After taking the day off yesterday, the WNBA is back with the force of a thousand winds on Friday. We get a huge 5-game slate, which as we know with this league, can be both good and bad.
More games means more ways to go wrong, but at least we should have some palatable value available to us – which means paying up for what figures to be a chalky A’ja Wilson a lot more feasible.
But is she a must? And what other injury news could change our plans? I’ll go over who makes the cut in my WNBA DFS core for 8/15 at DraftKings.
WNBA Core: A’ja Wilson, Alyssa Thomas, and Emily Engstler
I think based on salary alone you can absolutely make a case for fading one or both of Wilson/Thomas. However, they both come in with insane 49-point fantasy projections and nobody is within 10 fps of them.
The floor and ceilings are just insane right now. Paige Bueckers is probably the best “pivot”, as she is a full $2k cheaper and has the 3rd best projection of the slate. I do like her quite a bit with Arike Ogunbowale sidelined, but I will personally probably just access some Dallas value instead.
Wilson and Thomas face each other in the 2nd best overall game of the slate. I don’t think I want to miss out on that. That said, Bueckers and other Mercury/Aces as leverage are appealing in tourneys. I would still try to make it a priority to get at least one of Wilson/Thomas in my lineups, and I’ll largely be pairing them together.
Engstler is the best P/$ play of the slate. She’s very cheap and has played 24+ minutes with 26+ fps in her last two games. Shakira Austin is still out, so she is looking at a clear path to a similar role against the Fever.
There is other value to be had on this slate, too. I am also high on Li Yueru, who could benefit from Arike being out for the Wings. She logged 27 minutes in a close game last time out. Grace Berger is also getting burn and is $300 cheaper, but her floor has proven to be remarkably low. I prefer Yueru.
It’s a 5 gamer, so I think there’s a ton of value we can take shots at, and then try to get to some mixture of Wilson/Thomas/Bueckers.
Leave a Reply