3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 4/20/21

Basketball is the most consistent sport for daily fantasy purposes.

A top slugger in baseball will have his fair share of 0-for-4 days, and an elite fantasy football player is at risk of having games where his team's offense as a whole is shut down. A high-salaried NBA stud is generally going to get his, though. With so many possessions in a game providing opportunities to produce, top fantasy basketball options will be posting high scores just about every night.

While this consistency puts us in a good position to identify top plays, it also means you can't afford to miss when you're paying a heavy salary to roster someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, getting a dud from a stud is likely going to leave your lineup lacking.

Let's get right into it and look at which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today.

All injury updates are via the NBA's official injury report or numberFire's player news.

Kyrie Irving, PG, Brooklyn Nets

FanDuel Salary: $9,400

Whatever roster percentage you think Kyrie Irving will see tonight, chances are that you're not thinking high enough.

With Kevin Durant, James Harden, Nicolas Claxton, Tyler Johnson, and Chris Chiozza out for the Brooklyn Nets tonight, coupled with a matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans, Kyrie is bound to see his usage go through the roof. In fact, in 194.4 minutes with those aforementioned players off the court, Irving is averaging an impressive 1.53 FanDuel points per minute, per RotoGrinders.

Slowing down opposing point guards has not been the Pelicans' forte this season, as they rank 28th against the position, according to numberFire's DvP tool.

Irving has been in and out of the lineup quite often in recent weeks, though he has racked up 51.9-plus FanDuel points in 9 of his last 15 outings.

numberFire's algorithm projects Irving to be the top scorer and second-best point-per-dollar play at point guard tonight.

C.J. McCollum, SG, Portland Trail Blazers

FanDuel Salary: $8,100

The Portland Trail Blazers will be without Damian Lillard for their bout with the Los Angeles Clippers tonight, which means that C.J. McCollum is going to be one of the slate's top plays.

In nine games with Lillard off the court over the last two seasons, McCollum has averaged 48.8 FanDuel points, including posting at least 42.2 in seven of them.

The Clippers rank 15th against two-guards this season, so this isn't a matchup we have to avoid.

Our model pegs McCollum to be the slate's top shooting guard at a projection of 43.5 FanDuel points -- which is 11.6 more than the third-best shooting guard.

Bogdan Bogdanovic, SF, Atlanta Hawks

FanDuel Salary: $7,100

While the first two players in this column will be the chalk of the slate, Bogdan Bogdanovic has the potential to be an excellent differentiator at a thin small forward position.

Our algo isn't particularly high on Bogdanovic tonight, projecting him to return a value figure under 4.4 (i.e., fewer than 4.4 fantasy points for every $1,000 in salary), and that's likely to reflect how the masses feel about him tonight, as well.

That said, there is plenty of reason to like Bogdan's outlook. First off, he's going up against an Orlando Magic squad that's ceded the second-most fantasy points and the most made three-pointers to small forwards over their last 30 games, per FantasyPros.

Second, Bogdanovic has had quite a hot hand of late, especially with Danilo Gallinari off the court. In his last six games with Gallinari inactive, the 28-year-old has averaged 43.3 FanDuel points, including no fewer than 36.2 in any of those contests.

I'm riding the hot hand here.