It may not mean much in terms of the team’s overall record, but Jalen Brunson is making the most of his uptick in minutes to close the season and he has the look of a safe play from here out.

Brunson’s salary has averaged about $5,400 over his last eight games, of which he’s scored at least 26 FanDuel points in each of them, including outings of 33 and 48 points in consecutive games last week.

Taking advantage of his opportunity, Brunson has moved into the top-15 at his position over the last couple weeks and his salary has also made him one of the better values of the point guards in that range.

It’s a pretty decent recipe to close the year: a reasonable salary, a young point guard fighting for what could be a starting job next season, and a team that wants to see all they can in the last 11 games of the season. Play Jalen Brunson. He’s easy to root for, too.

Brunson and the Mavericks take on the Kings (twice), Warriors Warriors, and Heat in their upcoming games.

Shae Cronin is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Shae also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username betbigdc. 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.