NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Thursday 12/15/22

Brandon Gdula  —  @gdula13 Dec 15th, 2022

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.

Jonas Valanciunas, C, New Orleans Pelicans

FanDuel Salary: $5,700

Not a lot of obvious value exists on tonight's four-game slate, but Jonas Valanciunas is under-salaried at $5,700.

The New Orleans Pelicans are without Brandon Ingram, and that should bolster the frontcourt touches for Valanciunas. Over the past eight games without Ingram, Valanciunas has averaged 25.5 FanDuel points and 22.4 minutes (1.14 FanDuel points per minute).

The Pelicans are up against the Utah Jazz, who rank just 14th in rebounding rate and 22nd in defensive rating.

Against teams in the bottom 10 in defensive rating this season, Valanciunas has averaged a heavy 1.28 FanDuel points per minute.

Valanciunas is projected for 22.6 minutes and 29.2 FanDuel points in this matchup, good for 5.12 FanDuel points per $1,000.

Marcus Morris, PF/SF, Los Angeles Clippers

FanDuel Salary: $4,900

The Los Angeles Clippers are very likely notably shorthanded for tonight's game against the Phoenix Suns.

There's no official injury report as of 1:00 p.m. Eastern (thanks, Clips), but we should be able to project both Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell as out.

Without them on the floor, Marcus Morris has a 21.1% usage rate, and he averages 0.83 FanDuel points per minute across a heavy 441.4-minute sample.

The Suns are an above-average defense -- but not an elite one. Against comparable defenses, Morris has averaged 0.90 FanDuel points per minute this year.

Morris is numberFire's second-best projected value of the night (5.24 FanDuel points per $1,000).

Grayson Allen, SG/SF, Milwaukee Bucks

FanDuel Salary: $4,400

Though the case isn't super easy to make for Grayson Allen as an elite play by himself, it's always important to have access to the superstars on small slates.

Allen's salary of $4,400 helps a lot in that regard.

Jrue Holiday is out for the Milwaukee Bucks, and that'll benefit Allen.

Holiday has missed two of Milwaukee's past six games. In those, Allen has played 25.1 and 27.0 minutes and generated 18.6 FanDuel points per game in them (0.70 FanDuel points per minute).

The spread is tight (2.0 points), and the total (226.5) is second-best by a comfortable margin (two games are at 219.0 or lower), so this is a pretty good game environment within the context of the four-game slate.