3 NBA DraftKings Value Plays to Target on 1/21/21

A major key to success in daily fantasy basketball is uncovering potential value plays. If you're looking to roster a stud or two, you need to consider squeezing one of these lower-salaried options into your lineup.

Let's take a look at three players who can help fill in the gaps in your lineup on DraftKings tonight.

Josh Hart, SF, New Orleans Pelicans

DraftKings Salary: $4,500

Tonight's slate is a very top-heavy one, consisting of high-salaried studs but lacking value plays below the $5,000 threshold. There are also few impactful injuries among these six teams, which means there are no obvious players to set and forget. Instead, it's about taking shots on guys with definitive roles, getting solid minutes from players who have a touch of upside.

Josh Hart is one of the few guys you can look to in his sixth-man role off the New Orleans Pelicans' bench. He's averaging 28.5 minutes per game from his wing spot, producing just 7.8 real-world points compared to last year's 10.1 on similar shooting numbers. Still, he's scored in double figures four times with a higher contribution on the boards (7.6 a game).

The Utah Jazz aren't the easiest of matchups, considering their sixth-slowest pace and sixth-ranked defense, but Hart managed 18.75 DK points in his 25 minutes last time out against these same Jazz. It's likely he would have played 28 or so minutes if it weren't for a blowout by the fourth quarter. If Hart is the last guy in your lineup, you could do a lot worse.

James Wiseman, C, Golden State Warriors

DraftKings Salary: $4,500

James Wiseman is having a roller-coaster of a rookie season in terms of both on-court play and fantasy production. As expected, he has started all 13 of Golden State's games, but he has averaged only 20.6 minutes, including six games below the 20-minute mark.

On the other hand, the versatile center has played 24 or more minutes in four games, and in doing so, he has averaged 15.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks -- a total of 31.7 DK points a night -- in such games. And prior to Monday's poor outing against the Los Angeles Lakers, Wiseman scored 18 points with 32.75 fantasy points versus a more middle-of-the-road Nuggets defense.

The New York Knicks are a top-five team by defensive rating, but that skews the fact that they've allowed at least 106 points in more than half of their games, including three contests in which they surrendered more than 110. Wiseman has the upside to shift this slate if the minutes are there.

Immanuel Quickley, PG, New York Knicks

DraftKings Salary: $4,100

In a showdown of rookie versus rookie, the Knicks' Immanuel Quickley is another young guy who has shown flashes early on in his first NBA season. The former Kentucky standout has come on over the last five games, playing a hair under 23 minutes per night and topping out at nearly 29.

During this stretch, Quickley has continued to come off the bench, but he has turned in games of 29.0, 33.0 and 40.25 DK points. He has bookended those with two games under 16 points, but those were two supremely low-scoring bouts in which New York and their opponents averaged 186 points per game. That's not the norm, even for a slower team like the Knicks.

With their third-ranked pace of play, Golden State will do what it can to push the pace tonight, and that has resulted in Dubs' opponents averaging 115.2 points per game. According to FantasyPros, nearly 24.6 of those have come via the point guard spot, so don't let Quickley's last game get the best of you. If you need some salary relief, he's your guy.

Brett Oswalt is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Brett Oswalt also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username BRO14THEKID. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her 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.