WNBA DFS Breakdown: Tuesday, August 8th
We have a small three-game slate today with some decent value and lots of talented forward options at the top.
If you have any questions regarding the slate, please give me a follow on twitter @travismangone and I will be more than happy to answer them for you.
Jasmine Thomas Injury
With Jasmine Thomas going down, the Connecticut Sun have become an appealing fantasy option. The first person to look at would be Alex Bentley for value. She has been coming on strong lately with three games of 21.75 DraftKings points or more and has played at least 24 minutes in each game. When Jasmine went down, Bentley saw a bump to 33 minutes, a season high for her, along with a 23.7% usage, which is a big jump compared to her season average of 18%. She is the first value play on this team that I would want to plug in.
Another target that could be useful on this slate is Courtney Williams, who I would expect to have more shot attempts and a small uptick in usage. She would be the second guard on this team that I would look for value. Lastly is Shekinna Stricklen — I could see her being an option that people ask me about, but I just think Bentley is the better play here and I don’t expect a huge game from Stricklen. If she gets hot from three-point range, she could become a great value play, and with Thomas out they might need her shooting, so I don’t hate taking a flier on her. If I had to pick Bentley or Stricklen straight up, I would take Bentley, who is only $100 dollars more on DraftKings.
With one of the core three players on the Sun down, I would think that Alyssa Thomas and Jonquel Jones are going to be asked to really step up in Jasmine’s absence. I think they could both be in for big games, but I am always a sucker for a discount, and $10,000 for Alyssa Thomas seems like a great deal when you get a $2,400 discount from Jonquel. I still think Jonquel is a great play too, so I think it depends on your construction on which one you would like to roster. This game also has the highest total on the slate at 170, and you guys know by now I love to game stack the highest total game in WNBA.
Lindsay Whalen Injury
Whalen is currently out indefinitely, so we will have some opportunities to take advantage when it comes to the Lynx. Now, Atlanta also has the second fastest pace in the league, so there could be some good amount of fantasy production to get here.
Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore are already good plays, as we know that they are studs, so if they fit and you like them I have no issues with playing them. The forwards are loaded tonight on this slate.
The value with the Whalen injury can be found through Augustus and Brunson. Both are now forced to play their normal minutes no matter what and could even see a heavier load of minutes. I think they are both great routes to go, and I even think you can pair them together on a team.
Least Interesting Game of the Night
The Liberty and Fever game is one that I am not really looking to target a lot of players from. It is a three-game slate, so I can’t just ignore the game, but I think it is smart to point out it has the lowest total on the board (158) points along with the largest spread at -9. Now, some people might look at the last game when it was 85-86 and disagree, but even in that close game there were not any must-have fantasy options. I don’t hate sprinkling in the Liberty guards because of the upside they have, but the guards are so unpredictable. The Fever are a team that play small, so taking a shot on a guard that has upside is not a bad idea to win tournaments.
Candice Dupree draws a tough matchup against Tina Charles and is very points dependent, but for only $6,800 on DraftKings I still think she is a bargain and has upside at that price that not many other girls have. The one thing I hate about Dupree is how scoring dependent she can be, so she’s not a play that I am going to go all in on, but the upside and that price tag can not be overlooked. Last thing I will note about this game is that I am likely going to have less exposure to Charles than others, considering I like a lot of the other forwards on this slate. It is also a slower paced game. I understand Charles could have a massive game, but I will go to war with Fowles, Stewart, Jones, Moore or Alyssa Thomas instead. I like all of them and I just can’t play every single forward.