FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Monday 11/21/22

Since it's much simpler to predict than baseball or football, daily fantasy basketball 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?

As a result, NBA daily fantasy is highly reliant on a player's opportunity, so you'll need to ensure 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

Per the official injury report, we lost a few stars over the weekend which will impact Monday's slate.

Damian Lillard (calf) is the most notable confirmed absence for the Blazers. They're facing a Milwaukee team that did get back Jrue Holiday on Friday.

The Miami Heat's injury nightmare continues. Jimmy Butler (knee) is out for the foreseeable future, and the team has already been without Tyler Herro (ankle) and Gabe Vincent (knee) -- both of whom are unknown for Monday. Duncan Robinson (ankle) also left yesterday's game early. Yikes.

Paul George (knee) is also questionable to play tonight for the Clippers, but he expects to suit up. Luke Kennard (calf) is also out of the L.A. lineup, and they're hosting a Utah squad that will be without Mike Conley (knee).

Cleveland could also be down a couple of key bench pieces with both Caris LeVert (ankle) and Kevin Love (thumb) questionable at best. Neither finished yesterday's game.

Wendell Carter Jr. (foot) has been in and out of the lineup for Orlando, and he's questionable again on Monday.

Over the weekend, Aleksej Pokusevski (ankle) was added to an Oklahoma City injury report that already includes Tre Mann (back) and Darius Bazley (ankle). They'll all miss this game against the Knicks.

Finally, Trey Murphy III (foot) is questionable for New Orleans, who will bring Zion Williamson (foot) back into the fold tonight.

**Editor's Note: Stephen Curry and several other Warriors were updated to be resting on Monday. Check numberFire's projections for updated optimal lineup pieces, stars, and value plays.**

Guards

Stephen Curry ($10,400) used to be a hard sell in NBA daily fantasy because of the litany of talent around him. He is the talent now.

Curry's arguably undersalaried here with a pace of 1.51 FanDuel points per minute this season. Importantly, Steph is more consistently viable than ever because a career-low 61.6% of his fantasy points are coming from real-life points. Translation -- he's not just scoring-dependent anymore. He added 15 assists yesterday as an example.

Behind Curry, Tyrese Haliburton ($9,100) stands out as a stat stuffer. He's posted over 46 FanDuel points in five of his last seven, and the 226.5-point total in Orlando is solid.

I'll turn away from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ($10,500) once again. In our projections, both Josh Giddey ($6,800) and Jalen Williams ($5,100) are grading out better in the backcourt as they're healthy and siphoning usage away.

To no one's surprise, Anfernee Simons ($8,100) went bananas on Saturday with Lillard exiting early. He's got a team-best 32.7% usage rate with Dame off the floor this year. Shaedon Sharpe ($4,700) has a higher salary for his expected full role without Lillard, but he's still viable at that mark.

Beyond the OKC pairing, Jordan Clarkson ($6,000) is beaming inside our projections given a sure role with no Conley. Clarkson leads D'Angelo Russell ($6,300), Bennedict Mathurin ($5,300), Malcolm Brogdon ($5,000), and Collin Sexton ($4,800) in an underwhelming set of value options today.

Wings

It's fair to wonder if Giannis Antetokounmpo ($11,300) is healthy.

Giannis hasn't exceeded 49 FanDuel points in four games, and a large part of that is due to his "hustle" stats being way down. Just two blocks and four steals in his past five contests is a sure indication that he's not right, so he's a bit risky -- but viable -- opposite a Portland squad with decent value options sans Dame.

Anthony Edwards ($7,600) is always capable of a monstrous scoring effort, but this hobbled Miami squad seems like as solid of a spot as any. He's the next-best option, per our projections.

Franz Wagner ($7,100) headlines a deep mid-range today. He's been over 31 FanDuel points in seven of his past eight games with Paolo Banchero still out of the fold. Zach LaVine ($6,900) is also a tremendous buy-low candidate after a 1-for-14 shooting effort that resulted in getting benched and some backlash for his coach.

RJ Barrett ($6,100) is in the midst of a 20-for-86 shooting slump (23.3%), but I want to buy a turnaround. His 25.0% usage rate at this salary is sublime.

Our projections are buying a turnaround from RJ as well. He's one of the top options per dollar today, but we've got our usual gaggle of value plays at wing on the full slate, including Andrew Wiggins ($6,500), Herbert Jones ($4,800), Justise Winslow ($4,400), and Talen Horton-Tucker ($4,200).

Bigs

With Butler and Tyler Herro off the floor, Bam Adebayo ($8,300) sees a massive uptick in usage rate (3.5 percentage points) and FanDuel points per minute (+0.16). He's the headliner at center today.

Of all the spots to buy Lillard's injury, Jusuf Nurkic ($6,300) is my favorite. Due to injuries of his own, the sample is small, but he's posted a team-best 1.18 FanDuel points per minute with Dame off the floor.

The big spots are pretty deep today. Julius Randle ($7,800) has seen his salary come down due to a couple of clunkers, and both Wendell Carter Jr. ($7,000) and Jarrett Allen ($6,900) are popping with projected value scores above 5.00.

In fact, I'm not even likely to get to Minnesota's center duo -- Karl-Anthony Towns ($8,700) and Rudy Gobert ($7,500) -- at their lowest salaries of the season. That's how deep this usually suspect positional group is.

In terms of pure centers, Ivica Zubac ($5,900) is right there with Nurkic in an elite matchup for them. The Jazz have allowed the most paint points per game (57.1), and they're third from the bottom in defensive rebounding rate (68.8%).

Zubac is joined in our projections by a slew of power forwards -- in full-time roles -- that present plenty of per-dollar value. Specifically, Draymond Green ($5,800), John Collins ($5,600), Al Horford ($5,500), and Chuma Okeke ($4,600) stand out in some of the better environments of the day.