We have a light four-game slate Tuesday night, so finding the right foundations for your lineup is more important than ever. The slate isn’t very top heavy tonight; only four players check it with price tags over $9,000. The highest projected point total of the night is the matchup between the Wizards and Hawks in Atlanta at a whopping 236, so you have plenty of options from those two defensively-challenged squads. With a slate like this, you don’t want to miss out on a big performance and need to make sure you have room to pencil in some of those stud players. Below are the players you need to get into your lineups tonight to optimize your chances of winning.
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Point Guard
John Wall is the stud to pay up for tonight ($10,400)
Wall is fresh off of a season-high 40 point performance Sunday where he racked up 78.2 FD points. Of course, you shouldn’t automatically expect 75+ points tonight, but you can expect an output worthy of the price tag. Wall is facing the Atlanta Hawks, who give up more FD points to point guards than any other team in the NBA. His usage rate should be through the roof with Otto Porter still sidelined, and Kelly Oubre and Austin Rivers shipped out in the recent trade. Wall should be well worth the price tonight.
Trae Young ($6,900) of Hawks could make for a great play in the same game. Washington is right behind Atlanta in giving up the second most FD points to point guards. The rookie can score and dish out assists in bunches, but his inconsistency makes him a riskier play.
We have a light four-game slate Tuesday night, so finding the right foundations for your lineup is more important than ever. The slate isn’t very top heavy tonight; only four players check it with price tags over $9,000. The highest projected point total of the night is the matchup between the Wizards and Hawks in Atlanta at a whopping 236, so you have plenty of options from those two defensively-challenged squads. With a slate like this, you don’t want to miss out on a big performance and need to make sure you have room to pencil in some of those stud players. Below are the players you need to get into your lineups tonight to optimize your chances of winning.
Create FanDuel lineups using our DFS Lineup Optimizer tool
Point Guard
John Wall is the stud to pay up for tonight ($10,400)
Wall is fresh off of a season-high 40 point performance Sunday where he racked up 78.2 FD points. Of course, you shouldn’t automatically expect 75+ points tonight, but you can expect an output worthy of the price tag. Wall is facing the Atlanta Hawks, who give up more FD points to point guards than any other team in the NBA. His usage rate should be through the roof with Otto Porter still sidelined, and Kelly Oubre and Austin Rivers shipped out in the recent trade. Wall should be well worth the price tonight.
Trae Young ($6,900) of Hawks could make for a great play in the same game. Washington is right behind Atlanta in giving up the second most FD points to point guards. The rookie can score and dish out assists in bunches, but his inconsistency makes him a riskier play.
Shooting Guards
Find value with Monte Morris ($5,700) and Torrey Craig ($4,200)
Denver is a team dealing with a multitude of injuries right now. Will Barton, Gary Harris, and Paul Milsap are all still out, and Juancho Hernangomez is suddenly dealing with an abdominal strain. Both Morris and Craig have seen at least 28 minutes on the court in three of the last four Denver games, so they both make safe volume plays. Dallas is one of the worst teams in the NBA defending against shooting guards, giving up the sixth-most FD points per game on average this season. Morris has more upside with his scoring and three-point shooting ability, but both of these Nugget guards can be played if you want to save a lot of money to spend up elsewhere.
Small Forward
Save even more with sneaky Sam Dekker ($4,400)
Dekker is another sneaky value play Tuesday night. As I mentioned earlier, the Wizards are already missing Otto Porter Jr. tonight and just shipped out Kelly Oubre to Phoenix. Markeef Morris exited early in Sunday’s game with a neck strain, giving an opportunity for Dekker to step up and score 20 points in 21 minutes of play. Newly acquired Trevor Ariza may be available to make his Wizard debut tonight, but Dekker should remain part of the rotation for the time being and should provide great value against the hapless Hawks.
For many of the same reasons, Jeff Green ($5,300) is also a smart play for a slightly higher price.
Power Forward
Set Thaddeus Young as a foundation in your lineups ($6,500)
Young has seen a nice uptick in scoring and rebounding lately, averaging 16.1 points and 7.8 rebounds so far in December. He’s been more consistent and has mixed in a few monster performances in the last week or so. The Pacers take on the Cavaliers tonight, and while Cleveland’s numbers against power forwards look respectable at first, they’ve actually given up the sixth-most FD points to power forwards on average over the last seven games. Young comes with a safe floor tonight along with massive upside.
Center
Take advantage of a great matchup with JaVale McGee ($6,300)
The Lakers journeyman center is in a great spot tonight as Los Angeles takes on Brooklyn. The Nets have been crushed by centers this season, easily giving up the most FD points to the position. He missed the Lakers last game on Sunday with the flu, so as of this writing he is still tagged as a game-time-decision, so you’ll have to pay attention to reports leading up to tipoff. There’s a chance that the designation scares some players away, but I expect that he should be feeling healthy enough to take advantage of the juicy matchup.
There you have it; using these players in your lineups tonight will set you up with a solid foundation and give you plenty of flexibility to spend up where you need and take advantage of Tuesday’s small slate. Good luck!
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Aaron Larson is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Aaron, check out his archive and follow him @aalarson.