3 NBA DraftKings Value Plays to Target on 12/1/17

Alec Burks, PG/SG, Utah Jazz

DraftKings Salary: $3,600

While it was expected that Alec Burks would see more playing time last night for a banged-up Utah Jazz squad, nobody saw a 50-plus DraftKings point explosion coming from a dude who previously had a season-high of 24 DraftKings points. Burks has always been a capable scorer, but the peripheral stats have been lacking this season. His 53.3 DraftKings points last night will probably go down as his season-high, but the factors that led to a big performance were not a fluke.

The Jazz were without Rudy Gobert, Rodney Hood, Joe Johnson, Raul Neto, and Dante Exum last night, which left their bench unit starved for offensive threats. As a result, Burks posted a 29.7% usage rate in 29 minutes of action. The big injury situation to keep an eye on heading into tonight's game is the status of Hood. He usually provides the spark off Utah's bench -- a role that Burks filled last night. If we get word that Hood is suiting up, Burks becomes just a tournament play.

If Utah heads into this game with the same depth chart they had last night, Burks is close to a must-play at his salary. He needs just 18 DraftKings points to reach value at this salary. He's reached that number in each of his past four games, a stretch during which he has averaged 29.5 DraftKings points.

Jacob Gibbs is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jacob Gibbs also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jagibbs23. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.