3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 3/10/21
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.
Russell Westbrook, PG, Washington Wizards
FanDuel Salary: $9,800
Prior to the All-Star break, Russell Westbrook had quietly become one of the more reliable fantasy producers.
Russ has topped 40 FanDuel points in 12 consecutive games, and he has managed at least 51.8 in 6 of his last 8 outings. Over the last four weeks, Westbrook is averaging 50.1 fantasy points per game (fifth-highest) while sporting a usage rate of 34.2% (sixth-highest), according to RotoGrinders.
Westbrook hasn't had to rack up a ton of real-life points in order to bolster his fantasy totals -- his ability to garner assists and steals has certainly helped matters. That's where this matchup comes in. Per FantasyPros, the Memphis Grizzlies are surrendering the fifth-most assists and second-most steals to the opposition's point guards.
On a tiny two-game slate, Westbrook's combination of floor and ceiling make him pretty close to a must-have.
DeMar DeRozan, SG, San Antonio Spurs
FanDuel Salary: $8,600
It's hard to be contrarian on a two-game slate, especially with high-salaried players, so we'll look to do just that with DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan's salary is at the highest it's been all season, which could be just the thing we need for him to be a differentiator.
The Dallas Mavericks have struggled mightily to defend shooting guards in recent weeks. Throughout their last 15 games, Dallas has given up the eighth-most real-life and sixth-most fantasy points to the position. That's where DeRozan comes in.
In his lone matchup with the Mavs earlier this season, the 31-year-old dropped 47.2 FanDuel points -- one of his 17 performances with more than 40. In fact, the veteran has eclipsed 40 fantasy points in 7 of his last 10 games, including five outputs of 42.7-plus.
Luka Doncic, SF, Dallas Mavericks
FanDuel Salary: $11,000
Luka what we have here! To begin the second half of the season, those at FanDuel have listed Luka Doncic at small forward. It's actually a blessing in disguise, as the position is a complete crapshoot on Wednesday's two-gamer.
For the sake of this exercise, we'll look at the matchup from a point guard perspective, as that's Doncic's true position. On the season, the San Antonio Spurs have ceded the fifth-most fantasy points to opposing point guards, and they're actually third-worst over their last 15 games, according to FantasyPros.
In 2020-21, in seven matchups versus teams that are bottom-five against point guards, Luka is averaging 60.7 FanDuel points per game -- that includes a 61.3-point outing against the Spurs in January.
numberFire's model projects the 22-year-old to outscore the next-highest-scorer on the slate by 8.4 and has him producing an absurd 27.2 more FanDuel points than the next-closest small forward. Fire up Doncic in this one and look to differentiate your lineups elsewhere.
