NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 11/12/19

Nikola Jokić is rounding into form, and he's awfully enticing at his salary of $9,000. Who else is worth paying up for?

Basketball is the most consistent sport for daily fantasy purposes.

A top slugger in baseball will have his fair share of 0-for-4 days, and an elite fantasy football player is at risk of having games where his team's offense as a whole is shut down. A high-priced NBA stud is generally going to get his, though. With so many possessions in a game providing opportunities to produce, top fantasy basketball options will be posting high scores just about every night.

While this consistency puts us in a good position to identify top plays, it also means you can't afford to miss when you're paying up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud is likely going to leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.

Let's get right into it and look at which top players should be the focal points of your lineups tonight.

Anthony Davis, PF, Los Angeles Lakers ($11,700)

No stranger to sporting an injury tag, Anthony Davis is probable for tonight's game against the Phoenix Suns, so he doesn't look to be an overly risky play on that front.

His first season with the Los Angeles Lakers has seen Davis produce highly consistent fantasy numbers, with at least 47 FanDuel points in all but one game and ranking fourth in the NBA with 53.5 per game. He hasn't flashed a ton of his trademark upside yet, going for more than 70 fantasy points only once, but a deeper look at the numbers shows that the massive ceiling he has offered in recent years is still fully in play.

His 31.6% usage rate is up from last year's 29.5% and is the second-highest of his career. His 15.5% total rebound rate is a career-low mark, and while that could have something to do with how he's being used in LA, a clip 0.6 percentage points shy of his previous career-low is likely to bounce back.

The Suns aren't the dreamy matchup we're used to seeing, but they are playing at a top-10 pace to start the year, leaving plenty of room for upside.

Nikola Jokic, C, Denver Nuggets ($9,000)

Nikola Jokic has started to bounce back some, and it looks like last Friday's $8,500 salary will prove to be his nadir. He remains priced well below where we're used to, though, and a $9K salary makes him a terrific play on Tuesday.

Blowouts and foul trouble kept his minutes low to start the year, but he's now played at least 35 in two consecutive games, averaging 23.0 points, 8.0 boards, 6.5 assists and 3.0 combined blocks and steals in those contests. That has translated to an average of 50.9 fantasy points.

That's much more like what we became accustomed to seeing from him last year (46.9 per game), and while minutes like that aren't going to be the norm for him, a slight drop should still leave him offering plenty of value. Our models like him to score 5.5 fantasy points per $1,000 of salary tonight.

Buddy Hield, SG, Sacramento Kings ($7,000)

This may be stretching the definition of "stud" somewhat, but with the Sacramento Kings playing without their only two players priced above $7K, Buddy Hield is lined up to be a stud tonight.

Both Marvin Bagley III (thumb) and De'Aaron Fox (ankle) are on the shelf, leaving a huge hole in the Kings' offense.

Bagley has played in just one game this season, but Fox's 28.5% usage rate is tops among all Kings players with at least 30 minutes played. With Fox on the court, Hield has posted a 27.4% usage rate and averaged 0.94 FanDuel points per minute. Hield has only played 31 minutes with Fox and Hield off the floor this season, but it's safe to assume we'll see that usage rate jump significantly with the Kings missing the focal point of their offense.

Fox also leads Kings guards with an average of 32.0 minutes per game, meaning there will be plenty of extra run available in the backcourt, giving Hield an even bigger bump.

His matchup is nothing special, but the Portland Trail Blazers rank below average at 18th in defensive rating while playing with a top-10 pace to start the season, leaving little reason to be concerned about Hield's matchup tonight.



Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. 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.