Daily Fantasy Basketball Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 2/8/16

We're back with our daily updates article! We'll give you what you need to know for tonight's NBA slate, and try to update this piece right up until line-ups lock with as much information as comes across our desks. Let's get to it!

Last night's picks can be found here, so you can wrap your mind around what you need to be looking at before lineups lock tonight.

By the way - we keep our projection system updated with all of the changes as they occur throughout the day right up until lineup lock. Every day. If you want access to that system so you can cut out a lot of the research element, click the button below!

Now let’s look at some news that’s come in throughout the day to see if anything’s changed in our minds or in the NBA landscape.

And a quick note: I'm posting this a little early today, but will update a bit later with news coming in.

What We Know

Jimmy Butler is Out
This one makes things easy on some of the value plays for today. Derrick Rose takes a huge usage bump (historically and this season) when Butler is off the court. The last couple of games back this up with Rose returning to some of that MVP form on offense. He’s averaged a 24/9 and looked like the guy we’ve been waiting for. Meanwhile. E’twaun Moore had been a guy with a steady uptick in minutes this season, taking over both back up point guard and shooting guard at times. He’s logged heavy minutes without Buckets on the court and that should be the case again tonight. Neither Rose or Moore’s price has climbed to reflect their new-ish opportunity and both are cash game plays easy.

Kevin Love is Probable
Getting labeled probably this early in the day translates (to me at least) as a lock to play tonight. This news has a double effect in that it ticks down Kyrie and Lebron's potential usage while also increasing the likelihood the Cavs blowout the Kings. Update: Kevin Love is playing. 

Tyreke is Still Out
This has a fantasy impact in tournaments only for me. Cole and Holiday's value's been outstripped by a double hammer of variable minutes thanks to Gentry's "rotation" ideas and the sites catching up some in pricing. But as off board plays I don't mind taking a chance (more on Cole than Jrue) if you think the Pels can keep it close and you want to stack this game some.

Ish is Starting But...
He's on a minutes restriction. This makes the whole Philly backcourt situation a stay away for me.

What We’re Waiting to Know

Ben Mclemore's Status
It's funny to think of Ben Mclemore's status before as game as anything but a non-story. But, it's not Little Ben we are worried about. He's a fantasy hole. No, it's Belinelli's run that has us going. If Mclemore (and to a lesser extent Rudy Gay) were to sit, Marco would be in for huge minutes again. He's an "every lineup" guy if we get the news. Because the game is a 7PM EST start, we should almost definitely know the status of the Kings' players. A small favor for a team usually starting games much later on the West Coast. Update: It looks like Ben Mc is doubtful. Gay is going to play (this has changed 3 times in 5 minutes). Love Belinelli in this one.

Will Tobias Harris Play?
Tobias has big time implications for the Magic. Without him on Sunday, Fournier pushed to the three and played a massive 42 minutes. Skiles has shown a willingness to play his starters major minutes in the right situation and if Harris sat again we could be looking at 40+ minutes of run for both Dipo and Fournier. It would put both of them in the "must play" discussion at an already loaded shooting guard position. Oladipo, I think, is in play either way, but Fournier's status makes or breaks on whether Harris is good to go or not. Update: As of 5:30 Tobias was warming up to see if he can play. 

King Joffrey More Minutes?
This probably belongs below in the "May Never Know" section, but there's some evidence to possibly use Joffrey in a tournament tonight (or even in cash games on DraftKings). He played 29 minutes last time out and wet 12/10. This, in and of itself, isn't necessarily news seeing as how Malong jacks around Nuggets' big men minutes like crazy. But then the coach comes out today saying Lauvergne will start to see more run. The latter's been a per minute beast with only the opportunity too variable to project well. But maybe not anymore. Good matchup against the Nets tonight and coming at the minimums everywhere. Really looks good on DraftKings with only 20 minutes projected.

What We May Never Know

The Knicks' Plan
They fired Derek Fisher today, a guy Phil Jackson basically handpicked (outside of Steve Kerr) a couple of years ago. Fisher never really looked comfortable in the position (outside of the nice suits) and struggled to find good uses for possibly his best play in Porzingis. It hasn't helped that Melo, who was looking like he'd transformed some of his game with the arrival of Zinger, has struggled lately with injuries. Where the Knicks go from here isn't totally clear. They have a rising young possible superstar in Kristaps surrounded by an aging superstar and a bunch of spare parts.

The "Every Lineup" Guys

Anthony "Uh-Oh" Davis
I said it the other night and I'll stick by it: Davis' NBA game is made to dream crush. He has us all right where he wants us. Nice and relaxed about his status, feeling like all is right in his world, and a far removed from those days when he took our thoughts of cashing and ground them up into infinitesimal chards of broken dreams. This is all to say, our system loves him. He's in every optimal lineup and now we just begin walking the eggshell path to see if he can make it through the game.

FanDuel
Gorgui Dieng - FD 6100 DK 6500
Opponent - NOP
FD Proj. Pts - 32.32 DK Proj. Pts - 32.83
We bother going anywhere else at center on FanDuel? Garnett is listed as doubtful and there's little reason for the T-Wolves to bring him back before the ASB. In his stead Dieng's putting up numbers somewhat reminiscent of his ascent to DFS fame a few years ago.

Stanley Johnson - FD 4900 DK 5900
Opponent - TOR
FD Proj. Pts - 26.23 DK Proj. Pts - 28.03
DraftKings has adjusted his price much quicker than FD (what else is new). He's still a good play on the former, but on the latter he's a must even as the number climbs into the mid-tier.

Good luck out there today! If you want access to all of our numbers, get started with a free trial below - on us!