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.
Draymond Green, PF/C, Golden State Warriors
Kevon Looney, C/PF, Golden State Warriors
Green FanDuel Salary: $6,000
Looney FanDuel Salary: $4,800
Value is pretty sparse on tonight's five-game slate, and a lot of the best plays are in the upper $5,000 range. Therefore, it might be best to get a bit more balanced than we'd otherwise like to do on a short slate.
But the Golden State Warriors have a few options for us in the frontcourt.
Andrew Wiggins is out for tonight's game, and with him off the floor, Draymond Green has just a 12.6% usage rate with an average of 0.78 FanDuel points per minute, via CourtIQ.
Though those numbers won't blow you away, the opportunity is great for Green tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks.
numberFire is projecting Green for 33.1 minutes and 34.9 FanDuel points, good for a value rating (i.e. FanDuel points per $1,000) of 5.82. Green, who has averaged 0.93 FanDuel points per minute on the year, should see his numbers improve in the split without Wiggins.
Teammate Kevon Looney, who has averaged a nice 0.96 FanDuel points per minute this season, is also projected well. His value rating is 5.15, and he is expected to play 27.1 minutes in this spot.
Torrey Craig, SG/SF, Phoenix Suns
Dario Saric, PF, Phoenix Suns
Craig FanDuel Salary: $4,800
Saric FanDuel Salary: $3,800
The Phoenix Suns are without Devin Booker, who leaves behind a lot of minutes and usage.
Last game without Booker, we saw Dario Saric draw the start but play just 21.4 minutes, including no run in overtime.
Torrey Craig played 36.1 minutes as a starter and played the entire overtime period.
Craig (12.9% usage rate without Booker) and Saric (19.4%) can get there in different ways. For Craig, it's minutes and attrition. For Saric, it's efficiency.
Craig (5.46 value rating) is expected to play 31.1 minutes; for Saric, he should be a starter at a sub-$4,000 salary, which opens up the rest of the cap for getting to the handful of studs who can break the slate.
Jonas Valanciunas, C, New Orleans Pelicans
FanDuel Salary: $5,700
Just five games removed from a 40.2-point outburst, Jonas Valanciunas is stuck at a $5,700 salary despite disappointing FanDuel tallies of 22.0 and 17.0 in his past two games.
Valanciunas played only 17.7 minutes last game after picking up 3 fouls in 3.4 minutes in the second quarter and ending the game with 5 fouls.
The upside still exists for Valanciunas after a handful of dud games.
Tonight, the New Orleans Pelicans get the Utah Jazz, who are just an average rebounding team. In a prior meeting this season, Valanciunas averaged 0.95 FanDuel points per minute against them (23.3 points in 24.5 minutes).
The combination of spread, total, and defense-versus-position ranking gives Valanciunas a pretty elite composite matchup rating for tonight's game. If peppering the mid-range, Valanciunas deserves a look as someone with the ability to drop 40 fantasy points.