This article is part of our FanDuel NBA series.
Every week, this article will take a look at players who are undervalued and should be in your lineup. These are players who should exceed their value in fantasy points when looking at their cost. These players could be at the minimum or near minimum of $3,500 or could be in the $7-$8,000 range. It's easy to peg players like LeBron James or Anthony Davis but the key is to find value players to plug in with them.
Point Guard
Tony Wroten, $6600 – Normally there aren't players with this high of a price tag in this column, but Wroten is an exception. Outside of a dud against Golden State in which he admitted he needed to be more aggressive, Wroten has scored at least 20 points over his last five games. He's had no less than 28.2 fantasy points during said time and will have even more value on certain nights. Those certain nights will be if or when Michael Carter-Williams takes a seat to give his ailing shoulder a rest. That scenario happened last Saturday when the 76ers played the Clippers, and Wroten put up 38.3 fantasy points in a tough matchup with Chris Paul.
Shooting Guard
Wayne Ellington, $4100 – This recommendation comes with a big asterisk: only use him when Kobe Bryant sits out for a game of rest. Ellington has limited upside but is an interesting, cheap option on those nights. Over the last four games that Kobe has sat out (dating back to late December), Ellington has gotten the start and been productive. While the production hasn't been spectacular, games of 19, 24.5, 17.4 and 20 points show some consistency. Also, Kobe should play the majority of the Lakers' games, meaning Ellington's price is likely to go down from here.
Small Forward
Joe Ingles, $4400 – It seems like it's a curse to be the starting shooting guard for the Jazz this season with Alec Burks out for the season and Rodney Hood dealing with plantar fasciitis. Enter Ingles who has seen an uptick in minutes with both of those players injured. Ingles put up a stellar stat line Monday night, scoring eight points with nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Those stats added up to over 31 fantasy points, and he played 37 minutes that game. It's a tad early to throw him into your cash game lineup, and the extra time and production was partially due to Trey Burke being sidelined with an illness. Still, that was enough of a performance to watch him over the next few games to see if he can develop some consistency.
Quincy Acy, $4700 – Comparing Acy to Ingles, Acy right now is the safer play and the punt option to use if you're looking for help for your cash games. Provided he keeps getting minutes and Amar'e Stoudemire is sidelined, Acy is going to provide good value. He's not much of a scorer, and you won't see him knock down a lot of 15-foot jump shots, but his hustle and work cleaning the glass make him valuable. With an uptick of minutes over his last three games, he's scored 38.3, 24.4 and 25.3 fantasy points and done so by averaging a double-double. There's no reason to think he can't keep this kind of production going provided he gets the playing time and Stoudemire continues to be sidelined.
Power Forward
John Henson, $4500 – Probably the weirdest story in the Association this week was the rumor flying around about Larry Sanders and his future with the Bucks. Henson has been called into action with Sanders' absence and contributed nicely after dealing with a foot injury earlier this season. He got into foul trouble Sunday against the Knicks but had five straight games of at least 20 fantasy points before that. His ability to rebound and block shots helps his value by not making him completely dependent on scoring. Think about using him as long as Sanders is out and the matchup looks good for a big man.
Center
Jusuf Nurkic, $5000 – Who? Unless you follow the Nuggets or Bosnian National Team you probably don't know who the 20-year-old is. Nurkic has made the most of his increased playing time as of late and should be on everyone's radar. In the FanDuel format, he's scored 32.7, 36, 28.5 and 35.6 fantasy points in each of his last four games. The crazy part to those stats is that he's averaging less than 24 minutes per game over that span. The key for Nurkic here is to use his larger frame (7-0, 280 lbs) to block shots and get steals; he's averaging five combined over those four games. Those are critical stats as that means he's scoring 10 fantasy points alone between those two categories. The price isn't an absolute steal here, and there would be more security if he was playing north of 30 minutes. However, his recent play doesn't appear to be a fluke, and any game around 30 fantasy points is a bargain at this price.
