3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 8/31/20
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 today.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, SF, Milwaukee Bucks ($11,500)
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks move to the next round, which is positive news if you have been trying to fade the star in daily fantasy. Giannis was a fantasy monster too tough to tame for the Orlando Magic, averaging 1.88 FanDuel points per minute and never scoring less than 52.5 FanDuel points in a game. This came despite no game in the series finishing with a closer margin of victory than 12 points and blowouts in nearly every contest. A large part of that floor came from his increased rebounding, as "The Greek Freak" averaged 16.0 boards per game in the series.
Perhaps the Miami Heat do have better luck than the Magic, but Miami's defense was just middle of the road in the regular season, finishing 12th in defensive rating, and allowing the 15th-most FanDuel points per game to opposing small forwards. They certainly had no answer for Giannis on August 6th inside the bubble, where foul trouble limited him to just 30 minutes, but he still scored 50.4 FanDuel points.
Chris Paul, PG, Oklahoma City Thunder ($8,200)
The Oklahoma City Thunder had several fatal performances on Saturday, which led to a 31-point loss to the Houston Rockets, but Chris Paul did not have one of them. Paul had 16 points and 6 rebounds in just 29 minutes and likely would have smashed FanDuel value had Billy Donovan not raised the white flag with the deficit so large.
Point guard is tricky with Eric Bledsoe questionable with his hamstring injury, and Russell Westbrook still essentially at his normal price, but on a presumed minutes limit after having one in Game 5 and only playing 23 minutes. Paul has been averaging 1.07 FanDuel points per minute in this series, and he's been seeing a ton of them, with a minutes average of 35.8 despite the Game 5 blowout. He still has a very high floor at this price.
Bam Adebayo, PF, Miami Heat ($8,000)
Miami center Bam Adebayo had a nice series in a sweep of the Indiana Pacers, averaging 40.2 FanDuel points per game, even with some significant foul trouble at spots. His fantasy production may get even better as Miami begins their quest to take out the East's top seed.
Adebayo moves opponents from a Pacers team that ranked 22nd in pace this season all the way to a Bucks squad that ranked first in overall pace in the entire NBA. That pace increase will certainly help all members of the Heat, but especially their star big man averaging 33.8 minutes per game. To see his whole minutes allotment, however, Adebayo will have to avoid foul trouble, as he is the likely primary defender of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Austin Swaim is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Austin Swaim also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username ASwaim3. 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.
