FanDuel: Which Wizards players are good bangs for your buck?

Welcome to Week 1 of our FanDuel pointers. In this week, we will talk about Wizards players who are likely to help you without costing you a premium price.

How a FanDuel basketball team is set up

In FanDuel, you will create a team of nine players, generally for a one-day league. They include two point guards, two shooting guards, two small forwards, two power forwards, and one center.

Unlike most traditional fantasy leagues which involve a player draft, you can select any group of players you want with a hard salary cap of $60,000 in hypothetical FanDuel world money. As you might expect, a player like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, or Stephen Curry will cost you much more than a player like Matthew Dellavedova, Steven Adams, or Shaun Livingston. So when you select a superstar of their caliber, you will sacrifice cap space for other good, but not necessarily All-Star level players.

The scoring system

FanDuel's scoring system is as follows for most of their standard leagues:

From this system, several things are clear. First, this system values three-point shooters the most. Second, it also tends to favor players who are good assisters, given that there is a slightly higher point value given to them than rebounds. Therefore this system tends to value guards and stretch forwards a little more than a back-to-the-basket center.

That said, there are no points given for shooting efficiency, and you still have to pick a center. Therefore, any volume scorer regardless of position will do fine in your FanDuel league.

Which Wizards players are likely to be the best bangs for your buck?

As you might expect, John Wall and Bradley Beal are easy picks in a vacuum. But they also will cost you $9,400 and $7,200 respectively, at least for the contests I saw. This value is well above the pro-rated average of $6,667.

Either way, it's easy, or maybe a bit too easy to pick one or both members of the House of Guards to be on your team. Fantasy Leagues often aren't won because you selected LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Anthony Davis as your top three players. It's because of the depth you built in your bench.

Here are four Wizards players who cost below the average of $6,667 who may be good options for you to fill in your bench in your FanDuel leagues after you add your superstars like Wall and Beal of course:

Ramon Sessions, PG ($4,100), 16.8 fantasy points per game (FPPG) - Sessions is the Wizards' third leading scorer with 11.3 points per game. He has been able to contribute as a scorer in all ways (free throws, twos, threes) and has kept his turnovers in check unlike the House of Guards so far this season.

Otto Porter, SF ($5,500), 24.9 FPPG - Sure, Porter isn't averaging as many points as we would like. But points are a stat which tends to be overplayed in a league with scoring rules like this . The third year forward is dishing three assists and seven rebounds per game, which account for 12.9 of his fantasy points per game. He is definitely a cost effective option at the three after you pick a superstar or two to build the foundation of your team.

Drew Gooden, PF ($3,800), 17.1 FPPG - I don't think Drew Gooden is going to be a consistent double-double machine like last Saturday against the Knicks when he scored 11 points and grabbed 11 more rebounds. However, he is a reliable stretch four off the bench and someone who Randy Wittman looks to on a regular basis.

Kris Humphries, PF ($4,000), 11.6 FPPG - Humphries showed promise with his three point shooting game in the preseason where he averaged 19.48 FPPG. Sure, his numbers aren't where we would like in the young season. But the minimum player salary in a FanDuel league is $3,500 and Humphries is a starter whose salary isn't much more than that. He'll rebound soon, and he's a lower risk option as your second PF after you select your star players.

And ... that's it!

We'll check back next week with more things on how to do better in FanDuel, and hopefully win some money along the way.

Disclaimer: Even though this is a sponsored post with affiliate links, all of the opinions in this post are my own. And as an FYI, FanDuel gave me some cash to play its daily fantasy games. To sign up for FanDuel, click here.