FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Monday 10/24/22

Since it's much simpler to predict than baseball or football, basketball daily fantasy would get plenty of votes as the best sport to play on FanDuel. Players usually stick to the same minutes and produce at roughly the same rate. Sounds easy, right?

Well, as a result, NBA daily fantasy is extremely reliant on a player's opportunity, so you'll need to make sure that you're up-to-date with key injuries. Our projections update up until tip-off to reflect current news, we have player news updates, and the FanDuel Scout app will send push notifications for pressing updates regarding your players.

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.

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.

Let's break down today's main slate on FanDuel.

The Slate and Key Injuries

Unfortunately in the first week of play, we've seen some of the league's bright young players get banged up.

Scottie Barnes went down with an ankle injury late last week for the Raptors, and he's questionable to play Monday in Miami, per today's injury report. That's got to be good for his long-term prognosis, though.

Elsewhere, Indiana center Myles Turner (ankle) will still be out as they battle Philadelphia.

Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks has been upgraded to questionable on Monday with his thigh issue. They're hosting Brooklyn.

Bruno Fernando (knee) has started the season in the lineup at center for the Rockets, but he won't play Monday. Teammate Jae'Sean Tate (ankle) is also still on the shelf.

However, the most immediately impactful injury news might be with the Magic. Jalen Suggs (ankle) will sit, freeing up minutes in the Orlando backcourt against New York.

Guards

My favorite star of the day might be a little off the board.

It's Kyrie Irving ($8,700), who I'm expecting to rebound soon. Irving's 29.2% usage rate is nearly identical to his rate last season (29.3%), but he's only averaging 0.96 FanDuel points per minute compared to 1.18 a year ago. Kevin Durant ($10,000) has taken charge to start the year, but Irving will likely splash soon. It could be in this game against Memphis, which holds a whopping 233.0 total.

Tyrese Haliburton ($8,500) popped on Saturday in large part due to five steals, but he's scored at least 24 points each game with a 27.2% usage rate. Considering he's always a threat for double-digit assists, there's plenty of upside at this salary -- especially when teammate Bennedict Mathurin ($5,400) cools off. Mathurin won't shoot 52.4% from deep forever.

The highest total of the day is in Minnesota, but the visiting Spurs might have more tangible access to it. Both Devin Vassell ($5,800) and Tre Jones ($5,400) have fair salaries in 30-minute roles in the San Antonio backcourt. I'm incredibly concerned about the 8.5-point spread, though.

Of course, Cole Anthony ($6,000) will be popular without his usual concern -- minutes. There's really no risk to that with both Suggs and Markelle Fultz on the shelf, but we know Anthony (39.1% field goal rate last year) can go cold and put up a dud at any time.

Boston's Marcus Smart ($5,600) and Miami's Kyle Lowry ($5,300) are two full-time guards I'm intrigued by given they are underperforming their production rates from last year. I'd also take a peek at Jamal Murray ($5,500), who should play at least 27 minutes for Denver again on proper rest.

Wings

With concerns at the top, target the upper mid-range here today. We've got youngsters dropping buckets at will.

Considering the Bulls are allowing the seventh-most FanDuel points per game to small forwards, both Jayson Tatum ($10,500) and Jaylen Brown ($8,200) are on the table. Tatum's salary seems high, but behind it lies a rock-solid 32.7% usage rate. It's enough of a gap on Brown's (29.5%) to justify the less-popular guy at salary.

Rookie Paolo Banchero ($7,500) has dropped at least 20 points in every game on a 31.6% usage rate, and that should only increase without Suggs. Surprisingly, Banchero -- touted as a scorer -- has added 3.5 assists and 2.1 blocks per 36 minutes.

Anthony Edwards ($7,400) is coming off back-to-back 30-point games, but you can see the volatility in that with Edwards where he only scored 37.0 FanDuel points in one game while doing so. He's still the Timberwolves' top option in the game du jour, so we'll have to weigh that.

The Heat have been a bit of a nightmare in DFS for a couple of seasons, and Jimmy Butler ($8,300) is harder to forecast than most stars as a result. With just a 24.0% usage rate, I don't see a path to a ceiling unless Jimmy -- without any semblance of predictability -- just decides to take over as he does in the playoffs.

At salary, I prefer Desmond Bane ($6,600) to Ja Morant. Morant's dud on Saturday was a painful reminder of how little he does unless the ball is going in the basket. Plus, Brooklyn is surprisingly stout on the perimeter to start the year, allowing the fewest three-point attempts (27.0) in the league so far.2

Both Malik Beasley ($4,300) and Eric Gordon ($4,000) lead numberFire's projections at small forward in the Jazz-Rockets showdown. Other top-projected wings include New York's RJ Barrett ($6,300), Denver's Michael Porter Jr. ($5,800), and Toronto's Gary Trent Jr. ($5,700).

Bigs

We've got some answers in Minnesota's frontcourt.

Rudy Gobert ($9,100) has dwarfed Karl-Anthony Towns in the rebounding department, collecting 54 in three games. Towns hasn't collected double-digit boards yet, and he's only hit the 20-point threshold once. He's not even worth consideration at his salary until we see otherwise.

While many will turn to Nikola Jokic ($11,200), he needed 16 boards and 13 assists on Saturday to simply just exceed salary-based value. With Murray and Porter Jr. back, he isn't the slam dunk we saw last year. I'll likely turn to Jusuf Nurkic ($6,700) on the Portland side of that one, who has seen at least 30 minutes in back-to-back games.

Usman Garuba ($4,100) is starting at center for the Rockets now, and Jabari Smith ($6,000) got a huge salary bump after spending the bulk of the time there on Saturday. Kenyon Martin Jr. ($4,200), who also started, might be the best way to access this frontcourt.

The key value play of the day here is on the other side of Houston. Kelly Olynyk ($4,800) is in a full-time role for the Jazz, and that's way too good to pass up given his 1.09 FanDuel points per minute a year ago.

Isaiah Jackson ($4,600) will be popular with back-to-back 30-FanDuel-point games, but Jalen Smith ($5,900) returned from injury and capped him to no more than 21 minutes in the past two games. He'll dud eventually with such limited playing time.

Our projections also love both Santi Aldama ($4,400) and Brandon Clarke ($4,000) from the Memphis frontcourt, but realistically, only one of them will get huge playing time. I'm guessing it'll be Aldama, who played 33 minutes to Clarke's 15 in their last competitive game on Friday.