FanDuel WNBA DFS Picks: Mercury vs. Valkyries 8/19/25
Phoenix Mercury vs. Golden State Valkyries
August 19, 2025 10:00 pm EDT
The WNBA presents FanDuel basketball fans with a regular season matchup featuring the Phoenix Mercury and the Golden State Valkyries. Let’s take a look at this game from a DFS perspective.
Before we dive into the Phoenix Mercury vs. Golden State Valkyries game let’s review the rules for the FanDuel single game showdown contest.
FanDuel Single Game Contest Rules
Here are the FanDuel single game contest rules. You have $60,000 to utilize on five players from either team. However, one of those players will be designated as your team MVP. The MVP accumulates 1.5x times the standard FanDuel fantasy points value. Additionally, the MVP is 1.5 times the standard cost of the flex position.
The remaining five players in your lineup will be flex plays. The five flex positions will receive the standard FanDuel points value. Having stated that, it is highly important for you to identify the correct player for your MVP position if you hope to win a large field GPP (guaranteed prize pool) FanDuel single game contest.
If you have additional questions regarding the rules for the single game contest, I highly recommend that you check out the FanDuel website for more details.
*I recommend that all readers review the starting lineups for both teams prior to setting your DFS lineup for this one game slate.
Here are my FanDuel picks for today’s Mercury vs. Valkyries matchup.
FanDuel WNBA DFS Picks
MVP-Alyssa Thomas, Forward, Phoenix Mercury $13,400
Veteran forward Alyssa Thomas has been the leader in the paint that the Phoenix Mercury have needed to win games this season. With that said, how has the talented forward performed from a statistical perspective? Let’s review Thomas’s relevant player data from the 2025 WNBA regular season to answer that question.
In the 28 games that forward Alyssa Thomas played for the Phoenix Mercury in the 2025 WNBA regular season, Thomas is averaging a robust 16.2 points, 8.6 rebounds, 9.1 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.5 blocks a game.
Looking at the data just presented more closely, in the 28 games that Alyssa Thomas has played for the Mercury in 2025, Thomas has compiled a 53.9% field goal percentage and a 70.9% free throw percentage.
More recently, in the Phoenix Mercury’s 85-82 win over the Seattle Storm two days ago, Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas played rather well. More specifically, in the Mercury’s defeat of the Storm, Thomas amassed 19 points, ten rebounds, 11 assists and three steals.
As I noted in the rules section above, selecting the correct player at the MVP position for a FanDuel WNBA showdown lineup is absolutely vital if you hope to win a large field GPP (guaranteed prize pool) DFS contest. Keep that in mind as you construct your lineups.
In my view, Alyssa Thomas is the most likely player to amass the most FanDuel points in this evening’s WNBA game. For that specific reason, I am backing Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas at the MVP position for this WNBA regular season game.
Flex Plays
Satou Sabally, Forward, Phoenix Mercury $12,800
In addition to Alyssa Thomas, forward Satou Sabally has been a key contributor for the Phoenix Mercury in 2025.
In the 28 games that Phoenix forward Satou Sabally has played for the Phoenix Mercury in the 2025 WNBA regular season, Sabally is averaging a rather impressive 17.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.4 blocks a game.
Additional flex plays I like to play well in this WNBA regular season game (FanDuel price noted): Janelle Salaun, Forward (Golden State Valkyries) $8,200: Veronica Burton, Guard (Golden State Valkyries) $11,400.
