5 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Friday 12/9/22

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 one of these lower-salaried options into your lineup.

Let's take a look at some players who can help fill in the gaps in your lineup on FanDuel tonight, using numberFire's daily fantasy basketball projections as a guide.

Mitchell Robinson, C, New York Knicks

FanDuel Salary: $5,800

The 10-game slate tonight comes with a lot of value options in the $5,000 range, so while we can dig down into the $4,000 tier, the better angle might be to soak up the mid-range value.

Anyway, one of the names with a "5" starting his salary is New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson, whose salary is $5,800 for a matchup against the Charlotte Hornets. (Charlotte's Mason Plumlee [$5,500] is also a good play in this matchup.)

As for Robinson, he is projected for 32.9 minutes in this game and is expected to put up 34.1 FanDuel points, which works out to a very strong value rating of 5.88 (i.e. FanDuel points per $1,000 in salary).

Deni Avdija, SF/PF, Washington Wizards

FanDuel Salary: $5,500

The minutes should be there tonight for Deni Avdija, as the Washington Wizards are without Bradley Beal and Rui Hachimura. They also list Kristaps Porzingis as questionable.

Avdija is coming off of a 38.9-minute game and is projected for 34.9 tonight -- along with 30.1 FanDuel points against the Indiana Pacers.

Without Beal and Hachimura on the floor this season, Avdija has maintained a 17.2% usage rate and a per-minute average of 0.89 FanDuel points across a heavy 222.0-minute sample, according to CourtIQ.

Markelle Fultz, PG/SG, Orlando Magic

FanDuel Salary: $4,600

Like I said, I could stick with just all options in the $5,000 range, but for the truer salary savers, I'll drop down to the $4,000 tier.

Markelle Fultz is up against the Toronto Raptors tonight in a game with a slate-low 221.0-point total. That's not ideal, but the game environment for Fultz is never going to be very great based on his team's situation.

However, the opportunity still can be strong because the Orlando Magic list Jalen Suggs, Wendell Carter Jr., and Gary Harris as out.

With them off the floor, Fultz has a 20.9% usage rate and a per-minute output of 0.80 FanDuel points.

Fultz's salary is down $800 after a down game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. He owns numberFire's second-best value projection (6.36) of the night.

Bogdan Bogdanovic, SF/SG, Atlanta Hawks

FanDuel Salary: $4,400

The Atlanta Hawks are thinned out for tonight's game against the Brooklyn Nets. They'll be without Dejounte Murray and John Collins, and De'Andre Hunter is questionable.

With both Murray and Collins off the floor this season, Bogdan Bogdanovic has actually had an absurd 32.8% usage rate over 45.1 minutes.

Bogdanovic is a pretty weak fantasy producer overall (0.64 FanDuel points per minute) but is more effective without them (0.73).

numberFire projects Bogdanovic for 28.7 FanDuel points, good for 5.04 per $1,000.

Dyson Daniels, PG, New Orleans Pelicans

FanDuel Salary: $4,400

The top value projection of the night belongs (narrowly) to Dyson Daniels (6.37). Daniels' New Orleans Pelicans will be without both Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones yet again.

Without them on the floor, Daniels possesses a still-low usage rate of 13.9% but is still able to generate 0.85 FanDuel points per minute, thanks to per-36 rates of 6.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 2.2 combined blocks and steals.

Overall, he averages 30.6 FanDuel points per 36 minutes (or 0.85 per minute) in this split.

At a minutes projection of 30.8 tonight, Daniels should be able to provide a floor of fantasy points that few others below $4,500 can match.