NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Tuesday 12/21/21

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 three players who can help fill in the gaps in your lineup.

Jaylen Nowell, PG, Minnesota Timberwolves ($4,000)

The Minnesota Timberwolves are going to be missing a number of players tonight, and that gives us a few value options.

Patrick Beverley, Anthony Edwards, Josh Okogie, Taurean Prince, and Jarred Vanderbilt are out listed as out for Minnesota tonight. This drastically changes their starting lineup and their normal rotation of players, all of which put Jaylen Nowell in a spot to be the starting point guard tonight.

When we account for all of those players being off the court this season, Nowell is carrying a 25.3% offensive usage rate and producing 0.90 FanDuel points per minute.

Nowell and the Timberwolves are going up against the Dallas Mavericks, where the over/under is set at 212.0 points with a 1.0-point spread. Nowell is projected for 24.99 minutes and 20.1 FanDuel points, making him the fifth-best value option at point guard, but he has the cheapest salary among the top five options.

Omer Yurtseven, C, Miami Heat ($4,500)

The Miami Heat could be down to only 9 or 10 players tonight, opening up plenty of minutes for Omer Yurtseven.

The Heat have been dealing with a ton of injuries and COVID issues recently, and that has led to Yurtseven playing 18 minutes or more in three of his last four games. That is right where he is projected tonight, set to go for 22.07 minutes and 25.0 FanDuel points, which makes him the third-best value option on the entire slate and the top value option among centers.

The matchup against the Indiana Pacers isn't amazing with a 208.5-point over/under, and both teams are bottom 10 in offensive pace. However, Yurtseven has posted over 1.00 FanDuel points per minute in three of his last four games and is showing the ability to reach value quickly.

Evan Fournier, SG, New York Knicks ($5,200)

Evan Fournier is seeing a spike in production, but his salary is still very affordable.

The New York Knicks are another team set to miss a number of players tonight, and that should lead to Fournier taking a leading role in their offense, as we've seen over the past two games.

Fournier has taken 24 and 12 field goal attempts in these past two games, which is a MASSIVE increase compared to the five games prior, where he had a high of 8 field goal attempts. This isn't a surprise, with a number of the Knicks' normal players are out of the lineup and rotation, leaving an opening for Fournier to take more shots.

He should be able to continue that tonight against the Detroit Pistons, who are allowing 45.18 FanDuel points per game to opposing small forwards, which is the third-worst in the league. With that volume of shots, Fournier can reach and exceed value quickly against a weak Pistons' defense.