Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 2/18/16

Welcome to the daily updates and injury news article. We'll try and update it right up to line-up locks 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.

What We Know

Kevin Love will play
With so much time off for the All-Star Break this one really wasn't in too much doubt. Honestly, the same can be said for most teams. Either players are dealing with longer, more substantial injuries or the break gave them time to rest up and get healthy. Love falls in the latter category for sure and should be all system's go for a Cavs team that entered the ASB winning eight of their last ten.

Manu's still out
This isn't new news necessarily, but is relevant on this slate because Danny Green's seen a definitive minutes jump since Manu went down. Green's been playing a little north of 30 minutes per game over the last four and averaging an 11/5/2. That's plenty for his prices and he makes a nice cheap option on this slate.

What We’re Waiting to Know

Will Pau Gasol get traded?
This is looking increasingly unlikely. I suspect the Bulls don't get an offer back that they would take for the big man. But his name's been bandied around enough that it's at least worth mentioning. If Gasol were to be traded today, it would cascade all the way down the Bulls' lineup. They are already a little light in the big man department with Mirotic and Noah out. Trading Gasol would shrink their available big player pool down to Gibson (also being discussed in trades) and Portis (who's already a good play today). Keep an ear out for Bulls news as the day goes on.

Will anyone else get traded?
Last year's trade deadline was true madness. It felt like every player in the NBA up and moved teams. Tomorrow could very well be a scramble in terms of evaluating new situations, minutes, opportunities, etc. I remember the day after the trade deadline being the single worst day of the year for writing picks. I still have PTSD from that exercise and I can't say I'm looking forward to doing it again. But alas, we forge ahead. Should be a really interesting day from an evaluation perspective. But as of right now, not much has happened.

The "every lineup" guys

Chris Paul - FD 9900 DK 9000
Opponent - SAS
FD Proj. Pts - 43.61 DK Proj. Pts - 45.32
This is a tough day. Three of the teams going (Cavs, Spurs and Jazz) are among the best defenses in the league. On a short slate that can make things real weird and look funky from an upside standpoint. And yes, Paul is playing one of these teams, but this is an opportunity thing. There is savings to be had at some of the other positions and it's a little tougher to go fully cheap at PG. Paul, sans Blake, is playing at high levels and there's reason to believe he gets full run in this game.

Jamal Crawford - FD 5100 DK 5100
Opponent - SAS
FD Proj. Pts - 26.1 DK Proj. Pts - 28.29
With Austin Rivers fully out of the lineup over the last four games Crawford has been the fantasy man. He's averaging around 37 minutes per game and a 20/2/3 line. He's basically running the second unit (plus some) and handling a big chunk of the scoring responsibility for the Clips. Price hasn't fully caught up and even in a bad matchup the system loves the price and opportunity.

Kawhi Leonard - FD 7700 DK 7500
Opponent - LAC
FD Proj. Pts - 37.68 DK Proj. Pts - 39.26
This game is projected to stay close and because of that we have Kawhi's minutes in the mid 30's. Leonard spent the last three games before the All-Star Break going mini-beast mode averaging in the lower 40's in fantasy points per contest. I suspect he's right around there again tonight against the Clips. They don't have a good defensive matchup for him and the offense should run his way.

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