The FanDuel Partners Basketball Championship (FPBC) has grown tight, with less than 13 FanDuel points separating the Top 5 competitors. Ringing in in third place overall, RotoWire has put together four 300-FDP showings in the past five, riding James Harden (53 FDP) and Karl-Anthony Towns (51.7) to 312.1 on Friday. Once again, we'll cover the Top 5 FanDuel plays of the day.
Chris Paul, PG, LAC at GS ($9,900) – After dialing up RotoWire's Daily Lineup Optimizer, the player that stands head and shoulders above the others is Paul, who seems to thrives in the quicker environment presented with Stephen Curry and company on the other side.
As evidence, Paul has put up 44.1, 54.8, and 42.4 FDP in their other matchups this season, which works out to 51.9 FDP per 36 minutes and over 5.2 times his salary. Aiding in the decision to trust in CP3 is the most significant over/under (224.5) of Wednesday's slate, which should afford him plenty of opportunity to uphold his standard against the Warriors. Plus, the $700 saved using Paul versus the reigning NBA MVP fosters a trickle down effect, freeing up valuable cash to dole out elsewhere in the lineup, just as he does on a nightly basis.
Wesley Matthews, SG, DAL at POR ($3,800) – Trusting in Matthews is another cost-cutting maneuver, one wrought with potential pratfalls as his first season in Dallas has been accompanied by scaled-back production across the board. He's also hobbled at the moment by an ankle injury suffered Friday versus the Warriors, which appeared brutal in the moment, but the ironman marched onward, merely taping up the ankle and logging 42 minutes Sunday against his former team, the Blazers, against whom he's posted 27.5 and 24.5 FDP in 2015-16. Because he's managed just 0.60 FDP per minute as a Maverick, he'll require a considerable amount of run to reach that threshold Wednesday. However, RotoWire's Daily Fantasy Value Report reveals that Matthews has returned 4.78X his value over the last five games, meaning he could be well worth the price.
Stanley Johnson, SF, DET vs ORL ($3,900) – With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and, to a lesser extent, Reggie Bullock sidelined Wednesday due to illness, opportunity abounds at the wing in Detroit. While coach Stan Van Gundy has tabbed Darrun Hilliard as the starting two-guard, Johnson is the clear candidate to fill the majority of the void presented by the absence of the aforementioned pair. In the only contest in which he received 30-plus minutes since returning from a shoulder injury on March 11, Johnson showed off his array of skills, tallying 10 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and four steals on his way to 35.4 FDP on Saturday against the Nets. Even if he falls back to his per-36 mark for the season (25.3), he would yield nearly 6.5X his price tag.
Kevin Love, PF, CLE vs MIL ($6,400) – Foul trouble and an illness have limited Love to just 16 minutes of court time since Friday, but his return restores the Cavaliers' frontcourt rotation to its upright position. In his second season with the team, Love still toggles between the force of nature that was evident in Minnesota and fantasy non-entity, but the Bucks have only brought out the best of the versatile big man. Two early-season matchups returned 43.8 and 41.5 FDP, which equates to 39.4 FDP per 36 minutes, and another outburst wouldn't surprise against a defense that has allowed the 12th-most FDP per outing to opposing power forwards and the third-most FDP per contest to centers over the past 10 games, according to RotoWire's Defense vs. Position Stats tool.
Andre Drummond, C, DET vs ORL ($7,700) – Among the available centers Wednesday, either the matchup or sticker price spurred us to move to the next option, but Drummond's combination of the two was too appealing to pass up. A cursory glance of his game log exposes some warts, namely three sub-30 FDP nights and none greater than 40 FDP over the last seven tilts. Hindering his cause has been foul trouble (at least four fouls on four occasions) and a lack of defensive counting stats (five steals and five blocks) in that span. However, he's produced at a clip of 1.03 FDP per minute, meaning a productive performance should be in the cards against a Magic squad that gave up 34.4 FDP in 29 minutes in their sole meeting of the campaign on Jan. 4.
