3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 3/2/20
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.
James Harden, SG, Houston Rockets ($10,800)
A couple sub-50 fantasy point performances has sent James Harden's salary plummeting, down $900 from where it was just two games ago.
One of those two games was in a tough matchup with the Boston Celtics, and the other was a blowout in which he didn't even play 30 minutes. Now he gets a matchup with the New York Knicks, who he torched for 57.7 just last week.
A pair of down games should not have Harden priced this low, considering he's still dropped at least 57 in five of his last seven, and he has 60-plus in seven of his last 12. That's compounded by a matchup with a Knicks team that ranks 23rd in defensive rating.
John Collins, PF, Atlanta Hawks ($8,600)
The Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies rank sixth and seventh in the NBA, respectively, in pace, and this game has a huge 238.5-point over/under.
The Grizz are allowing top-five fantasy production to opposing power forwards on the year, and a potential shootout with a team that can't stop opponents at the four is obviously a plus spot for John Collins.
Collins would already be underpriced in a neutral matchup here, having averaged 44.8 FanDuel points per game (5.2 per $1,000 of salary today) in his last 15, and he's up to an especially strong 49.7 per game in his last five. This is, of course, not a neutral matchup, either, making him a great play on Monday.
Nikola Vucevic, C, Orlando Magic ($8,100)
Nikola Vucevic turned in a complete dud on Saturday, with 23.3 FanDuel points. That's obviously not what you want to see, but it did drive his salary way down after he spent most of last week priced above $9,000.
One bad game doesn't erase the 48.2 FanDuel points per game he'd averaged over his previous seven contests though -- an average that would be good for just shy of six-times value on today's salary.
His matchup today isn't an especially tough one, either, as the Portland Trail Blazers rank in the middle of the pack (17th) in fantasy efficiency surrendered to opposing centers.
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.
