Orlando Magic players from left, Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris, Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton (4) and Aaron Gordon (00) take the floor after a timeout during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Portland Trail Blazers, Friday, Dec. 18, 2015, in Orlando, Fla. Orlando won 102-94. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
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!
All seems relatively quiet at this point. Which of course means we'll get some late scratches that will ruin everything. But for now, the news is relatively light. Still, there are a few important things to note, so let's get to them.
LeBron is out.
I covered this last night, and the ramifications are fairly straightforward, here. Kyrie and Love get huge boosts, and the rest of the guys stay relatively the same. One interesting punt tonight, though, will be Iman Shumpert. He played 32 minutes the last time LeBron sat, and had the rare 2/4/5/1/3 line. He's a capable shooter when the game calls for it, and might get a few extra looks with Kyrie being blanketed by Patrick Beverley. Not sure it's "safe," per se, but it's a way to punt on a short slate with relatively little injury news elsewhere.
One never knows what Scott Skiles will do on a given day, but as of now it looks like Oladipo will suit up for tonight's game against the Nets. I wouldn't trust Oladipo as far as I can throw him at these prices, and especially with wrist problems - we've seen countless instances where a wrist issue takes a huge toll on field goal percentage (Nic Batum last year comes to mind) - but his return does throw a little cold water on the value of guys like Elfrid Payton (who should relinquish some ball handling duties) and Evan Fournier. I still like both, however, given how tough a night it is in general.
Recently this has freed up for non-commodities Andrew Nicholson and Jason Smith, but there has also been some signs that Aaron Gordon could be given regular minutes once again. The tricky thing with the Magic, here, is that their game scripts have been all over the place.
A deep dive into the last few games, however, has shown that Gordon actually played 27 minutes in just 3 quarters against the Bulls, and logged big minutes against the Heat before being pulled as part of a blowout late in the 4th. I'm revising my assumptions for his minutes tonight with this continued Ilyasova news, and he's looking like a great play.
Both are listed as questionable at the moment, though it looks like Grant is the more likely of the two to play. The Sixers are considering some actual bums for this game (like Wood and Brand), but Carl Landry remains a very interesting play if those guys are all going to sit.
His return would mean the end of this brief Nene era, and would also mean a very intriguing big tournament play. The Wizards are likely to get run out of the gym, yes, but Markieff is their most qualified big to hang with the Dubs if they go small. It's risky, obviously, but he could really post a monster here.
These are players that show up in each of the top 10 lineups as produced by our lineup optimizer. This doesn't necessarily mean that they're "safe," it just means that their projected weighted-mean point total is a solid building block for a great lineup foundation today.
Opponent - HOU
FD Proj. Pts - 39.64 DK Proj. Pts - 41.69
Opponent - HOU
FD Proj. Pts - 38.37 DK Proj. Pts - 41.05
To the surprise of absolutely no one. It's rare that a player of LeBron's caliber A) sits and B) has such clear teammates to pass his usage to. But that's the case with Kyrie and Love. Both would be at least 10% more expensive if LeBron didn't exist, and getting them at prices that are based on the fact that he very much does exist make these guys incredible bargains tonight. Through in the short slate, and this is an easy one.
Opponent - CLE
FD Proj. Pts - 53.98 DK Proj. Pts - 57.03
I was semi-surprised to see Harden showing as the feature big money guy over Westbrook, but with Kyrie hogging a point guard spot in every lineup and the shooting guard position looking so bad, Harden is the anchor our lineup optimizer is building around. The Cavs could sic Iman Shumpert on him here, but the minutes Harden is logging and the way he's logging them should more than make up for it. Harden seems like a fine play in any format.
A close one: Aaron Gordon, if you believe (as I do) that he's going to play 31+ minutes.
Good luck out there today! If you want access to all of our numbers, get started with a free trial below of our lineup optimizer, on us!
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View Comments
thoughts on H thompson as i cheap SF option?
If she actually did try to kill her self it was an obvious lame attempt to gain sympathy. For God's sake she posted this story herself on INSTAGRAM!! So if a fake suicide attempt affects Irving is anyone's guess. Did you see that last word? Guess? Why waste time GUESSING about Irvings psyche when his performances lately have been all over the map?? Yea James is out. Personally I am stacking Wall/Curry and or wall/Harden.
Kyrie Irvings gf tried to commit suicide last night , I have no
Idea but does off the court issues like this change projections I also feel weird asking such a thing.
I'm always amazed at how DFS players seem to gravitate towards the guys that have some sorta issue. I see a guy like Irving who may be distracted and I pair that with his sporadic all over the board performances of late and I run, not walk, from this dumpster fire. Tons absolutey tons of solid PG tonite so zero reason to spend the day psycho-analyzing Irving. Besides of this game gets side ways would anyone be surprised if Lue pulled everyone of em out??
Aaron Gordon has not been playing well lately. He gets the mintues but he hasn't been producing lately.
By the way guys, last nights optimal lineup killed it!!! Cash across the board! Nice job to all working on DFSR!
PG is simple IMO. Every GS game everyone says that GS will run em outta the gym. Fact is GS plats exactly ZERO D so they don't blow anyone out EVER! Last week Phi, Pho, and Mav's with a D League LU stuck with em till the 4th. I see this game prolly 83-77 start of the 4th. Wall and Curry will both destroy 50fpts tonite easily in head to head battle. I stacked em and still had room to roster 6 solid ass players around them. I will take my 100+ fpts from Curry and Wall and move right along.
PG is tough. Don't trust the GSW/WAS game and not touching Irving and Payton looked like a good play till Dipo came back. May be an Ish Smith kind of night.
Why not touch Irving?
Bro..She was posted some bull shit "Last nite I tried to leave this earth" crap HERSELF on INSTAGRAM!! So this is just some lame story that people are spreading around. Real suicide attempt she's in a psyche ward with no phone not posting this bull shit on social media!!! With Curry.Wall. and even Walker to a less degree playing I avoid the obvious "guesses" and "hunches"...
I'm not on Orlando anymore!
Didn.t see comment above about his GF. Wow...
Not because of the GF. For me because of Beverly. I got a little sticky note with things like. Never play AD and don't play the PG opposite Beverly unless it's Westbrook.
Yeah the thing is the rockets overall defense is pretty bad so even if PGs don't go off on Bev, the assists are usually there.
Nicholson, Dudley, or Dunleavy which is the best option?
I'm trying out some slight stacks tonight. I usually just put the good plays in 3 different lineups. Tonight I have one lineup with Curry, Wall, Harden and some GS and WAS players. Then I have one with Westbrook, durant, Reggie, Tobias, Drummond.
maybe I have been looking at this too long but, is Kemba Walker and Batum dropping 40 or more on this Philly team.... maybe even some Jeremy Lin if this game gets out of hand... congrats on the new little member of DFSR family