5 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Thursday 4/6/23
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.
Cedi Osman, SF/PF, Cleveland Cavaliers
Dean Wade, PF/SF, Cleveland Cavaliers
Raul Neto, PG, Cleveland Cavaliers
Osman's FanDuel Salary: $4,200
Wade's FanDuel Salary: $3,800
Rubio's FanDuel Salary: $3,600
The Cleveland Cavaliers are locked into the 4 seed, and their lineup plans for tonight follow suit.
They're listing -- among others -- Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen as out for tonight's game against the Orlando Magic.
That opens up, well, a lot of minutes at extremely low salaries for Cedi Osman, Dean Wade, and Raul Neto. Frankly, there are more Cavs to recommend, primarily Ricky Rubio ($4,500), Lamar Stevens ($4,400), and Mamadi Diakite ($3,500), but I can't feature all of them.
Diakite actually leads the group in projected value (i.e. FanDuel points per $1,000) at 6.81, via numberFire's model, with Osman (6.66), Neto (6.14), Wade (6.12), Stevens (5.81), and Rubio (5.38) following suit.
They're all projected for at least 21.9 minutes, and while these guys themselves probably won't win us a tournament, it's their low salaries that can help us get up to the few difference-makers we have on the slate.
There's not much more to this one other than safe minutes at low salaries.
Damian Jones, C, Utah Jazz
Luka Samanic, PF, Utah Jazz
Jones' FanDuel Salary: $3,700
Samanic's FanDuel Salary: $4,800
The Utah Jazz are facing the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight in a game that, theoretically, matters for the Jazz but is, effectively, pointless in terms of the playoff race due to tiebreaker scenarios.
Utah lists Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, and Walker Kessler -- among others -- as out.
That opens up a very clear value situation for Damian Jones, who is coming off of a 32.1-minute, 26.1-FanDuel-point outing last game off the bench. He played the fourth-most minutes in that matchup and is projected for 25.8 minutes tonight.
In four games with at least 20 minutes played, Jones has averaged 17.4 FanDuel points despite just 3.8 shot attempts.
He's numberFire's top projected value tonight. You can also slot in Udoka Azubuike ($4,300).
Now onto Luka Samanic. The former first-rounder has played four games this season after signing a 10-day contract with the Jazz. In those four games, he's averaged 1.00 FanDuel points per minute.
He started Utah's most recent game. In that start, he played 22.3 minutes and produced 22.8 FanDuel points.
