With Thursday Night Football drawing most of the attention tonight, the NBA offers us a nice pivot with a small two-game slate that begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on both DraftKings and FanDuel. Using Stokastic’s NBA DFS projections, let’s take a deeper dive into the player pool to discuss the top NBA DFS high-priced studs for today.
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High Priced NBA DFS Plays: Thursday, October 26
Stud No. 1 — Joel Embiid: Philadelphia 76ers-Milwaukee Bucks
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 55.53 | FanDuel: 54.77
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 39.50% | FanDuel: 54.30%
- DFS Salary: DraftKings: $10,300 | FanDuel: $11,200
Embiid is the highest-priced player on DraftKings tonight, but it’s still really hard to get away from him at a discounted (for him) $10,300 price tag. With James Harden out for the foreseeable future, Embiid might not be in the best spot for his championship aspirations, but he looks elite from a DFS perspective, with only Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris taking away usage. In what sets up as a big spot in Milwaukee against Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, expect the very best Embiid has to offer tonight as he shows the world his MVP award from last season was no fluke.
Projected to be optimal 38.90% of the time on DraftKings, Embiid is pulling similar ownership, as he’s expected to be in 38.50% of lineups. The story is similar on FanDuel, where Embiid is projected to be in 54.30% of lineups and has a 50.40% chance of being optimal. Despite it being only a two-game slate, there are a few different studs in play tonight, but Embiid stands out as the top dog on both DraftKings and FanDuel.
Stud No. 2 — Kevin Durant: Phoenix Suns-Los Angeles Lakers
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 50.97 | FanDuel: 49.59
- Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 75.10% | FanDuel: 75.20%
- DFS Salary: DraftKings: $8,900 | FanDuel: $9,800
If there were ever a high-priced stud to hit the lock button on, it’s Durant tonight. Of course, weird circumstances can play out, but on paper Durant looks about $1,500 too cheap on DraftKings at his $8,900 price tag. With both Bradley Beal and Devin Booker not expected to play, Durant should take on an Embiid-like workload as the Suns look to start their season 2-0 with wins over the Warriors and Lakers.
If it feels like Durant and LeBron James haven’t played each other in a while, that’s because they haven’t. Tonight will be the first meeting in five years between the two future Hall of Famers, so expecting a little extra bite from Durant this evening isn’t all that crazy. From a pure numbers perspective, Durant is over-owned on both DraftKings and FanDuel, so if you want to play the ownership game and get under the field, that would make sense. That being said, it’s rare to see an $8,900 player with a 66.00% of being optimal, so truly fade him at your own risk.
There are only four teams in play tonight, so while there will be news leading up to lock, it should easily be enough to handle. Be sure to check out Stokastic Deeper Dive and Live Before Lock shows to see who is in and who is out on tonight’s slate.
