FanDuel NBA: Saturday Value Plays

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Published on April 23, 2022

FanDuel's featured four-game slate kicks off at 2:00 p.m. ET, but FanDuel offers you opportunities to get involved with a two or three-game offering if the first game eludes you.

SLATE OVERVIEW

PHI (-3.5) @ TOR O/U: 213

UTA (-6) vs. DAL O/U: 212.5

BKN (-3) vs. BOS O/U: 222.5

MEM (-3) @ MIN O/U: 232.5

Balance is the name of the game for tonight's slate due to a lack of appealing budget options. Using one elite, one offsetting budget play and a host of mid-range options is likely the best route for an optimal lineup today, as an elite-heavy stars-and-scrubs approach will ultimately leave too many points on the table.

INJURIES

DAL Luke Doncic (calf) - QUESTIONABLE

There's optimism that Doncic will be able to play Saturday, but he'll also probably be on a minute restriction if that occurs. If he plays, Spencer Dinwiddie's production will obviously take a hit, but players like Jalen Brunson ($7,500) and Maxi Kleber ($4,400) won't be adversely affected.

TOR Scottie Barnes (ankle) - DOUBTFUL

Precious Achiuwa ($4,100) and Gary Trent ($5,400) are my favorite pivots for Barnes tonight.

MEM Dillon Brooks (foot) - QUESTIONABLE

Kyle Anderson ($4,000) would be the ideal pivot in the event of a Brooks absence.

ELITE PLAYERS

The gift of dual eligibility has once again been bestowed upon Joel Embiid ($10,500) and Karl-Anthony Towns ($8,900), allowing us to roster as many as three true centers in our lineups. Embiid is obviously the preferred center of the two, but Towns does come at an intriguing discount.

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are off the board for us tonight. Boston's smothering defense has made the duo a bit more of a risk and their prohibitive price makes for a build that's fraught with variance. It's also a night where it's difficult to trust Minnesota's elites due to some prohibitive pricing.

Jayson Tatum ($9,400) and James Harden ($8,700) are exponentially more appealing for Saturday's action, and I'm especially fond of Tatum and Jaylen Brown ($8,200), who face a Nets team that has no cohesive defensive strategy at the moment and are suffering under Boston's oppressive defensive attack. Harden is slightly riskier if the Sixers run away with this game, but Toronto will put up a fight as they face elimination today. Although Ja Morant ($9,800) is very expensive, he also has to be considered, although there are cheaper Memphis options that are more appealing to me at the moment.

Donovan Mitchell ($8,500) continues to produce a solid floor and still comes in at a very attractive salary. He lacks the pop of some other players at the top, but his three-game average of 32.7 points and 5.7 assists is hard to ignore.

Also consider: Pascal Siakam ($8,400) and Fred VanVleet ($8,000), TOR vs. PHI

EXPECTED CHALK AND VALUE PLAYS

OG Anunoby, TOR ($6,200) vs. PHI

You'll notice that we've given some form of endorsement to every Toronto starter. You can either elect to smash the value with Achiuwa and Trent or go big with Siakam and VanVleet, but OG Anunoby sits comfortably between those two extremes. While his first two games sat in the low 30s, he enjoyed a value-crushing Game 3 where he scored 44 FDFP. Toronto isn't a team that I would stack with abandon, but I do like Anunoby as one of the best Raptor options.

Desmond Bane, MEM ($6,000) @ UTA

As we saw in Game 3, Bane can take over a game in the right set of circumstances, and he ended up leading all scorers during Memphis' dramatic comeback from a 26-point deficit to take a 2-1 series lead. Expecting something similar to his 44-FDFP outing in Game 3 is probably too ambitious, but he exhibits great tournament upside. While we are on Memphis, we should definitely give a mention to Brandon Clarke ($5,500), who woke up with 33.5 FDFP in the comeback win.

Marcus Smart, BOS ($6,000) @ BKN

Although Smart regressed a bit in Game 3, he started off the series with two consecutive 40-FDFP scores, and he's played 36 minutes in every contest so far. It will be easy for the Nets to discount Smart, who has effectively shredded Brooklyn's proud defense throughout the series.

Also consider: Mike Conley, UTA ($5,800) vs. DAL, Danny Green, PHI ($4,200) vs. TOR

The author(s) of this article may play in daily fantasy contests including – but not limited to – games that they have provided recommendations or advice on in this article. In the course of playing in these games using their personal accounts, it's possible that they will use players in their lineups or other strategies that differ from the recommendations they have provided above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire.