Griffin Wong dives into Wednesday’s nine-game NBA slate to find three players who need to be in your fantasy lineups.

Today has been a wild one in the NBA: Chris Paul was unceremoniously sent home by the LA Clippers and it was reported that Giannis Antetokounmpo ($11,400) was entering into discussions with the Milwaukee Bucks about his future with the franchise. The groin strain that will hold Devin Booker out for the next week was barely news-worthy.

Tonight, though, there’s plenty of action on the court to distract from the drama away from it. Three-fifths of the league’s teams will take the court tonight as part of the nine-game offering.

All nine games are eligible for tonight’s featured DFS contest at DraftKings, so users have plenty of options as they seek the $100,000 top prize. I won’t be filling out a lineup, but if I did, here are three players I’d make sure to include:

Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $333K Zone Special [$100K to 1st]

C Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets at Indiana Pacers, $13,400

Picking Jokić will take up 26.8% of your budget, and pairing him with the other two players on this must-start list would leave you with just $4,420 per remaining player to fill out the rest of your lineup, but he’s so good that he could win the competition by himself. Plus, with Victor Wembanyama ($11,900) still sidelined with his calf strain, there’s a big chasm between Jokić and the next-best center, Alperen Şengün ($9,700). He ranks eighth in the league in points, trails only Wembanyama in rebounds, and leads the league in assists, and he’s yet to have a performance this season with fewer than 49.3 FPTS (Şengün’s average). For that matter, he’s only had three performances with fewer than 58.1 FPTS (Wembanyama’s average).

Jokić should have a fairly easy matchup against the Pacers, who have allowed the sixth-most FPTS per game to opposing centers this season. Indiana has turned it around somewhat after a nightmare start, but it still ranks second-to-last in offensive rating and 11th-to-last in defensive rating, and because it plays at the 11th-fastest pace, it has allowed the eighth-most points and the fourth-most rebounds, though only the fifth-fewest assists. In particular, the Pacers have allowed the eighth-most shot attempts in the restricted area, a zone in which Jokić has converted at the third-highest rate among the 32 players to attempt at least five shots at the rim per game.

PG De’Aaron Fox, San Antonio Spurs at Orlando Magic, $8,900

San Antonio has somehow gone 6-2 since Wembanyama went down with his calf strain, and although there are plenty of players who deserve some credit for the Spurs’ success, including Devin Vassell ($6,100), Keldon Johnson ($5,300), and Harrison Barnes ($5,100), Fox has been the fulcrum, scoring 25 or more points in all seven of the eight games. He’s also made his impact felt on the defensive side, recording two or more steals four times. Eventually, Wembanyama and Stephon Castle ($8,000) will return, and Fox will no longer sport the league’s seventh-highest usage rate, but until then (or an Antetokounmpo trade) San Antonio’s offense operates through Swipa.

Meanwhile, while the Magic have tightened up defensively since Paolo Banchero ($9,000) went down with a groin injury, their defense has been closer to run-of-the-mill good than truly elite. Across the last nine games, Orlando has limited opponents to the 10th-fewest points, ninth-fewest rebounds, seventh-fewest assists, and fifth-fewest steals, so while the Magic aren’t quite as gettable as their 25th-place ranking against opposing point guards would suggest, they’re also not untouchable. Much of Orlando’s defensive stoutness can be attributed to its stifling interior defense, not necessarily its perimeter play.

SG/SF Jaime Jaquez Jr., Miami Heat at Dallas Mavericks, $5,600

Jaquez looks the part of a Sixth Man of the Year contender, as one of just 20 players averaging at least 15 points, five rebounds, and five assists per game (and the only one who comes off the bench). He also owns among the league’s best on-off net ratings. Though he’s slowed down a bit since Tyler Herro ($7,700) returned from the foot surgery that had held him out for the start of the season, he’s likely to get most of his usage back tonight with Norman Powell ($6,600) sidelined with an ankle injury. Prior to Herro taking some of his shots, he’d averaged 16.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists (34.3 FPTS per game).

To Nico Harrison’s credit, Dallas has crafted a strong defensive identity, posting the fifth-best defensive rating in the league and allowing the fourth-fewest fantasy points to opposing wings. However, the Mavericks’ defense isn’t really built to stop Jaquez’s game: they’ve allowed opponents to get into the paint at will and convert at roughly a league-average rate while giving up the fifth-fewest made threes per game. That isn’t Jaquez’s game: he drives at the 12th-highest frequency, attempts the second-most restricted-area shots of any bench player while making 70.1% of them, and launches only 1.7 three-point tries per game.