3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 1/8/21
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-salaried 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 a heavy salary to roster someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, getting a dud from a stud is likely going to leave your lineup lacking.
Let's get right into it and look at which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today.
Jayson Tatum, SF, Boston Celtics
FanDuel Salary: $9,400
There's a ton of actual studs on the board, but we can also build a more balanced roster and get access to multiple studs in the $8,000 and $9,000 range tonight, which is appealing.
Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics are in a prime spot to produce tonight. They face the Washington Wizards, who are 28th in estimated defensive rating to start the season and 30th in opponent-adjusted defensive rating since the start of last season. The Celtics, then, boast the slate's highest implied team total (120.25) for the night.
Tatum has been posting a floor and ceiling -- especially relative to his $9,400 salary -- with at least 40.0 FanDuel points in four straight, two of which returned 55.2 or more FanDuel points. Tatum's shot attempts -- 24, 22, 19, 21 -- are a big reason for the success, but he also has at least 5 rebounds in every game in that span.
numberFire projects the Celtics' small forward to keep up the shot attempts. We project him for 20.2 field goal attempts for 27.4 points with 7.5 rebounds and -- in total -- 46.0 FanDuel points on a 29.3% usage rate. We want a floor and ceiling from our studs, and everything points to Tatum (and teammate Jaylen Brown) having that tonight.
Paul George, SG, Los Angeles Clippers
FanDuel Salary: $8,800
Paul George and the Los Angeles Clippers just played the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, and though we can't copy and paste those results, we can at least dig in. George had 15 shot attempts in that game over 38.5 minutes but made only 5 for 21 points. Bailing him out was a 9-for-9 day at the charity stripe and 12 rebounds.
Prior to that game, though, George had three straight with at least 48.5 FanDuel points, and we could expect better from him this time around. The Warriors are just 22nd in estimated defensive rating to start the season, and George has a 60.9% effective field goal percentage but just didn't shoot well in their prior meeting.
numberFire is projecting George for another 15.3 shot attempts in this game for 23.9 points and a solid stat line elsewhere (6.1 boards, 5.9 assists, 1.9 steals, and 0.5 blocks).
Nikola Vucevic, C, Orlando Magic
FanDuel Salary: $8,800
Center is really light on potential studs with only Nikola Vucevic and Rudy Gobert with a salary above $8,000. So there's some opportunity cost with the position.
Even without it, Vucevic stands out in a matchup with the Houston Rockets. They are 29th in rebounding rate and 20th in estimated defensive rating and just average at defending the center position when adjusted for opponents faced.
Vucevic has cleared 31 minutes in three straight games and in four of the past five. In that five-game span, he has had no fewer than 15 shot attempts or 7 rebounds. His per-minute average of 1.36 FanDuel points ranks him in the top 15 in the NBA, and the game sets up well for production. The total is 225.5 points, and the spread is only 6.5 points.
We project him for a 19.1-point, 10.4-rebound double-double over 31.8 minutes.
