3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 12/10/19
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.
Bradley Beal, SG, Washington Wizards ($9,700)
The Washington Wizards have been a treat in fantasy this season, opening the year playing at the second-fastest pace and sporting the fifth-highest offensive rating. Tonight's opponent won't challenge them to a race, as the Charlotte Hornets play at the NBA's fifth-slowest pace, but their 27th-ranked defensive rating should let the Wizards score at will anyway.
Bradley Beal ranks fifth in the NBA with an average of 28.0 points per game, and he's doing that while playing the second-most minutes per game (37.0) in the Association.
The Hornets give up scoring from everywhere, allowing opponents to shoot the seventh-highest 3-point percentage and the second-highest on 2's, overall allowing the second-highest effective field goal percentage. Beal gets up no shortage of volume, averaging 21.3 field goal attempts (including 7.7 from 3-point range) per game, and he should have little trouble exploiting the Hornets' defense.
Trae Young, PG, Atlanta Hawks ($9,600)
Ranking fourth in the NBA in points per game (28.8) and fifth in assists per game (8.4), Trae Young is having a breakout season on the offensive end. He also checks in 10th in the NBA in PER, fifth in offensive box plus-minus, and fourth in FiveThirtyEight's Offensive RAPTOR metric. Any way you cut it, he's been one of the best offensive players in the NBA to start the season.
Relying on offensive numbers without much peripheral production does make Young a bit of an inconsistent fantasy producer, but that also serves to keep him priced in a way that doesn't reflect his upside. He's eclipsed 48.0 FanDuel points (5.0 per $1,000 of salary today) in six of his last nine games.
His matchup tonight isn't an easy one, taking on the Miami Heat, but Young is cheap enough that he should still be able to return some solid value.
C.J. McCollum, SG, Portland Trail Blazers ($7,400)
Another inconsistent producer, C.J. McCollum has games of 56.8 and 28.1 fantasy points among his last three.
Like Young, his inconsistency comes in part because of how reliant he is on offensive output for fantasy production, averaging 22.0 points and 3.8 assists with 4.5 rebounds, 0.8 steals, and 0.9 blocks in 36.4 minutes per game on the year.
Tonight he's in a great spot for one of those "boom" games, as he and the Portland Trail Blazers get to play host to the New York Knicks. The Knicks have surrendered the NBA's fifth-highest effective field goal percentage this season, checking in 24th in defensive rating.
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.
