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Justin Carter's top daily fantasy WNBA lineup picks for 8/15/20. Expert WNBA DFS advice, sleepers & player recommendations for DraftKings and FanDuel.
It's Saturday. The WNBA has a day off on Monday. Do you know what that means? Yep, this slate that's been full of uneven guard play for the last two weeks is about to be finished, with a new schedule next week cycling teams around. Yay!
In this article, I'll be providing you with some daily fantasy WNBA lineup picks for DraftKings and FanDuel on 8/15/20. These lineups picks will range from elite players to mid-priced options and value plays.
Want to talk more about the WNBA? I'm always available on Twitter and always down to discuss women's basketball: @juscarts
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WNBA - DFS Guards
Ariel Atkins (G, Washington Mystics) – vs Las Vegas Aces (DK: $8,300, FD: $5,100)
Washington is going through a rash of injuries right now, including a hip injury for Shey Peddy that leaves her questionable for Saturday's game.
If Peddy is out, well...
That means heavy minutes for the other Mystics players. Atkins is coming off one of her best games of the year, scoring 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting in 36 minutes against the Sparks, with seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals. She'll see a high volume of work in this one and is a strong value at her current price.
Jackie Young (G, Las Vegas Aces) – vs Washington Mystics (DK: $7,000, FD: $5,200)
Both platforms are catching up to Jackie Young's current upward trajectory, but they haven't caught up enough to make her a bad play yet. Look at her past four games:
I'm a big fan of riding the hot hand, especially when that hot hand faces a Mystics team that has increasingly struggled lately and is expected to be very short-handed. Let's stick with Jackie Young again.
Kia Nurse (G, New York Liberty) – vs Minnesota Lynx (DK: $6,800, FD: $4,700)
Kia Nurse's efficiency has taken a nose dive this season, but she had her first 20-point game against the Fever on Thursday thanks to an 11-for-12 night from the free throw line.
In eight games, Nurse only has one game in which she's shot at least 30 percent from the field. That's not good. But DFS doesn't punish you for missed shots, so we can instead take advantage of Nurse's high volume and hope that her ability to draw fouls continues to keep up.
We also have to assume that she's due for a good shooting night at some point. Minnesota has a good team, but some undersized perimeter options could help open up some space offensively for Nurse to work, and we could see her second 30 percent shooting night of 2020.
WNBA - DFS Forwards
Napheesa Collier (F, Minnesota Lynx) – vs New York Liberty (DK: $10,000 FD: $7,000)
Sylvia Fowles has a calf injury and will be out for an indefinite amount of time, which means Collier is going to have to step up if the Lynx want to keep playing great basketball.
Well, Collier had a season-high 21 points in Minnesota's last game -- a game where Fowles exited just a few minutes in -- and grabbed 14 rebounds, her second double-digit rebound game in a row. Without Fowles to monopolize the boards, Collier's going to have to do a lot more work on that end, and Thursday's game showed she's up for it.
It also helps that New York has the third-worst defensive rating in the league.
Nneka Ogwumike (F, Los Angeles Sparks) – vs Indiana Fever (DK: $8,000, FD: $6,300)
The former MVP hasn't been herself this season. Her 12 points per game are her lowest ever, even as she's shooting 57.1 percent from the floor. Her 4.6 rebounds per game would also be a career low.
It's hard to get a read on why this is happening, other than the fact that Candace Parker has been playing at an MVP level and taking on more of the offensive responsibilities. But if there's ever a game to pick Ogwumike to break out, it's against a team with the second-worst defensive rating in the league. And sure, her four points in 13 minutes when these teams last faced isn't a great indicator of success in this one, but I still think Ogwumike's upside is worth the risk in this one. The Fever do allow the most paint points in the league!
Tianna Hawkins (F, Washington Mystics) – vs Las Vegas Aces (DK: $7,600, FD: $4,800)
Since returning from injury, Hawkins has been pretty up and down. She had 17 points against the Fever on the 9th, and then had just three points against the Sparks last game.
But look, as I wrote above, the Mystics are light on players, meaning the ones they have are going to have to play a bunch of minutes. And Hawkins is a better value than Emma Meesseman or Myisha Hines-Allen, and has more upside than taking a swing on someone like Alaina Coates, even if she doesn't have as much upside as the former players.
What Hawkins does bring is an ability to fill up the stat sheet. She already has one double-double this year. She has five assists in her last two game. She has three games already with multiple steals. And she's still priced in a way that makes her easy to slide into your lineup without sacrificing quality high-end plays!
