This article is part of our FanDuel NBA series.
Welcome back to another season of daily fantasy basketball at FanDuel! If you've played the other daily formats at FanDuel and are looking to test the waters of basketball this column will be a useful tool. It's easy to peg players like LeBron James or Anthony Davis, but the key is to find value players to play alongside your studs. Given all of the injuries and new roles for lesser-known players, there seems to be more values than normal at the start of the season. We're here to help you identify those bargains and take advantage of these players before their price increases.
Each week, we'll take a look at players who are undervalued and should be in your lineup. These are players who should exceed their value in expected fantasy production compared to their cost. These players could be at the minimum-priced options or the $7,000-$8,000 range.
Point Guard
Donald Sloan, IND, $3500 – The absence of both George Hill (knee) and C.J. Watson (foot) leaves Sloan to handle starting point guard duties for Indiana. He'll see as many minutes as he can handle to start the season. In fact, some of his teammates, including Luis Scola ($4000), C.J. Miles ($4400) and Chris Copeland ($3500) all provide solid value while they start and get the bulk of playing time at their respective positions. Sloan led the Pacers with 13.3 points per game during the preseason, and he will have the green light to shoot. He should rack up five-plus assists per game while contributing in other fantasy categories merely based on the amount of time he'll be on the court.
Norris Cole, $4300 – Cole has won the starting point guard job for the Heat, narrowly beating out veteran Mario Chalmers. Cole is a little bit of a risky play, even at this price, without knowing how many minutes he'll see every night. He should see a boost in assists running the point and his scoring should go up with the Heat missing some of their scorers from a season ago. Even without the price tag, Sloan is the better play in the short term, though, Cole would be an interesting play to fade Sloan in GPPs.
Shooting Guard
Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL, $5900 – It's probably wise to steer clear of Antetokounmpo in cash games until he proves to have a safe floor, but he's an interesting option in GPPs, even at his price. His ceiling is off the charts from both a fantasy and real-life perspective, as someone who can contribute across the board in every fantasy category. Antetokounmpo isn't done growing at 6-11, and the Bucks have experimented with him playing some point guard. He'll likely see an uptick in minutes this season from the 24.6 minutes he averaged a year ago. Couple that with a year of experience in the NBA and playing in the FIBA World Cup, and Antetokounmpo could be in for a breakout season.
Small Forward
Draymond Green, GS, $5000 – Here's another guy who's not at the minimum price but in a position to greatly outproduce his cost. Green is in play whenever David Lee is out, which is the case Wednesday night. Green is another player who has the ability to fill up the stat sheet, meaning he doesn't need to score a ton of points to be a valuable fantasy commodity. Proof of that was shown at the end of last season when he averaged 13 points, 9.6 rebounds, three assists, 2.4 steals and two blocks over the final five games of his playoff series against the Clippers. Consider him whenever David Lee is out.
Power Forward
K.J. McDaniels, PHI, $3500 – McDaniels likely won't stay at this position for long given he'll play a lot of two and three this season. Last season, Michael Carter-Williams stunned everyone in the DFS community with his explosive first week of the NBA season and McDaniels will have the opportunity to do the same. While McDaniels doesn't have the upside of MCW, he'll have the same opportunity to play big minutes and it doesn't get any cheaper at the position than this. At 6-6 with a wingspan of 6-11, his athleticism is off the charts and he shot decent percentages last season as a Clemson Tiger. McDaniels is the perfect player to use if you are looking for a cheap player to pair with one of the stud power forwards.
Center
Enes Kanter, UT, $4700 – Kanter will begin the season as part of the Jazz's the starting lineup. He'll slot in at center and look to build on last year's numbers. Kanter averaged 12.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last season, decent numbers given he only averaged 26.7 minutes per contest. Despite the somewhat limited run, Kanter was able to rack up 24 double-doubles. And we'd be remiss not to mention that first-year Jazz head coach Quin Snyder has given Kanter the green light from beyond the arc. He has an opportunity to easily surpass the expected production of his discounted salary.
