NBA

3 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Wednesday 3/15/23

Austan Kas  —  @AustanKas Mar 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.

Jarred Vanderbilt, PF, Lakers ($5,500)

Anthony Davis is joining LeBron James on the sidelines tonight, making the Los Angeles Lakers a great place to find low-salary production.

Our model has Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura ($4,700), Troy Brown Jr. ($4,800) and Wenyen Gabriel ($4,200) projected as sweet point-per-dollar plays in a friendly matchup with the Houston Rockets -- a game with a 230.0-point total and 3.5-point spread.

I want to focus on Vanderbilt. He should be a lock for big minutes, seeing at least 28 in two of the past three games, and he can thrive versus a Houston team that ranks next to last in defensive rating across the past 15 games.

We project Vanderbilt to score 31.7 FanDuel points, which comes out to a whopping 5.77 per $1,000.

Marcus Smart, PG, Celtics ($5,600)

A team I desperately want exposure to tonight is the Boston Celtics.

Boston is playing at the Minnesota Timberwolves in a game that boasts a 233.5-point total and 5.0-point spread. It's a huge pace-up spot for Boston. Minnesota is 3rd in pace over the past 15 games while the Celtics sit 24th. The Wolves are also just 19th in defensive rating in that span, so they're a stellar matchup.

Marcus Smart is an economical way to get access to Boston.

Smart is usually a safe bet for solid minutes, getting at least 28 in seven of his last eight outings, and while his FanDuel outputs have been underwhelming of late, it's resulted in Smart coming in at this modest salary, one that is $800 down from his tag from four games ago.

Our model has Smart pegged to produce 29.2 FanDuel points (5.21 per $1,000).

Patrick Beverley, PG, Bulls ($4,700)

The best fantasy environment of the night is the Chicago Bulls-Sacramento Kings affair. The game is showing a slate-high 236.5-point over/under with a 1.0-point spread.

Patrick Beverley has flashed a pretty dang good ceiling in recent games, going off for outputs of 46.0 and 37.5 FanDuel points across his last five games. Of course, mixed in between those are games of 19.2, 14.7 and 10.4 FanDuel points, but Beverley is projecting well this fantasy-friendly spot.

In the past 15 games, the Kings have permitted the 10th-most FanDuel points per night to point guards (48.7) and the 8th-most to shooting guards (44.5). That puts Beverley in a really nice spot, and we could see another outburst from him.

We project Beverely for 23.8 FanDuel points (5.05 per $1,000).