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Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/4/16
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!
Special Note: Our new optimizer is available! Click the button below to check it out and see if it's right for you.
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. It's a shorter slate and a light news day, but we'll be updating as stuff rolls in. Also throw out some ideas in the comments and we can take it from there.
What We Know
Kevin Love out - big boosts to Kyrie Irving, LeBron, and Tristan Thompson
Kyrie gets the lead picture here because he's the primary beneficiary of Love's absence. With Love off the court, his usage jumps from 30% to 36%, a 20% relative increase, as opposed to just a 12.5% increase for LeBron. Thompson played 32 minutes the last time Love sat, but did not score a point (though he did snare 15 rebounds). It'll also be interesting to see how Love's minutes get distributed across the rest of the team. Anderson Varejao played 27 minutes when Love sat on 2/6, and he's not on the team anymore. I'm guessing most of those will go to Channing Frye, who won't make much of a difference.
What We're Waiting to Know
Will Evan Fournier definitely play?
He's listed as probable after missing the last three games. This would kill Mario Hezonja's value, and ding Oladipo as well. As for Fournier, I won't play him until I see him log his full run of minutes, though a wrist injury isn't usually the type of thing to cause much change in minutes. The big thing we'll look out for here is how it affects his shooting. We've seen guys fall off a cliff while recovering from injuries like this in the past (think Nic Batum last year).
Jahlil Okafor - will his shin bruise keep him out again?
It seems like an odd amount of time to miss for a bruise, but hey, what do I know? If he's out, Jerami Grant is still under-priced for what he can do in starter's minutes, and people will be off him after a poor outing against the Hornets. I wouldn't touch Okafor if he were back, though, as minutes might be restricted.
Michael Carter-Williams is questionable again.
Bayless' return coincided directly with Carter-Williams' absence, and he's been great on these prices with MCW sidelined. I'd need to know MCW was out again before deploying him, though, because we're very light on Bucks news at the moment.
Kobe Bryant may sit again
As I've written before, the biggest beneficiary here is D'Angelo Russell, who not only secures his minutes, but sees a dramatic usage increase as well. After Bryant logged just 11 minutes in his last game, it wouldn't shock me at all to see him pass here as well. This might also keep Anthony Brown (somewhat) relevant for another game.
The "Every Lineup" Guys
These are guys that seem to show up in all of the top lineups in our lineup optimizer. Enjoy!
Kyrie Irving
LeBron James
No Love, phenomenal match-up with the fast-paced Wiz, and reduced blowout risk with one of their best players missing. Yep, playing these two everywhere in 50/50s in particular.
Alex Len - FD 5300 DK 5700
Opponent - ORL
FD Proj. Pts - 29.8 DK Proj. Pts - 30.33
The sites' refusal to raise Len's prices has become both an insult and a delight. Just the easiest cash game play ever as he continues to put up 5x+ points per dollar with 8x+ points per dollar upside.
Also considered: Oladipo - phenomenal match-up with the Suns, but I'm not ready to call him a must play until I hear the Fournier news. Like him either way though.
Good luck out there today! If you want access to all of our numbers, get started with a free trial below - on us! You can also get started with DFSR pro - our brand new lineup optimizer!
image sources
- Kyrie_Irving_2015: By Erik Drost from United States (Kyrie Irving) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
45 Visitor Comments
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If Rodney Hood sits, does that bump Shelvin Mack at all? Trying to figure out who plays the 2 spot for them with Alec Burks also injured. Seems like they’d have to play a bunch of two PG lineups with Mack / Burke / Neto all getting 20+ minutes. Memphis isn’t a good matchup by any means but they are a lot less scary defensively without Gasol around.
What is the optimal lineup coming in at for DK? Playing around with the system the best I could come up with is 272.86. Want to see far close/far off I am. Thanks!
All the top LU’s on DK today are stacked around Lowry/Irving/James. Between 270-280 depending on what supporting cast tickles your fancy. Hope this helps.
FWIW here is my #1 projected LU…my #1 projected LU using DFSR and my sheets cashed everywhere last night. You can see yesterdays update thread to see the LU.
PG Kyle Lowry
SG Wayne Ellington
SF Robert Covington
PF Myles Turner
C Alex Len
G Kyrie Irving
F LeBron James
UTIL Shelvin Mack
That’s only coming in @238 ran some plus 270, am I missing something or is it just a gut feeling,.
It’s coming to 254.05 when I run it @ 4pm.
The highest I can get is 272.73
Canaan
Booker
James
Patterson
Len
Rubio
P George
Karl-Anthony Towns
Tried out this line up just In a simple $3 double up should of played in a lot more! Great Lu
Thanks Walrus!
