FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Tuesday 4/27/21

The NBA scene changes on a week-to-week, day-to-day, and -- depending on injury news -- even a minute-to-minute basis, making every slate a unique one that requires an ever-changing approach.

With so much changing so quickly, we're here with plenty of tools to help you out. We have daily projections, a matchup heat map, a lineup optimizer, and a bunch of other great resources to help give you an edge.

Daily fantasy NBA is very reliant on opportunity, so you'll need to make sure that you're up-to-date with key injuries and COVID-19 situations. Our projections update up until tip-off to reflect current news and we also have player news updates.

We'll also be coming at you with this primer every day, breaking down a few of the day's top plays at each position.

Point Guard

Stephen Curry ($9,700) - Point guard is a high-upside, loaded position today, so I'll start there. Spending down at the position is possible but not necessarily advised with all the studs in action. At a certain point, it's impossible to replace ceiling games from studs.

Though Curry's matchup with the Dallas Mavericks isn't exactly elite (they're top-10 against opposing point guards when adjusted for opponents faced), he is good in any situation. His per-minute FanDuel point output is 1.43 points against top-10 point guard defenses this season, actually higher than his full-season rate of 1.38. The palatable salary helps a lot on a six-game slate.

Malcolm Brogdon ($8,500) - Brogdon is more of a matchup-based separator tonight than anything. The Portland Trail Blazers rank bottom-six against opposing point guards when adjusted for opponents faced, which makes them an outlier to target. Brogdon does benefit from easier matchups, too: against bottom-10 point guard defenses, his per-minute fantasy scoring rate bumps from 1.10 to 1.23 this season.

Brogdon is producing consistently, as well: he has averaged 37.5 FanDuel points per game since the start of March over 23 games and 46.3 over the past five with at least 39.7 in each.

Others to Consider: Luka Doncic ($11,300), Damian Lillard ($8,300), Kyle Lowry ($6,600), Ricky Rubio ($4,600)

Power Forward

Giannis Antetokounmpo ($11,000) - Giannis is more of the lone star (if we make a soft cutoff of $8,000) at power forward, given that Pascal Siakam ($9,100) isn't rating out particularly well relative to his salary tonight despite a 50.8-point outing against the Brooklyn Nets a few days back.

Anyway, Antetokounmpo has had at least 56.3 FanDuel points in three straight games and gets a soft matchup against the Charlotte Hornets, who are bottom-three against opposing power forwards from a fantasy standpoint. Giannis averages an absurd 1.74 FanDuel points per minute against bottom-10 power forward defenses. The spread is only 9.0 points, too.

Christian Wood ($7,700) - Wood might actually be on par with Antetokounmpo when adjusted for salary. He is also facing a bottom-10 power-forward defense (the Minnesota Timberwolves). In such matchups, Wood's FanDuel-point-per-minute rate is 1.29, up 0.11 points from his clip outside that split (1.18). Over 35.0 minutes (his projection for tonight), that's the difference of 41.3 FanDuel points and 45.2 points.

Others to Consider: Kristaps Porzingis ($7,800; if healthy), Robert Covington ($4,900), Aleksej Pokusevski ($4,100), Maxi Kleber ($4,000)

Center

Karl-Anthony Towns ($9,700) - This is usually a common theme for me when I break down the NBA slate, but it's important to think holistically about each position. On tonight's slate, we have Towns and Jusuf Nurkic ($8,200) with a salary north of $6,000. Salary alone doesn't dictate production, yet it's a good starting point. So Towns has a big jumpstart, and we project him for 45.7 FanDuel points, 12.4 more points than any other center.

Not only that but Towns is facing the worst center defense in the NBA, the Houston Rockets. Towns averages 1.32 FanDuel points per minute against top-20 center defenses and 1.52 against bottom-10 center defenses, a rate that would rank him fourth on the full season among players with at least 15.0 minutes per game.

Others to Consider: Kelly Olynyk ($6,000), Robert Williams ($5,500), Moses Brown ($5,300), Kevon Looney ($3,900)

Small Forward

Jaylen Brown ($8,100) - I wouldn't fault anyone for building around Kevin Durant ($9,700), but we can save $1,600 in salary and build around Jaylen Brown instead. Brown's matchup is elite: the Oklahoma City Thunder are the worst small forward defense in the NBA when adjusted for opponents. Additionally, Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker are listed as out. Without those two on the court, Brown boasts an elite 37.7% usage rate and averages 1.28 FanDuel points per minute this season, according to RotoGrinders' CourtIQ tool. It's hard to pass that up.

Kevin Porter Jr. ($5,600) - Porter draws a soft matchup against the Timberwolves, who are bottom-three against opposing small forwards. Porter has averaged 1.11 FanDuel points per minute against bottom-10 positional defenses, quite a strong rate for a player with a salary in the $5,000 range. He also owns a 27.1% usage rate without John Wall and Eric Gordon on the floor this season.

Others to Consider: Kevin Durant ($9,700), Khris Middleton ($7,700), Oshae Brissett ($5,600), Josh Richardson ($4,300)

Shooting Guard

Marcus Smart ($6,600) - Smart averages only 0.89 FanDuel points per minute without Walker and Tatum on the court this season but has a 23.2% usage rate in that sample, a boost of 4.7 percentage points from when he's sharing the floor with them. Though the FanDuel-point-per-minute rate is basically the same, there are more opportunities. That's a good start.

Smart also finds himself at an underwhelming shooting guard position and has a top-five shooting guard matchups (i.e. the Thunder are 26th in FanDuel points per minute allowed to shooting guards after opponent adjustments).

Devonte' Graham ($5,700) - Graham's fantasy production has been down lately (20.9, 24.3, 25.4, 37.9 over his past four after returning from a two-game absence), but the minutes are there (28.3 or more in all four of those) and so are the shot attempts (10-plus field goal attempts in each) with a high-variance approach (7, 11, 13, 11 three-point attempts).

When the shot falls, as it did in the last game (6 for 11 from deep), we see the path to upside realized. Graham has also had 7, 3, 10, and 9 assists in these four.

Others to Consider: C.J. McCollum ($7,800), D'Angelo Russell ($6,400), Armoni Brooks ($4,100), Tim Hardaway Jr. ($3,900)