3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on Tuesday 4/5/22

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 up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud is likely going to leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.

Which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today?

Giannis Antetokounmpo, PF/SF, Milwaukee Bucks ($12,100)

There are plenty of landmines on Tuesday's 12-game slate where stars may end up resting.

Giannis Antetokounmpo did that from the same probable status he holds now on Friday, so we're not out of the woods with him at this point. But, if we believe the injury report at face value, he appears set to lock horns with the Chicago Bulls once again.

Antetokounmpo has been wildly productive against Chicago (and really everyone) this season, posting 1.70 FanDuel points per minute across three games. That hasn't netted a large volume of FanDuel points each time due to a blowout, but the Bucks are just five-point favorites in a game the Bulls need to win much more than Milwaukee does.

The stingy Mavericks defense held Antetokounmpo below 55 FanDuel points for just the third time in 14 games. That's a testament to them much more so than a belief Giannis is slowing down with -- potentially -- another MVP in the balance.

Personally, I think Kevin Durant may end up getting the night off with Brooklyn positioned as a 17-point favorite to visiting Houston. If that happens, Giannis balloons beyond all other alternatives at forward.

Joel Embiid, C, Philadelphia 76ers ($11,600)

Joel Embiid seems to deeply care about the NBA's MVP award. That matters for daily fantasy on Tuesday.

On a normal night in November, this might not be the ideal spot to target Embiid. Yes, the matchup is as good as it gets; Indiana was a bottom-six team in defensive rating, defensive rebound rate, and paint points per game allowed during the month of March.

But, Philadelphia is an 11.0-point road favorite. Normally, Embiid might get the night off early should this one become lopsided. However, Embiid played 38 minutes on Sunday and has been stretching his workload closer to Nikola Jokic's to boost his totals in the same vein.

If Embiid is going to lobby for a full role, not only are there very few paths to failure for him, but he has the singular highest upside on the slate given his matchup.

Given that Jokic draws a stiffer San Antonio defense in a matchup the Spurs want to win, JoJo seems like an easy choice at a lower salary.

Trae Young, PG, Atlanta Hawks ($10,000)

Though the 226.0-point total is nothing special, the matchup between Atlanta and Toronto might be a top place to grab stars from.

The thing about Embiid, Giannis, and several star players on Tuesday is that their game's outcome just doesn't matter to their team. Some may rest, some may see early nights in a blowout, and some may just not try as hard.

Toronto is clinging to the Eastern Conference's last solidified playoff spot, and Atlanta is jockeying for play-in tournament seeding. With maximum motivation, we can turn to Trae Young on the Hawks' side.

Young's name is bizarrely absent in MVP conversations -- apparently because he just doesn't get enough rebounds as a guard. Because, as a scorer, he accounted for the most points in the NBA with 29.4 points and 10.5 assists in March. He's arguably playing better offensively than most of the candidates, but he's just lacking the glasswork.

Atlanta could be without two of its other top-four leaders in usage rate on Tuesday if Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari sit with their knee issues. Once again, a heavy load should be on the shoulders of one of the game's best scorers.