After the early part of the NBA season was dominated by alternating big and small slates, the league has settled into a routine with fairly consistent medium-sized offerings. There were 10 games last night, four more tonight, and eight tomorrow in the first game day of Emirates NBA Cup action.
With eight teams in action, there are enough options for tonight’s featured DFS contest on DraftKings, including three of this season’s top five MVP candidates in Giannis Antetokounmpo ($12,100), Victor Wembanyama ($11,700), and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ($10,800), but with only eight lineup slots to fill, choosing wisely is paramount. Here are three players who should be in your lineups for tonight’s contest.
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C Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs vs. Miami Heat, $11,700
Picking between Wembanyama, Antetokounmpo, and Gilgeous-Alexander was extremely difficult. All three players are special and put up other-worldly numbers seemingly every time they take the court. Gilgeous-Alexander was the easiest to eliminate, given he’s averaging 10 FPTS per game fewer than either Antetokounmpo or Wembanyama, and his Oklahoma City Thunder’s game against the Washington Wizards might not be competitive enough for him to get his usual playing time. I ultimately opted to go with Wembanyama over Antetokounmpo solely because there are other great forward options, but the second-best center on the slate is Alex Sarr ($6,800).
By his standards, Wembanyama had a relatively quiet performance his last time out — 24 points, 15 rebounds, and just one block (52.2 FPTS) — against the Toronto Raptors, but the game demonstrated that simply refusing to attack the basket, as Toronto did, is hardly a recipe for success. The Heat have been willing to attack the basket this season, attempting the 10th-most shots within five feet, and that should give Wembanyama an opportunity to rack up blocks. Miami also gave up the 12th-most boards last season and ranks in the same spot so far in 2025-26, and Wembanyama trails only Steven Adams in rebounding percentage.
PF Miles Bridges, Charlotte Hornets vs. Orlando Magic, $7,700
Led by LaMelo Ball ($9,900) and rookie Kon Knueppel ($5,100), Charlotte has been one of the league’s more fun watches this season in jumping out to a 2-2 start. Bridges, who has averaged at least 20 points per game in each of his past three full seasons, is the longest-tenured member of the team. His shot hasn’t been falling to start the season — he’s converted on just 39.3% of his shots and 31.0% of his three-pointers — but he’s still affected the game in other ways, averaging 7.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists (36.1 FPTS per game). His percentages are bound to improve soon, given that 26.2% of his shots are wide-open threes, an 8.7-percentage-point uptick relative to last season. Plus, he should take more shots with Brandon Miller ($6,800) out; last season, he averaged 18.3 points per game before Miller suffered a season-ending wrist injury and 21.5 points per game thereafter.
The Magic are in the middle of establishing chemistry after dealing with serious injuries to both of their stars, Paolo Banchero ($8,800) and Franz Wagner ($7,500), then trading for Desmond Bane ($6,700). Eventually, their defense will improve — they finished with the league’s second-best defensive rating last season despite all the injuries and rank just 23rd so far this season after slumping to a 1-4 start — but they could be fairly exploitable while ironing out the kinks. Individually, Banchero isn’t a great defender — he’s never recorded better than a 0.2 defensive box plus-minus — and he’s always been Bridges’ primary defender whenever the two face off.
SG/SF Kyshawn George, Washington Wizards at Oklahoma City Thunder, $6,900
Because Wembanyama and Bridges both have fairly high DFS salaries, budgeting is key. Thankfully, George’s DFS salary hasn’t yet caught up to his production, even though he’s established himself as the brightest talent on this young Wizards team. He’s scored 20 or more points in three of his four contests so far this season and snagged eight or more rebounds in each of them. The 21-year-old has ranked as the league’s 34th-best player by box plus-minus, but his fantasy salary is much cheaper than that of Banchero, who ranks 127th.
Going against the Thunder and their league-best defense is never an easy task, but this Oklahoma City defense isn’t quite as dangerous without Chet Holmgren ($7,900), who’s currently sidelined with a back injury after a hot start to the season. In Holmgren’s absence, the Thunder allowed 101 points to the Sacramento Kings despite an uncharacteristically poor shooting performance from Sacramento’s best player, Domantas Sabonis, getting out-rebounded without Holmgren’s length in the middle. In the 2025 playoffs, opponents were 5.3 points per 100 possessions better without Holmgren on the court.
