NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 2/5/20

Jason Schandl  —  @JasonSchandl Feb 5th, 2020
Kristaps Porzingis is a must-play with Luka Doncic on the shelf. What other studs should you target tonight?

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.

Karl-Anthony Towns, C, Minnesota Timberwolves ($10,100)

The big story for the Atlanta Hawks today is obviously last night's four-team trade for Clint Capela. That happening last night and Capela dealing with a heel injury means he's not set to debut yet, though, so this matchup remains a great one on the inside for Karl-Anthony Towns.

The Hawks have surrendered top-10 fantasy production to opposing centers on the season, thanks in part to a 27th-ranked total rebound rate and 28th-ranked defensive rating.

KAT can be a volatile fantasy producer, but in a favorable matchup, $10.1k is way too cheap for what he's capable of. He has 50-plus FanDuel points in three of his last seven games, also going above 48 in two of the other three. Despite having missed 17 games this season, his 10 games with 55-plus FanDuel points are tied for the third-most of any center, and he's positioned perfectly to show off that upside against the Hawks.

Kristaps Porzingis, PF, Dallas Mavericks ($8,700)

Kristaps Porzingis' salary has been relatively slow to come up despite a drastic change in his output. A sudden shift in output can sometimes be attributed to variance, but there are some clear factors bringing the change for Porzingis, and they're in play tonight as well.

First is that his minutes are way up after being somewhat limited in his first few games in January after returning from an injury absence. He's played 35.6 and 36.4 in his last two outings.

Second, he produces far more efficient fantasy numbers with Luka Doncic off the floor, jumping from a 24.1% usage rate and 0.94 FanDuel points per minute in his 762 minutes playing with Luka to 29.9% usage and 1.30 fantasy points per minute in 399 with the young superstar off the floor. Doncic remains sidelined tonight, so Porzingis should continue to combine his heavy workload with improved efficiency.

He also finds himself up against the Memphis Grizzlies, who combine a very high-paced approach (fourth in the NBA in pace) with a middling total rebound rate (49.7%) and below-average defensive rating (109.3, 18th).

Spencer Dinwiddie, SG, Brooklyn Nets ($7,000)

A relative dud (23.6 FanDuel points) in his last game has Spencer Dinwiddie's salary down, even though he's in an outstanding spot against the Golden State Warriors with Kyrie Irving on the shelf.

In 29 games played without Kyrie this year, Dinwiddie has averaged 39.7 FanDuel points (5.7 per $1,000 of today's salary) on 33.0% usage — up from 28.4 per game on 26.4% usage with Kyrie.

He'd be a tough fade in any matchup at this price, but Dinwiddie is a near must-play against the lowly Warriors and their combination of a 23rd-ranked defensive rating and 12th-ranked pace.

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.