NBA

5 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Wednesday 2/15/23

Brandon Gdula  —  @gdula13 Feb 15th, 2023

One of the keys to finding success in daily fantasy basketball is uncovering potential value plays.

If you're looking to roster a stud player or two, you need to consider squeezing one of these lower-salaried options into your lineup.

Let's take a look at some players who can help fill in the gaps in your lineup on FanDuel tonight, using numberFire's daily fantasy basketball projections as a guide.

Malcolm Brogdon, PG/SG, Boston Celtics
Grant Williams, PF, Boston Celtics

Brogdon's FanDuel Salary: $5,600
Williams' FanDuel Salary: $5,000

The Boston Celtics are on a back-to-back after pushing the Milwaukee Bucks to overtime on Tuesday, yet they're still likely to be shorthanded in some capacity.

Last night, the rotation was pretty tight. Malcolm Brogdon played 39.0 minutes, and Grant Williams led the way with 47.5.

Mike Muscala ($4,400) played 43.8, Derrick White ($7,000) played 43.1, and Sam Hauser ($4,800) also played 39.0. The only other player to clear 14.0 minutes was Blake Griffin ($3,700), who played 24.1 minutes.

There are a lot of ways to go with the value here depending on what news we get, but it's Brogdon who has the best value projection of the night, according to numberFire's model. He's expected to play 35.0 minutes and generate 40.9 FanDuel points.

Next up on the value list is Grant Williams (6.04 FanDuel points per $1,000), Al Horford ($5,500; 5.96), and then Hauser (5.72).

Stay plugged into the news and expect to load up on a few Celtics again on Wednesday.

Mark Williams, C, Charlotte Hornets

FanDuel Salary: $5,700

Mark Williams squares up with the San Antonio Spurs' 30th-ranked defense by defensive rating tonight, and that's leading to a huge value projection for him (5.95). In total, he's projected for 27.7 minutes and 33.9 FanDuel points.

Williams, against teams in the bottom-10 in defensive rating, has averaged an outstanding 1.44 FanDuel points per minute (over a small sample of 92.5 minutes).

Based on the elevated total, spread, and individual matchup, nobody has a better composite game matchup than Williams tonight.

Charles Bassey, C, San Antonio Spurs

FanDuel Salary: $3,500

I don't like to pinpoint two center-only options here, but Charles Bassey deserves some attention in the same game as Williams. Besides, we have a lot of flexibility with the Celtics expected, and there's a big salary discrepancy between Bassey and Williams anyway.

Bassey's projected for 21.9 FanDuel points over 17.1 minutes, good for 6.27 FanDuel points per $1,000 at the absolute minimum salary.

That doesn't leave much room for pure upside, and Bassey has maxed out at 23.8 minutes in any game all season. However, the potential of a $3,500 salary on a big slate can unlock ceilings (and combinations of ceilings) of superstar players, giving Bassey value in a different sense, as well.

Ayo Dosunmu, PG/SG, Chicago Bulls

FanDuel Salary: $4,400

Ayo Dosunmu sets up well in a matchup against the Indiana Pacers, a team that is 24th in defensive rating on the season. Dosunmu gets a positive overall composite matchup due to a solid total (230.5), spread (+2.5), and position-based defensive matchup (20th).

Just a 0.68-FanDuel-point-per-minute scorer on the full season, Dosunmu ups that by around 8% to 0.73 against bottom-10 defenses.

In six games with at least 30 minutes (he's projected for 34.3) against bottom-10 defenses, he's averaged a line of 33.3 minutes, 8.8 shots, 13.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.2 combined steals and blocks for 24.9 FanDuel points.

It's a high-floor situation with Dosunmu due to the minutes, and that has its own value baked in.