While building a daily fantasy basketball lineup, it's important to make sure you find the right studs to anchor your team. As the most expensive players in your lineup, they need big-time production to match their high price tag.
You may find it hard to fit some of these guys in while staying under the salary cap, but you can check out our projections to find value players for your rosters. Let's take a look at the top high-priced DraftKings plays of the day.
Andre Drummond, C, Detroit Pistons
DraftKings Price: $10,200
There's no denying that James Harden is on a whole different level than everyone else on this slate. However, Russell Westbrook is expected to be back after resting Wednesday, while Andre Drummond -- at quite the discount -- will be playing without Blake Griffin yet again. He's the center of the Detroit Pistons' offense in a matchup he's dominated this season.
It was just two days ago that the big man went off for 61.5 DraftKings points behind a 20-20 performance on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers. According to NBA.com, he used only 20.2% of his team's possessions (below his season average) but proceeded to grab 25.6% of available rebounds. In his two head-to-heads with Cleveland, he is now averaging 20 points and 60.0 DK points as well as a 23.4% rebounding rate and 22.8% usage rate.
With that, in addition to a few injuries to the Cleveland rotation, the Pistons find themselves seven-point home favorites with an implied total of 113.75. That's more than five points clear of their average as a team, so an elite ceiling is there for Drummond. We project him for 48.5 DK points in 34.0 minutes.
Damian Lillard, PG, Portland Trail Blazers
DraftKings Price: $8,900
When Damian Lillard's price is down it's hard not to play him. On the year, the Portland Trail Blazers point man is averaging 47.0 DK points (good enough for nearly 5.3-times value tonight) after putting up 45.1 a game last year (still better than 5-times value). He's a consistent producer, posting less than 30 DK on only one occasion and hitting 40 or more in 27 of his 36 (75%) contests.
In the last 10 games alone Dame is managing 48.2 DK points a game with 28.1 points per night and two double-doubles. His usage rate has climbed to 28.9% in that split, and his minutes have exceeded the 37-point mark. What's not to like?
The showdown with the Minnesota Timberwolves is not one to shy away from, either. Opposing point guards have averaged the second-most points (25.9) en route to 48.8 DK points per game, according to Fantasy Pros. And it's that for that reason we have Lillard down for 45.1 DK points and a return of 5.1 points for every $1,000.
Russell Westbrook, PG, Houston Rockets
DraftKings Price: $8,400
As we previously touched on, Westbrook is expected to return to the lineup Thursday on the road against his former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. There's no word of a rest day for Harden, meaning we can expect the two to split time as the lead guard offensively. And given the discrepancy in price, the impact will be felt more for those rostering the Beard north of $12,000. Westbrook seems like the safer play at a 31% discount.
According to the on/off splits at NBA Wowy, Brodie has averaged 1.21 DK points per minute to Harden's 1.51. But his 29.2% usage rate is only 4% off, and when we narrow the scope to include only the months of December and January we see that Westbrook's up over 30% and has cut the deficit to 2.1%. His DK points per minute have increased to 1.26 to boot, and that's not taking into account the time he spends as the only star on the floor.
Westbrook needs just 42 DK points to bring back optimal value this evening. Turns out, he's hit or surpassed that mark at a 64.5% clip this year -- and why not here? Last time out against Chris Paul and company he went for 21 points, a double-double and 50.5 DK points. Dial him up on some rested legs.
Brett Oswalt is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Brett Oswalt also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username BrettOswalt__14. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her 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.