3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 2/22/19

Russell Westbrook, PG, Oklahoma City Thunder

Price: $11,800

Russell Westbrook's price has taken a sharp drop for tonight, down $600 from where it last sat before the All-Star break.

Russ exploded for 81.3 FanDuel points in his final game before the break (after topping 55 in four of his five games before that), so the drop is not at all performance related. If anything, that six-game run (and if we go further back, his last 10, in which he's averaging 60.0 FanDuel points per game) should have his price climbing into the high-$12,000s.

So, his value tonight comes down to how you feel about his matchup with the Utah Jazz, which is the likely culprit for the decreased salary.

The Jazz own a top-five defensive rating, yes, but thanks to their 14th-ranked pace, they're not the same egregious fantasy matchup we've seen in past years. Yes, they're limiting opposing point guards to bottom-five fantasy efficiency, but that's more than accounted for in Westbrook's salary here.

If Russ was in a slump and priced here against the Jazz, he might be worth fading. If he was performing the way he has been but was priced up in the mid to high $12,000s he might be worth fading. But with his current form and today's salary, this matchup isn't enough to take him out of play.