NBA

5 NBA FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Friday 4/7/23

Austan Kas  —  @AustanKas Apr 7th, 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.

Bol Bol, C, Magic (3,900)
Chuma Okeke, PF, Magic ($3,600)
Jay Scrubb, SG, Magic ($3,500)

It's another day of chaos in NBA DFS.

The first place to look for value is the Orlando Magic. Orlando is sitting Paolo Banchero, Markelle Fultz, Wendell Carter Jr., Gary Harris, Moritz Wagner and Franz Wagner. So, yeah.

As of early Friday, our model has these three -- plus Goga Bitadze ($4,900) -- as the top point-per-dollar value plays of the day.

Bol Bol just produced 28.1 FanDuel points last night in a similar situation (everyone who is out tonight was out last night with the exception of Mo Wagner, who played). We project him to fare even better today in a date with the Brooklyn Nets, forecasting Bol for 33.7 FanDuel points -- which comes out to a whopping 8.63 per $1,000.

Chuma Okeke netted only two real-life points on Thursday in a starting role but wound up scoring 26.5 FanDuel points thanks to five total steals/blocks. He projects for 26.4 FanDuel points tonight (7.33 per $1,000).

Jay Scrubb isn't expected to start but should see good run. He logged 28 minutes off the pine last night and totaled 21.5 FanDuel points. We see him scoring 26.0 FanDuel points on Friday (7.44 per $1,000).

Bennedict Mathurin, SG/SF, Pacers ($5,700)

I want exposure to the Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons game, and Bennedict Mathurin is a great way to get just that.

This clash has a 230.5-point total and 7.5-point spread. Both squads sit in the bottom three in defensive rating across the past 10 games.

Mathurin should start for the tanking Pacers, who have ruled out Tyrese Haliburton and Chris Duarte while listing T.J. McConnell, Myles Turner and Jalen Smith as questionable. Mathurin has played at least 32 minutes in five straight and showed his ceiling with a 48.8-point FanDuel outburst four games ago.

We project Mathurin for 32.1 FanDuel points (5.62 per $1,000). He's going to be a core play for me.

JT Thor, PF, Hornets ($5,100)

The Charlotte Hornets are another team that has shut it down for the year as they'll be sans all of PJ Washington, LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier, Kelly Oubre and Gordon Hayward. Dennis Smith Jr. and Mark Williams are also questionable.

Enter JT Thor.

Thor should see a ton of minutes and has a mouth-watering matchup versus the Houston Rockets, a team that ranks dead last in defensive rating over the last 10 games. The Rockets have surrendered 52.1 FanDuel points per night to power forwards across the past seven games.

Thor put up 26.9 FanDuel points last time out, and we project him to amass 25.5 FanDuel points on Friday (5.01 per $1,000). There's upside for more, especially if Williams ends up sitting.