3 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on 1/5/21

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-salaried options into your lineup.

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

Jakob Poeltl, C, San Antonio Spurs ($4,300)

With LaMarcus Aldridge listed as questionable, the San Antonio Spurs can offer some value tonight.

Aldridge has missed the last three games for the Spurs, and in that time, we have seen Jakob Poeltl in the starting lineup each game. We should continue to anticipate Poeltl being in the starting lineup again tonight, and it should put him in a spot to be productive from a fantasy perspective. Over the last four games, Poeltl has played 20 or more minutes in each game, while posting at least 20.9 FanDuel points in three of the four games.

This is good to see since Poeltl has just an 11.9% usage rate when Aldridge is off the court, but he is producing a solid 0.90 FanDuel points per minute. Poeltl will never be the driver of the Spurs' offense but can find a way to reach or exceed value in the limited touches he does see.

Tonight's game against the Los Angeles Clippers should be a solid fantasy environment with a total sitting at 226.0 points, which should allow Poeltl to hit his normal production level. Going with a low-salary option at center tonight should help your lineups be different and allow you to spend up elsewhere.

Patrick Williams, SF, Chicago Bulls ($4,300)

The Chicago Bulls are visiting the Portland Trail Blazers, and it could be the best spot for fantasy production on this slate. With an over/under sitting at 234.0 points -- the highest on the slate -- we should see this game be very popular in all formats.

For Chicago, they are missing Ryan Arcidiacono, Tomas Satoransky, Lauri Markkanen, and Chandler Hutchison due to health and safety protocols. This should shorten the Bulls' rotation just a little bit and provide solid minutes for all of their available players. On top of that, this should be a very fast-paced game, as Chicago comes in as the second-fastest team in the league, while Portland is the seventh-fastest.

All of that should put Patrick Williams in a spot to play plenty of minutes and provide plenty of fantasy value. The rookie is off to a good start this season and comes in producing 0.71 FanDuel points per minute on a rather modest 15.1% usage rate. Neither of those are super-high marks, but the matchup should allow him to exceed his normal production rate. The Trail Blazers are allowing 46.78 FanDuel points per game to opposing small forwards, which is the sixth-most in the league.

With Williams' salary, the game total, the pace, and the good matchup, everything sets up for him to be a strong value play tonight.

Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, SG, Brooklyn Nets ($4,100)

The Brooklyn Nets are going to be without Kevin Durant, and that means plenty of value.

Durant is set to be out for a seven-day quarantine, so the Nets' starting lineup will change yet again. While Kyrie Irving is a clear top option tonight, we can also look toward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot for a bit of value. TLC has been in the starting lineup since Spencer Dinwiddie went out with an ACL injury, but this will be a bit different now with Durant out.

In the first split with Durant in and Dinwiddie out, TLC has a usage rate sitting at 18.6% while producing 0.68 FanDuel points per minute. In the second split, with both Durant and Dinwiddie out, TLC has a 25.0% usage rate and is producing 0.83 FanDuel points per minute. This shouldn't be a surprise. When a player like Durant is out of the lineup, there are more shots and usage to go around.

That extra usage should benefit TLC, and he is facing off against the Utah Jazz, a team allowing the third-most (46.12) FanDuel points per game to opposing shooting guards.