FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Friday 4/21/23

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. 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 come at you with this primer daily, 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

This might be the cleanest injury report of the playoffs so far.

Nikola Jokic (wrist) and Rudy Gobert (back) are on the injury report from the nightcap in Minnesota, but both played through those listed injuries in Game 2.

The only other listing is Cleveland's Cedi Osman (ankle), who was present at their shootaround this afternoon in New York.

Boston and Atlanta enter Game 3 at full strength.

Guards

Maybe the trade rumors have gotten to Trae Young ($9,100) a bit, but it's hard to ignore the value proposition he provides if shots start falling.

Young's 31.6% usage rate is seventh of all players in the playoffs thus far, but his effective field goal rate (eFG%) is a dreadful 38.1%. He's getting opportunities but not converting, and at nearly the same salary as Dejounte Murray, I can't help but gravitate to the better FanDuel producer from the regular season.

Jamal Murray ($9,000) provides a bit of sticker shock, but he's really Denver's top guy at the moment. He slots in ahead of Young in usage (32.1%) and is shooting the ball much better now. As Jokic continues to struggle, they'll need his output. Mike Conley ($6,000) is a full-time value plug on the other side.

Though Donovan Mitchell might regain a top-shelf workload as the Cavs hit the road, Darius Garland ($7,800) only got a small salary bump after 32 real-life points in Game 2. He's one of our projections' favorites.

In terms of value, the inactive, streaky Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($4,800) is hard to knock in a massive on-court role. At some point, he'll randomly fall into steals or boards.

Other alternatives are Malcolm Brogdon ($5,800) and Immanuel Quickley ($4,900), who battled for Sixth Man of the Year this season. They've exceeded 23 minutes in both games thus far, and Quickley is especially interesting if his 30.8% shooting turns back around at MSG.

Wings

Boston's backcourt duo are now both above $7,000 after they carried the scoring load at home, but role players typically pull back on the road. Ask about last night's Sacramento Kings.

For that reason, Jayson Tatum ($10,800) and Jaylen Brown ($9,200) seem like tremendous value in the game with today's highest total. J.B. (28.7% usage rate) and J.T. (28.0%) still comfortably have led the C's in shot volume, but obviously, Brown is a massive priority as the overall leader at a lower salary. Tatum will be less popular in tournaments.

Those two have company by the name of Anthony Edwards ($9,600). Edwards dropped 41 points on 23 shots in Game 2, and he'll likely be a huge reason why the Wolves would stick within a 2.5-point spread in Game 3. Industry projections still expect him to largely go ignored.

With defense in mind, Michael Porter Jr. was actually on the floor less than Bruce Brown Jr. ($5,200). Brown's mild scoring output makes his FanDuel production incredibly stable if given 30 minutes like he drew in Game 2.

The Knicks also moved away from a hobbled Josh Hart in Game 2, giving more work to RJ Barrett ($6,400). Caris LeVert ($5,400) might also start tonight, but if he doesn't, he still logged 40 minutes to Isaac Okoro's 3 last time out.

Taurean Prince ($4,000) started but battled foul trouble in Game 2 for Minnesota next to Edwards. It appears Prince, Kyle Anderson, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker ($4,100) will form an ugly platoon around Ant, Conley, and their two bigs. At the very least, Prince and NAW are punt-level salaries.

Bigs

Nikola Jokic's usage rate in this series is "just" 27.0%. It's hard to fathom Jokic being worth his lofty salary with Murray playing such a key scoring role, and it's harder to see that changing when the Wolves were an above-average scoring defense against centers this season.

However, this upper-mid-range is loaded. Minnesota's duo of Karl-Anthony Towns ($8,400) and Rudy Gobert ($7,700) deserve individual consideration, but Towns' offensive role is tremendous for his salary. He shot 29.8% in the first two games in Denver, but he'll continue to take shots -- now at home -- with double-digit boards in both contests thus far.

Julius Randle ($8,000) is the most underperforming star in the playoffs right now. Randle's 34.0% usage rate leads all players so far (min. 50 minutes played), but he's made just 15 total shots. Perhaps some home cooking at MSG is just what the doctor ordered for the Knicks' leading scorer.

Other than Jarrett Allen ($7,700) and Evan Mobley ($7,500) continuing to eclipse 40 minutes, there aren't a ton of other desirable options here. At the very least, Aaron Gordon ($6,300), Al Horford ($6,000), and John Collins ($5,300) are pushing 30 minutes per contest thus far at modest salaries.

Clint Capela played less than Onyeka Okongwu in Game 2, and the same could be said for New York's Mitchell Robinson and his backup, Isaiah Hartenstein ($4,400). One of these four budget pivots might emerge with a massive game on the boards and blocking shots, but you might kill several lineups chasing which one. Hart's salary seems low enough to try.