Happy New Year’s FANation! It’s 2020 and the NBA gives us a very awkward main slate which has four games on DraftKings and three games on FanDuel. Unfortunately, both slates include the Bucks vs Timberwolves game which has an incredibly high 18.5 point spread due to Minnesota being without Andrew Wiggins , Karl-Anthony Towns and Jeff Teague . Fortunately, a game like that will provide us with some nice value plays to target today so let’s get to it and see what value plays to target for today’s slate.
DraftKings
Markelle Fultz , PG ORL ($5,100) – Magic win the lottery today and will get the Wizards for the third time this season. The prior two meetings the game totals have been 247 and 246 which bodes well for the fantasy production here. Fultz is very cold right now, shooting just 2-for-17 over his last two games but despite the poor shooting he has played 30 minutes in each contest. Fultz is averaging 30 FP against the Wizards this season which would be 6x return on his price tag today if he simply matched that production.
Kelan Martin, SF MIN ($4,000) – Martin has started each of the last two games, playing 30 and 35 minutes while scoring 28 and 22.75 DK points. Given the injuries Minnesota has there is little reason to think Martin won’t see a similar run of playing time against the Bucks and while the initial match up will be tough he should eventually be playing against the Bucks second and third unit where he should find success.
Pat Connaughton , SG MIL ($3,600) – There is an 18.5 point spread in the game between the Bucks and T’Wolves tonight which should lead to Connaughton seeing plenty of blowout minutes during the second half of this game. Over the last three games he is averaging 23 minutes while scoring 27.75, 20.5 and 26.25 DK points. If Connaughton just meets the average of those three games tonight he will return nearly 7x value.
FanDuel
Shabazz Napier , PG MIN ($4,800) – Napier has been in the starting lineup of late but his minutes have been a bit inconsistent. That should not be an issue tonight given the fact that Jeff Teague is not expected to play. Napier played 34 minutes against the Nets on Monday, scoring 24 points with three rebounds and eight assists.
Carmelo Anthony SF POR ($5,300) – Who doesn’t love a good narrative play? Anthony returns to Madison Square Garden for his first time as a member of the Trail Blazers and it will be just his second appearance in the Garden since leaving the Knicks in 2017. The minutes have been there for Anthony but the production has started to dip with Damian Lillard really taking over the offense of late.
Jarrett Culver , SF MIN ($4,100) – Not trying to be redundant here but essentially the entire Timberwolves lineup can be included in the Value Vault today. Culver is going to be one of those better options on the slate, especially on DK where the lack of position flexibility on a small slate will make his upside at the price hard not to like. Culver went for 43.5 FD points against the Nets on Monday, going for 21 points with five rebounds, three assists, one block and three steals over 38 minutes.