How can you stomach playing Ed Davis when he played only 12 min last game?
I like how things are developing for this slate. Only thing I feel questionable about is sg’s. I don’t see any clear plays like Batum and lavine and a couple others but I don’t see any chalk plays there
Hey what’s the story on Shabazz Muhammad? Is there any reason he isn’t getting more attention as a punt play when he’s been producing double digit points?
Best i can do with my model 🙂
What u think about Valanciunas and Brandon bass. Need two cheap guys
PG D’Angelo Russell LAL $6,000
PG Kyrie Irving CLE $7,000
SG Andrew Wiggins MIN $6,200
SG Khris Middleton MIL $7,900
SF Luol Deng MIA $6,000
SF LeBron James CLE $9,800
PF Myles Turner IND $5,300
PF Aaron Gordon ORL $6,400
C Alex Len PHX $5,300
Dk Cash. Thoughts?
Kyrie
Booker
LeBron
Thaddeus Young
Len
Rubio
Nance Jr. (Will probably change)
D’Angelo Russell
Drop Booker and try and find the spare cash for Lavine. Hes the top PPD cheap guy at SG, PLenty of people will be chasing his points….dont think he will put up another line like he did yesterday though.
Thad is great. Gordon is projected a little higher and cheaper. You can switch out nance for someone better like aurthur who gets more minutes and wont burn you as bad as nance would
KOBE ruled out….Russell a must now!!!
Russell Proj usage will be a 28 with kobe out! Others with that much usage are $7k and up. BARGAIN BALLER!
No telling what itll be with Clarkson out whos Q as of right now…..
Think I might just steer clear of the MIA/PHI game. Seems like an obvious game for the Heat to rest some people and PHI just announced their starting five which looks like they will be spreading minutes all over the place.
Carl Landry, Hollis Thompson, Ish Smith, Robert Covington and Jerami Grant.
Philly released a lineup that looks like they are trying to lose on purpose. Injuries make it tough sure, but yikes.
Oladipo out? Payton a must play? Fournier if playing?
TURNER all the way for sure his usage is a 20… tristan proj usage of 12…hes normally a 10 so a tiny boost. The cleveland game belongs to Lebron and Irving.
On FD, Miles Turner or Markeiff Morris? Or drop down to Tristian Thompson?
I think I’d roll Thompson for the money.
With Noel and Okafor out bump for Grant? Also Dipo is GTD??
I bumped Grant and Covinton. Hollis Thompson some.
Hezonja is the absolue must play! hes starting for vlad
Fournier playing, Oladipo is out. Hezonja starting. Can he get 30 minutes?
Hows this look for fd
PG irving
PG Russell
SG Dipo
SG Founiet
SF James
SF George
PF Gordon
PF Thompson
C Len
Dipo out.
I think Hezonja plays that at least. I bumped him to 32 minutes
What is a good line for fanduel been on a losing streak.
Carl Landry worth playing at the minimum?
Shumpert starting for LOve
He’s an interesting look. Just tough for him to get shots with the starters.
Dk cash lineup. Comments ?
Kyrie
Hezonja
Lbj
Young
Len
Russell
Grant
Payton
DK Line. Thoughts?
Russell
Hezonja
Lebron
Landry
Len
Kyrie
George
Lavine
landry against the heat? risky….imo hes set to play 22 min and the last time he did that it was against MIN where they arent good againt PF he put up 22 points. Mia is above average againt them…not sure he can repeat that
blowout risk factor too but i think he will reach value
turner isnt starting! solomon hill? wtf
Solomon Hill starting for Turner for whatever reason
PG Kyrie Irving CLE $7,000 45.1
PG D’Angelo Russell LAL $6,000
SG Andrew Wiggins MIN $6,200
SG Gary Harris DEN $4,800
SF Mario Hezonja ORL $3,800
SF LeBron James CLE $9,800
PF Aaron Gordon ORL $6,400
PF Thaddeus Young BKN $7,100
C Karl-Anthony Towns MIN $8,900
PG Kyrie Irving CLE $7,000 45.1
PG D’Angelo Russell LAL $6,000 41.6
SG Andrew Wiggins MIN $6,200 39.2
SG Khris Middleton MIL $7,900
SF Mario Hezonja ORL $3,800
SF LeBron James CLE $9,800
PF Aaron Gordon ORL $6,400
PF Thaddeus Young BKN $7,100
C Alex Len PHX $5,300
well gordons night just went out!! 2 fouls first 3 min!!!!
If Gordon has an average game Id have 5 figures. #DUDS_SUCK