FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Tuesday 11/29/22

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

Thankfully, the uncertainty on Tuesday's injury report should be cleared up before lock.

That's because a bulk of it lies with the Pistons, who have all of Jaden Ivey (knee), Bojan Bogdanovic (knee), Marvin Bagley III (migraine), and Isaiah Stewart (toe) listed as questionable. The visiting Knicks have only Immanuel Quickley (knee) up in the air.

In the nightcap, the Clippers are resting John Wall tonight in addition to their long-term absences of Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Luke Kennard. The hosting Portland Trail Blazers are still without Damian Lillard (calf).

Both Golden State and Dallas submitted clean injury reports yesterday in the other game, so we're playing this one mostly straight up outside of Detroit.

Guards

Given both Luka Doncic ($12,000) and Stephen Curry ($11,200) have both woefully underperformed their salaries lately, I'm not sure either will be overwhelming chalk -- even on a three-game slate.

Doncic hasn't eclipsed 51 FanDuel points in three of his past four, and Curry hasn't surpassed even 45 FanDuel points in three straight. Between the two, many may take salary savings with Curry, but I'd probably give the edge to Luka given the Dubs' 113.4 defensive rating (ninth-worst in the NBA).

I'm inclined to fade Jalen Brunson ($8,600) off his three straight 30-point scoring efforts, which have come via blistering 51.6% shooting in a dominant role. I'll likely pivot to Anfernee Simons ($8,400), who continues to hold a team-best 30.6% usage rate with Dame off the floor.

With Wall resting, Reggie Jackson ($5,500) is the top value play by our projections, and it's not close. This is a position that is rating out incredibly poorly per dollar, but our model doesn't mind Jaden Ivey ($7,200) or Spencer Dinwiddie ($6,600).

A bulk of value plays at shooting guard will be wings -- especially given Kemba Walker ($3,500) is unlikely to make his Dallas debut on Tuesday.

Wings

We know who our stud(s) will be in the backcourt, so it's better for us that wing is more deep than top-heavy.

The top plays in our model come from the Blazers -- Josh Hart ($6,500) and Justise Winslow ($5,200). Winslow is easy to love as a value play who has logged 28-plus minutes in three straight, but Hart is a full-time player with at least 32.5 FanDuel points scored in three of his past five.

The others come from the other side of that same game. Both Marcus Morris ($5,500) and Terance Mann ($5,500) will start with solid workloads for the Clips, and Amir Coffey ($3,900) could be a salary-saver off the bench. Nicolas Batum ($4,200) has a significant risk of not playing much, but he can be a valuable dart in tournaments if he gets scorching hot from three.

Don't forget the Norman Powell ($6,000) revenge game here, too. Powell's 30.2% usage rate with George, Leonard, and Wall off the floor this year paces the team by a healthy margin (24.7% is the second-highest).

Saddiq Bey ($5,400) is the best value plug as the lone key Detroit player known to be active. Bojan Bogdanovic ($6,300) is also a solid bet if he plays and Ivey doesn't.

Outside of those two, our model also doesn't mind RJ Barrett ($7,000), Klay Thompson ($6,400), or Dorian Finney-Smith ($4,900).

Bigs

Another reason I don't love using Brunson is I'm all-in with Julius Randle ($7,800) on this slate.

At a fair salary, his matchup is pristine. Detroit has allowed the second-most paint points per game and third-most second-chance points per game. I'd target Randle in droves on a full slate at this salary in this matchup. On a three-gamer, he's stellar.

Thankfully, salary-makers didn't overreact to the big night of Ivica Zubac ($6,900). He's not a complete cross-off, but I'm leaning toward a fade given he's posted more than 35 FanDuel points just twice in his last 11 games. His 74.2-FanDuel-point whopper was a major outlier.

I'd rather turn to Jusuf Nurkic ($6,800) on the other side of the Clips-Blazers affair. He's averaging a team-best 41.8 FanDuel points per 36 minutes with Lillard off the floor. He's also a fade of Jerami Grant ($8,200) being able to continue shooting 50.6% from deep this month. That's 11.6 percentage points higher than Grant's career-best mark for a season, and his wild hot streak just won't last.

Given he got 31 minutes in his last game, Mitchell Robinson ($5,700) can work in the same matchup as Randle. He's still far from a lock for a full night of minutes.

If Isaiah Stewart ($5,800) plays, he'll be a key value option who is eligible at both big spots. Golden State teammates Draymond Green ($6,700) and Kevon Looney ($4,600) are also right there in our projections.