3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Value Plays for 4/22/16
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'll need to find one of these lower-priced options to squeeze everyone into your lineup.
Let's take a look at three guys who can help fill the gaps in your lineup tonight.
Marcus Smart, SG, Boston Celtics
FanDuel Price: $4,900
Marcus Smart was expected to take on a bigger role with Avery Bradley out of the lineup. Smart did play a few extra minutes. However, his fantasy production was limited by shooting just 1-of-11 from the field.
Smart still put up 14 fantasy points with almost no help from scoring. Positive regression is a real thing, and we will likely see it tonight for Smart. Another bump to Smart's value is that his price decreased by $700 down to $4,900.
Bradley will likely miss the entire series for the Celtics, which will continue giving Smart opportunities to produce. He played 30 minutes in Game 2, and now that he is back on his home court, expect him to shoot a little better than 9 percent from the field.
Xavier Munford, PG, Memphis Grizzlies
FanDuel Price: $3,500
Xavier Munford is strictly valuable because he is seeing playing time in the high 20's and because he is the lowest possible salary on FanDuel. Munford is averaging 5.5 times his cost (points per $1,000 in salary) in his last five games.
In the two playoff games against the Spurs, Munford has averaged 27 minutes per game to go with his 5 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2.5 steals per game. Obviously the numbers aren't too appealing, but realize that he is just $3,500. It only takes 17.5 fantasy points to reach five times his price tag.
San Antonio is the best defensive team in the league in terms of Defensive Rating, and they are holding Memphis to just 71 points per game in the first two games of the series. During the regular season, Memphis averaged 99.1 points per game.
While scoring does generally slow down in the playoffs, the 28-point difference is pretty drastic. If Memphis can put together a bit of offense, both the scoring and counting stats for Munford should increase.
Kent Bazemore, SF, Atlanta Hawks
FanDuel Price: $5,500
Kent Bazemore has been terrific in the playoffs so far for the Hawks. In Game 1, we saw him go off for 39 fantasy points and then 26 fantasy points in Game 2.
Similar to Smart, Bazemore shot 2-of-14 from the field in Game 2, but he still produced a value of 4.3 times his salary. Also similar to Smart, his price dropped $500 from Game 2 to tonight's Game 3.
In April's seven contests, Bazemore is averaging eight rebounds per game, which has given him a nice safety net to make up for bad shooting nights, such as last game.
Bazemore isn't a complete punt play because he will cost you $5,500, but he allows enough savings to pair him with a higher-priced star.
