NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 4/6/22
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?
Luka Doncic, PG/SG, Dallas Mavericks ($11,200)
With Dallas still vying for playoff seeding, they'll have plenty of motivation as just an 8.5-point favorite in Detroit.
That automatically brings Luka Doncic to the forefront, and Doncic has been absolutely masterful in recent days as he continues to rally in this year's MVP conversation. Doncic has posted 1.76 FanDuel points per minute across his last five outings, and that mark is closer to Giannis Antetokounmpo's or Nikola Jokic's than his contemporaries at guard.
The Pistons have scuffled throughout a long, difficult year, and they haven't made a ton of recent strides at defending the point guard spot. They're still allowing the ninth-most FanDuel points per game (48.6) to opposing floor generals.
Trae Young is absolutely viable, as well. Atlanta is hosting a Washington defense that's poor and has nothing to play for. But, since Trae played on Tuesday in a high-stakes match with Toronto, the fresher Doncic gets nosed ahead in this spot.
Paul George, SF, Los Angeles Clippers ($9,000)
While Doncic, Young, and Kevin Durant are all in great spots, my single favorite stud on this slate is Paul George.
The Los Angeles Clippers have two days of rest on both sides of this national TV spot against the Phoenix Suns. George is just three games back from injury, but this is likely a full-time tune-up spot before L.A. battles the 7 seed in the play-in tournament.
Because of the wonky minutes, George may not be popular -- but he should be. In his limited time back for the Clips, he's posted 1.48 FanDuel points per minute on a whopping 36.7% usage rate. That's just way better than this salary.
L.A. would also get my vote for the best game environment of the day. The 226.5-point total is just third-best, but there's only a 2.0-point spread (in favor of the Clippers). That indicates that Phoenix could be resting some players after battling the Lakers last night.
Value options are likely coming from the Phoenix side, and PG13 is an under-salaried star in a full-time role for the favorite. That's a prime outline for an under-the-radar game stack.
