The Daily Newsstand · Free, Always
Wednesday, October 21, 2026

NBA DFS: Top DraftKings, FanDuel daily Fantasy basketball picks for Wednesday, Oct. 21 include Jalen Johnson

Translate

This page may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and sign up, make a deposit, place a wager, or make a trade, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

SportsLine's Mike McClure, a daily Fantasy pro with more than $2 million in winnings, gives optimal NBA DFS lineup advice for Wednesday

• 2 min read

The NBA's Opening Week continues on Wednesday, which has 22 teams taking the court. Thus, there's a much deeper NBA DFS player pool than Tuesday, which featured just three games as the likes of Anthony Edwards, Zion Williamson, Kevin Durant and Cooper Flagg will make their season debuts. Also, Giannis Antetokounmpo, LaMelo Ball and Ja Morant will be making team debuts, providing an abundance of options for NBA DFS lineups.

Luka Doncic is the most expensive player on both DraftKings and FanDuel as the Lakers start the post-LeBron James era by hosting Steph Curry and the Warriors. Knowing which players justify their high costs and knowing which are better kept our of daily Fantasy basketball lineups should be a part of your Wednesday NBA DFS strategy. Before making any NBA DFS picks, be sure to check out the NBA DFS advice, player rankings, stacks, and top daily Fantasy basketball picks from SportsLine's Mike McClure.

McClure is a DFS professional with more than $2 million in career winnings. He's also a predictive data engineer at SportsLine who uses a powerful prediction model that simulates every minute of every game 10,000 times, taking factors like matchups, statistical trends and injuries into account. This allows him to find the best NBA DFS values on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel and create optimal lineups that he shares only over at SportsLine. 

McClure has turned his attention to NBA action on Wednesday and locked in his top daily Fantasy basketball picks. You can only see them by heading to SportsLine.

Top NBA DFS picks for Wednesday, Oct. 21

For Wednesday, one of McClure's top NBA DFS picks is Hawks power forward Jalen Johnson ($9,000 on DraftKings, $9,700 on FanDuel). Coming off his first All-NBA season, few players stuff the stat sheet quite like Johnson. Last year he averaged 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists, which were all career highs. He also recorded 13 triple-doubles, which ranked second in the NBA only to Nikola Jokic's 34. One of those triple-doubles came against tonight's opponent in Orlando with a 24-15-13 stat line, as Johnson's production should justify his costs as one of the most expensive forwards in the Wednesday NBA DFS player pool. See McClure's other NBA DFS picks right here. 

McClure's also building around Magic point guard Jalen Suggs ($5,600 on DraftKings, $6,500 on FanDuel). The former No. 5 overall pick posted career highs in assists (5.5) and steals (1.8) last season, in addition to 13.8 points and 3.9 rebounds. That came in just over 27 minutes per game, but Suggs should see well over 30 minutes on Wednesday with Orlando guard Anthony Black (ankle) out. Last season, Suggs averaged 19.7 points, 6.7 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals when logging 35-plus minutes, which could be the case on Wednesday against Atlanta. See McClure's other NBA DFS picks right here.

How to set your NBA DFS lineups for Wednesday, Oct. 21

McClure is also targeting a player who could go off for massive numbers on Wednesday because of an optimal matchup. This pick could be the difference between winning your tournaments and cash games or going home with nothing. You can only see who it is here.

Who is DFS pro Mike McClure putting in his optimal NBA DFS lineups for Wednesday? Visit SportsLine now to see optimal NBA DFS picks, rankings, advice, and stacks, all from a professional DFS player who has over $2 million in career winnings, and find out.

View the original on CBS Sports →

KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.