3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 12/29/21
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 up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud is likely going to leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.
Which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today?
LeBron James, SF/PF, Los Angeles Lakers ($11,200)
LeBron James has been a constant for the NBA for nearly two decades. He's a constant in daily fantasy right now.
The mediocre, shorthanded Lakers are relying on their do-it-all star more than ever at the moment. If that's not evident enough by him starting at center at age 36, James also has been the clear team leader in both usage (30.0%) and FanDuel points per minute (1.45) in the month of December.
The Lakers' inability to blow teams out has given him an unmatched floor in the sport currently. James has played at least 34 minutes in an absurd 15 straight games. Averaging that per-minute production, this lofty salary is almost a value.
Tonight, L.A. is a six-point underdog visiting Memphis. Oddsmakers have a 227.5-point total on the contest, which is the second-highest of the day. It's a solid environment for "King James" to continue his run, and he doesn't even need to eclipse 60 FanDuel points (as he's done in four of his last five) to pay off here.
Rudy Gobert, C, Utah Jazz ($9,100)
The fantasy game of the night is in Portland. The Jazz will travel to meet the Blazers without their star, Donovan Mitchell.
Mitchell is out at least for tonight with a back issue, and that was concerning for Rudy Gobert especially. Gobert relies heavily on others to generate his offensive chances, so it was positive to see Gobert post 16 points and 13 boards in just 25 minutes in Utah's Monday win over the San Antonio Spurs.
The NBA's leading rebounder is Gobert, and he's got an advantageous matchup. The Blazers will be without Jusuf Nurkic (COVID-19 protocols) tonight, and their rebounding predictably suffers without him. Portland sees a 5.9% drop in defensive rebounding rate on field-goal attempts with Nurkic off the floor.
The 228.0-point total in Oregon tonight is the place to be for NBA daily fantasy, and Gobert is a high-floor option that always is a threat to pull down 20 boards in the right enviornment.
Damian Lillard, PG, Portland Trail Blazers ($9,000)
On the Blazers' side of that matchup, Damian Lillard has been carrying the load recently.
Portland continues to operate shorthanded -- including their coach -- and that's thrust more responsibility onto Dame. In the month of December, Lillard is averaging 1.14 FanDuel points on an absurd 35.5% usage rate.
Not only did Lillard leads the Blazers in shots on Monday (15), but he also added 16 free-throw attempts. Lillard was the top option in just about every possession he was on the floor.
Utah is still a seven-point road favorite, but the Blazers should be a solid home underdog if Lillard is on early. Not only is the total lofty as mentioned, but these are also two top-15 teams in terms of pace, and it's surprisingly Portland (15th) that is in the pace-up spot with the Jazz (8th).
Point guard is surprisingly weak on Wednesday's slate, and Lillard is a fantastic start with plenty of value bigs and wings to use to squeeze in his salary.
