Fantasy Basketball 2021: Underrated Players for DFS Lineups in Conference Final

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

A good mix of superstars and underrated players is required in daily fantasy basketball contests to have success throughout the NBA conference finals. 

For the rest of the postseason, DFS basketball will be in the single-game format, which means you need to select five players from each game in FanDuel contests. 

Devin Booker, Paul George, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Trae Young will be the featured players in every game they play.

If you do not have good complements to any of them, your lineup will fall short of the prize-winning positions. 

Most of the key contributors on the four squads left in the NBA playoffs are known, but two have flown under the radar enough to not be on your radar yet. 

Underrated Players for DFS Lineups

Danilo Gallinari, PF, Atlanta

Kevin Huerter is going to be the popular name on the Atlanta roster after his Game 7 heroics, so he will not fly under the radar anymore. 

However, Danilo Gallinari still holds the underrated tag on the Hawks roster, and he could be a vital piece of DFS rosters in the next two weeks. 

Gallinari scored at least 16 points in five of the seven games against the Philadelphia 76ers, and he knocked down multiple three-pointers in each of the final three contests. 

Gallinari and Huerter will both be affected by the injury status of Bogdan Bogdanovic. If his knee is not 100 percent, Gallinari could take more shots than he did against the Sixers and even move into the starting lineup.

Even if Bogdanovic is on the floor, Gallinari could be in line for more shots since Bogdanovic served as more of a decoy in Sunday’s Game 7. 

In Game 7, Gallinari received 14 more minutes than any other bench player. He should play a minimum of 20-25 minutes against Milwaukee. 

Gallinari should be the best value find for DFS contests from the East finals because the Bucks trimmed their rotation in the final few games against the Brooklyn Nets.

Bryn Forbes and Pat Connaughton do not score enough to warrant roster spots in single-game contests. That leaves Gallinari as the top non-starter in the series.

Jae Crowder, PF, Phoenix

Jae Crowder serves an important purpose on the perimeter for Phoenix.

Crowder knocked down at least three three-point shots in four of his last five playoff games, including a 3-for-7 output in Sunday’s Game 1. 

Crowder makes the most sense as the underrated DFS star from the Suns-Clippers series because we are more aware of the heightened roles some other players are in.

Cameron Payne’s roster percentage will increase as long as Chris Paul is out, while Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris Sr. and Nicolas Batum have all seen an uptick in production with Kawhi Leonard out. 

You could make an argument for Rajon Rondo or DeMarcus Cousins to be the value find of the series, but you can’t feel confident in that until at least Game 3, so you have an idea of what the Clippers’ rotations look like. 

All of those factors lead you back to Crowder, who is the only player in the West finals that played in the NBA Finals a year ago.

Crowder’s experience with the Miami Heat and earlier in his career with the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers should help Phoenix throughout the series. 

Crowder will likely attempt around seven three-point shots per game, and he has 16 rebounds from his last two games.

If the rebounds continue to fall to him and he knocks down more shots, Crowder could end up as the best value play of both conference finals. 

Statistics obtained from ESPN.com.