This article is part of our FanDuel NBA series.
There are eight games Monday night, and while there aren't many cheap options that jump out, there are quite a few mid-salaried players who have high ceilings that make them worth the purchase price Monday.
Value Plays for Monday
Point Guard
Devin Harris, DAL, $3,500:Rajon Rondo suffered facial fractures in a collision with teammate Richard Jefferson over the weekend and will miss at least the next three games for the Mavs. Harris played 30 minutes off the bench Saturday against the Magic after Rondo was injured and forced to leave the game. While J.J. Barea and Raymond Felton will also see time at point guard, Harris looks like the odds-on favorite to have the best overall value while Rondo is out.
Shooting Guard
Tyreke Evans, NOP, $8,200: Finding good value doesn't necessarily mean using the cheapest players. Evans is a starting point guard as long as Jrue Holiday (leg) is out, and being able to use Evans at the shooting guard position on FanDuel is a boon. In 28 starts as a guard this season, Evans has averaged 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.4 blocks, and 0.7 three-pointers in 35 minutes per game. Over his last 10 games, he has had a floor of 18.4 FanDuel points and a ceiling of 43.4 FanDuel points. Evans feels the like most sure-thing available at shooting guard, but Eric Gordon, Monta Ellis, and J.R. Smith are decent options as well.
Small Forward
Andrew Wiggins, MIN, $6,900: The top two small forwards available on FanDuel for Monday are LeBron James ($11,300) and Kevin Durant ($10,900), and $3,000 below them sits Andrew Wiggins as the third-best available small forward Monday. While Wiggins has shown that his floor can fall pretty low, dropping as low as 16.9 FanDuel points over his last 10 games, in that same set of games, Wiggins has posted 53.8 and 43.7 FanDuel points. That's an elite ceiling that only the best players are usually able to post with any regularity. Given his ceiling and the lack of other good options, Wiggins is a great play at his salary. Jared Dudley is another interesting player to consider using if Ersan Ilyasova (concussion) and Zaza Pachulia (calf) are out Monday.
Power Forward
Zach Randolph, MEM, $8,600: Everyone knows who Randolph is and the fact that he's been a 20-and-10 machine most of his career, but ever since the big man came back from a nine-game absence with a knee injury, he's been one of the best daily games plays. After averaging 15.8 points and 10.9 rebounds in 31 minutes per game before the injury, Randolph returned from the injury to average 19.3 points and 13.8 rebounds in 35 mpg in January. If Z-Bo continues to produce this way the rest of the season, he could average the most rebounds of his career, and the 19.3 points is the most points he's averaged since the 2010-11 season. At $8,600, he's worth the cost.
Center
Nikola Pekovic, MIN, $5,900: Recommending habitually-injured players sucks, because there's always the fear that they'll get injured early in the game and be held out as a precaution. However, Pekovic has played well since returning from injury seven games ago, and coach Flip Saunders has decided to keep Pekovic in the starting lineup over Gorgui Dieng, which helps solidify Pekovic's value in the short term. Over his last two games, he's posted 32.4 and 30.9 FanDuel points. If he's going to get big minutes, it's worth getting Pekovic into lineups until he gets sent back to Doctor Frankenstein for more repairs.
