Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/30/16

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!

What We Know

Justin Anderson and Dwight Powell will start again tonight for the Mavs.
And they'll send Salah Mejri back to the land of obscurity from whence he came. Both Powell and Anderson are capable of having excellent games against the Knicks today, with Powell being the safer of the two on account of his longer track record and better rebounding ability. Anderson has flashed some significant upside, though - he's cheaper than Powell, and seems to have the ability to rack up defensive stats. Both are worth of consideration even in a big daily fantasy basketball slate tonight.

Raymond Felton and J.J. Barea keep their bumps since Deron Williams has been ruled out
Williams has missed three games now, but in case you missed it, both Barea and Felton have been generally excellent in his absence, and both are in a lovely spot against the Knicks' generally lousy back-court today. Felton is more of the steady-Eddie of the two, putting up 30, 30, and 25 fantasy points in each of his last three games, but Barea's role as the primary ball-handler gives him 40+ fantasy point upside when his teammates are knocking down shots.

Paul Pierce is out, so we're bumping Jeff Green
The little injuries are sometimes the most significant when it comes to winning big tournaments, and that could be the case here. Green played 32, 27, and 45 minutes in the last three games Pierce missed, and while he wasn't a consistent performer in those games, we know he has it in him to put up reasonable point and rebounding totals. I suspect he won't be a very big play at all, and while I wouldn't play him with your money in 50/50s, he'd be a mandatory part of a Clippers/Wolves stack for a big tourney.

Jrue Holiday will miss the rest of the NBA season.
This leaves the Pelicans with something like 2 guards total to play against the Spurs. Yes, they are going to lose by ~20,000,000 points tonight, but some human beings will have to stand out on the court tonight, and presumably they will try and score and rebound and all the rest. That looks to be Tim Frazier and Toney Douglas tonight, and while I get it if you don't feel like they're safe, they just can't be priced to where there production will wind up until the Pelicans sign someone else to take some of the burden.

What We're Waiting to Know

Will Kristaps Porzingis' shoulder keep him out of this one?
Porzingis got dinged up blocking an Alonzo Gee dunk, and he's now being listed as doubtful for tonight's game. Some people are citing Melo as a big beneficiary here, but the numbers don't really bear that out - he gets just a 1% usage increase with Staps off the floor. The big winner, of course, is Derrick Williams, who both plays more minutes and sees a higher usage when the Zinger is MIA. Williams is very affordable and could have huge upside (and a healthy floor) against Dallas tonight. UPDATE: ZINGER is out. Derrick Williams starting. Probably a must play at these prices

Kyle Lowry's status
Lowry's elbow is clearly bothering him right now, and the Raptors obviously have big time playoff ambitions. Lowry missed shoot-around on Wednesday, and is currently listed as questionable for tonight's game with the Hawks. He's an easy fade even if he does play, but if he is absent tonight, both DeMar DeRozan and Cory Joseph become intriguing. DeRozan has an astronomical 39% usage with Lowry off the court this season, and Joseph put up 22 fantasy points in 32 minutes when Lowry missed the Celtics game last week. Keep a close eye on this one, as we should know something in advance of lineup lock. UPDATE: Lowry will play

Will Zach Randolph return?
Z-Bo's been dealing with a bum ankle, and it's freed up significant playing time for JaMychal Green and Chris Andersen (PSA: make sure you keep kids under 13 out of the room when Birdman is getting extended minutes). Randolph was a participant in shoot-around today, and for safety's sake, our lineup optimizer is assuming he'll be out there. Neither Andersen nor Green were really putting up safe enough numbers for your 50/50 purposes, but if Randolph is out again either makes a somewhat interesting speculative big tourney play. I wouldn't bother with Randolph either way, since he could easily be on limited minutes even if he does play. UPDATE: ZBO will play

Will Tyson Chandler play?
Chandler's back is acting up again, and he's being listed as questionable for tonight's game as of this writing. If he's out, things get a little messy. Jon Leuer has been great in the past when he's gotten the start, but he's been dealing with illness issues and his minutes have been very erratic. Mirza Teletovic is capable of a big game thanks to his ability to stretch the floor, but things are far from certain for him as well. Unless we get some pretty clear news that Leuer is better and starting, the rest of these guys look like big tournament candidates only. It's worthwhile to point out that a lack of big depth also increases PJ Tucker's role, so he might be a guy to look at if Chandler AND Leuer are somehow ruled out early. UPDATE: Mirza out, Chandler GTD

Will Goran Dragic's illness keep him out again?
Because if it does, we might be looking at another D-Wade everywhere situation. Wade's got a ridiculous 40% usage with Dragic (and Bosh) off the court this season, and he obviously has a beyond great match-up with the Lakers. Josh Richardson was also great against the Nets, and this is a similarly great match-up with LA. The lineup optimizer is assuming Dragic playing for now (as of 1:30 PM EST), but we'll keep an eye on things as they get closer to lock as well.

The "Every Lineup" Guys

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.

DeMarcus Cousins - FD 10600 DK 10200
Opponent - WAS
FD Proj. Pts - 50.56 DK Proj. Pts - 51.17
The Boog stands alone at the top of the lineup optimizer heap today - he's the only player in each of the top 8 optimal lineups. This speaks to an important point, by the way - on huge slates like this, there are a TON of possible directions you can go in the mid-range and punt range, but you're going to frequently want to build around the same big ticket guys. Cousins in a fast paced match-up where the Kings are less likely than usual to get blown out looks good from here.

Giannis Antetokounmpo - FD 9200 DK 9300
Opponent - PHX
FD Proj. Pts - 43.94 DK Proj. Pts - 45.05
The Greek Freak has taken a few games off from being as freakish, but this should be a great opportunity to get back to work against the Suns. He's now cheap relatively to what he can do in a perfect spot, and this is most certainly that. Throw in Jason Kidd's announcement that Giannis will be the Bucks' point guard next season, and I think we see him featured even more often than usual. Monster game coming, mark my words.

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