RADIO
On Friday, the 2021 WNBA season tipped off. It featured buzzer beaters from Sabrina Ionescu and Diana Taurasi. It also featured some great fantasy performances by some of the players I mentioned yesterday, but also some horrendous showings from some of the other picks. Hey, it's early. Misses happen.
Now, it's Saturday, and the four teams that didn't play on Friday night will face off on a two-game afternoon slate. Not a lot of time for you to get your lineups in, but there's still a lot of really good plays on this slate, so if you have a few minutes to jump over to DraftKings or FanDuel, you should do that!
In this article, I'll be providing you with some daily fantasy WNBA lineup picks for DraftKings and FanDuel on 5/15/21. 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
Courtney Vandersloot (G, Chicago Sky) – @ Washington Mystics (DK: $10,200, FD: $7,200)
Welcome to another season of playing Courtney Vandersloot in DFS because of her assist upside. This year, that upside is even higher (which doesn't even seem possible) because the Sky added Candace Parker, who is going to give Vandersloot around target.
More than any player in the W, Vandersloot is a quarterback. In Chicago's spread out offense, Vandersloot uses her insane vision to find her receivers, who then have some easy shots. We're talking about a player who has the highest assist rate in league history and has led the league in assist rate four years in a row. And if we want to talk normal stats, she's led the league in assists per game five times, including last year's 10.0 per game. She's also become a knock-down three-point shooter.
Diamond DeShields (G, Chicago Sky) – @ Washington Mystics (DK: $7,900, FD: $3,500)
This is an incredibly risky play, but the upside is huge. Before last year, DeShields was a trendy MVP pick, but then injury and some surprising ineffectiveness sidetracked her 2020 campaign.
But if DeShields enters this season healthy, we're talking about one of the best perimeter players in the WNBA. In 2019, she averaged 16.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game, as well as 1.3 steals.
Here's my advice: if DeShields is in the starting lineup, play her for the value. If lineups go out and she isn't, pivot to someone else at guard.
Natasha Cloud (G, Washington Mystics) – vs Chicago Sky (DK: $7,200, FD: $4,800)
Cloud sat out last season, but in 2019 she averaged career highs in points and assists. Because she didn't play, her DFS price is lower than it probably should be, and while Cloud doesn't have the biggest ceiling in the world, she should be able to get you solid numbers in a game that'll be really offense oriented. And with no Elena Delle Donne or Myisha Hines-Allen, there will be shots available on this team. Cloud should get some of those.
WNBA - DFS Forwards
Breanna Stewart (F, Seattle Storm) – vs Las Vegas Aces (DK: $10,800, FD: $8,400)
WNBA FINALS REMATCH.
The Storm don't look the same as they did last season, with Alysha Clark and Natasha Howard gone. But they still have Breanna Stewart, who averaged 19.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 3.6 assists last year. But this season? Without Clark and Howard? Stewart is going to have to ramp things up to an even higher level if she wants to keep the Storm in the title hunt.
Seriously, Stewie should best her 2018 average of 21.8 points per game. She's going to consistently be the best fantasy forward, especially in the early going as A'ja Wilson and Liz Cambage relearn how to play together in Vegas.
Tina Charles (F, Washington Mystics) – vs Chicago Sky (DK: $8,400, FD: $7,400)
As I mentioned in the Cloud section, the Mystics are currently without two key players in Delle Donne and Hines-Allen. Emma Meesseman isn't playing this year either.
That means for now at least, former MVP Tina Charles is going to get a ton of usage on this team.
Her numbers slipped over the past few years, and when she last played in the WNBA in 2019 she averaged her fewest points since 2010, but that also came on a really rough Liberty team, and Charles had to do a ton without a lot of help. She shot just 38.9 percent that season after never shooting under 40 percent.
If the preseason is any indication, Charles isn't going to have those same struggles this year:
Charles is also way cheaper on DraftKings than she should be. Her salary didn't end up quite as low as some other players who missed last year, but she's still a great play.
Ezi Magbegor (F, Seattle Storm) – vs Las Vegas Aces (DK: $4,800, FD: $3,800)
Our value forward is Ezi Magbegor, who should start at the five for Seattle with Natasha Howard gone.
Magbegor flashed a ton of potential last year as a reserve, averaging 6.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 0.7 blocks per game in just 13.3 minutes. Her per 36 stats are super interesting: 17.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game on 56.9 percent shooting. She shot 71 percent inside of five feet, the sixth-best mark among players to shoot at least three shots per game from there.
We don't quite know Ezi's role, but we should assume that it's much bigger than last season. And at this salary, we've got to play her, even against this scary Wilson/Cambage frontcourt. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but there's just too much potential value.
