer Dinwiddie as the difference between now and earlier in the season, it hasn't had much impact on Russell's usage rate. He has a 32.7% usage rate since returning from injury, compared to a 33.8% usage prior to going down. Russell's DraftKings points per minute (1.24) with Dinwiddie on the floor is actually higher than with him off (1.17).

With Brooklyn not playing again until Monday of next week, there's really no reason to limit Russell's minutes in this one. At 1.24 DraftKings points per minute, he only needs 22.6 minutes to reach the 28 DraftKings points implied by his salary (5 points per every $1,000 in salary). He should see much more playing time than that and projects as one of the strongest point-per-dollar plays on the slate.