NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on 12/10/19

Derrick Jones is set for a ton of minutes tonight and is the minimum salary. Should you lock him into all lineups with his matchup against the Hawks?

One of the keys to finding success in daily fantasy basketball is uncovering potential value plays. If you're looking to roster a stud player or two, you need to consider squeezing in one of these lower-priced options into your lineup.

Let's take a look at five players who can help fill in the gaps in your lineup.

Ish Smith, PG, Washington Wizards ($5,200)

With Isaiah Thomas still out, Ish Smith has posted some of his best of games of the season.

Over the past three games, Smith has played 30 minutes or more in each -- something he hasn't done at any other point this season -- along with posting 21 FanDuel points or more in those games, a level he has reached only one other time this year. It seems pretty clear, when Thomas is out for the Wizards, Smith is playing more minutes and in turn, posting more fantasy points. The timeless saying of "minutes equal money in NBA DFS."

Tonight, Smith has a great opportunity to extend both of those marks, as he is up against the Charlotte Hornets in a game in which the over/under is set at slate-high 232 points. No other game on the slate is within 10 points, making this the clear spot to target fantasy production. The Hornets are allowing 46.2 FanDuel points per game to point guards this season, which is right at the league average. They aren't a team to fear defensively, so no worries about Smith getting shut down.

Derrick Jones, SG, Miami Heat ($3,500)

The Miami Heat are dealing with a number of injuries right now, and that opens up some playing time for bench players.

One of those bench players now seeing time on the court is Derrick Jones Jr., who has played 26 minutes in each of his two recent games. Here are the players on the Heat who are dealing with injuries -- Justise Winslow is out tonight, Dion Waiters, is questionable, and Bam Adebayo is also questionable. The first two are small forwards while Adebayo is a power forward, putting their rotation in flux.

Jones should almost certainly be getting the start at small forward tonight, and extra minutes should be there for him overall even if he doesn't start.

The matchup Jones has is ideal in so many ways. First off, this is a pace-up spot for the Heat against the Atlanta Hawks, who play at the ninth-fastest pact this season. Next, the Hawks are allowing 44.7 FanDuel points per game to small forwards, the most in the league. To top it off, we have a solid over/under sitting at 218 points, giving us plenty of fantasy points to capture.

Cody Zeller, C, Charlotte Hornets ($4,700)

At $4.7K, Cody Zeller is our second-best point-per-dollar value option at center, according to our projections.

Our models have Zeller going for 26.0 FanDuel points in 25.09 minutes, which falls right in line with his average of 1.01 FanDuel points per minute this season. This is the second player from this game -- the one with a 232-point over/under -- in this piece, and we have to take notice of how much more fantasy friendly this clash is than the other games on the slate.

Zeller and the Hornets are in a pace-up spot against the Wizards, another strong factor pointing toward him reaching and exceeding fantasy value tonight. The Wizards are allowing 58.7 FanDuel points per game to centers this season -- which is the third-most in the league. We should note that Zeller is splitting time at center with Bismack Biyombo, but Zeller is more productive from a point-per-minute basis.