Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 4/1/16

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

April Fools Day is arguably the dumbest holiday, and it's been made worse by social media.
Nothing more fun that watching all of your uncreative friends make transparent and dumb April Fools "jokes," only to double down on their lack of a sense of humor by tacking on a "JK GUYS!! We're not actually having Sextuplets!!" Those of us who are old enough to remember April Fools Days of yore when you could go until, say, noon without even realizing it was going on will hardly be believed when we explain to our grandchildren how much less torturous it used to be. Deep breaths. On to basketball.

DeMarcus Cousins is out, and Kosta Koufos looks delicious
Cousins has missed 2 of his last 5 games, and we've seen what Koufos can do when the Boogie disappears. He paid 6x and 8.5x points per dollar on his FanDuel price in those contests, and his erratic role has him priced at a deep discount to what he can do as a starter. Great play in any format. Rudy Gay was a chalk play the last time Boogie missed one, and was truly terrible. Gay has played a much smaller roll in the offense in general recently, and I'm not sure he warrants even his current discounted price.

Deron Williams is out, JJ Barea is playing
Barea's price continues to climb, but frankly, he's earning it right now. He's on back to back games with 39+ fantasy points, and the Pistons are basically a league average match-up for opposing point guards. Increased price means increased risk on Barea, but he's so involved right now that it's hard to imagine him not having a respectable floor here regardless given than he's paid 6x+ points per dollar in three of his four games in this role.

Zaza Pachulia is starting
Zaza's been on up and down minutes recently, and the point-per-minute production has been similarly erratic, but this will likely just serve to spook people away from him. You probably should be spooked if you're looking for safety here, but if he hits the upper end of his minutes he could turn in a true monster performance as well. Big tournament play only.

Brook Lopez is back, and I'm mad
So long, Thomas Robinson. We hardly knew ye. Lopez returns to a decent match-up against Lesser Lopez, but it's hard to stomach playing a guy who just missed a game and left the game before than early. Not much to see here, unfortunately.

Jerami Grant will play, rendering Carl Landry as pretty useless
All the analysis is in the header of this one. You can't play Grant because his minutes will almost certainly be on some manner of limit.

What We're Waiting to Know

Kristaps Porzingis looks doubtful tonight
Porzingis' potential absence is very significant tonight, largely because Derrick Williams played 35 minutes and paid almost 7x points per dollar on his basically minimum prices against Dallas. It's a great match-up with the Nets tonight, and Williams would be fine for any format if he draws another start. UPDATE: Porzingis is out. Williams is a great play again. 

Derrick Favors is questionable with knee soreness
This means A) I won't play him even if he is declared active and B) we could see a nice opportunity for Trey Lyles tonight. Lyles has been very solid in his last 5 games on a per-minute basis, and 30+ minutes could make him something like a must-play for me tonight. You might not know Favors' status by the main slate line-up lock, though, so this might be just a flyer play or one for the later slates.

Jeremy Lin's status
For a guy that plays 25 minutes a game at a relatively high usage, Lin's absence means precious little for daily fantasy basketball purposes. He missed last game and it opened up some space for Jorge Gutierrez to play 12 minutes and Jeremy Lamb to play 20. Now, Lamb actually has put up some decent totals when he's played 20+ minutes in the past (especially on a minimum salary), but I don't think we can count on him as anything other than a big tournament flyer. UPDATE: Lin is playing

Will Jose Calderon start, and if he doesn't, who will get his minutes?
Calderon had to leave Wednesday's game with the quad contusion, and the Knicks surprised me by trotting Jerian Grant out as the 2nd half starter in spite of Langston Galloway performing decently in the role earlier this season. Then I find out on Rotoworld that the Knicks have to pay Galloway a bonus if he crosses a certain limits threshold, and they may be actively sitting him more so that he doesn't hit it. Embarrassing. Either way, if Calderon sits I'd be intrigued by either Grant or Galloway as a flyer if one is announced as the starter. UPDATE: Calderon is out.  Jerian Grant starting in his place

Jerryd Bayless and Tyler Ennis are both doubtful
We're also waiting to know how this would actually change things. Rasahd Vaughan has been somewhat uninspiring in his recently foray into greater minutes, and Greivis Vasquez has played 13 minutes in the last 15 years it seems like. Still, Vasquez has been decent on a points per minute basis in the past, and either would be interesting if named the starter if both Bayless and Ennis were officially out.

Will Jae Crowder sit the 2nd half of a back to back?
Might be somewhat inconsequential, given who the opponent is, but he would free up significant minutes for guys like Evan Turner and Avery Bradley, who'd become off-beat upside plays in a risky match-up with the Warriors.

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.

Derrick Williams - FD 3600 DK 3500
Opponent - BKN
FD Proj. Pts - 28.06 DK Proj. Pts - 29.71
The easiest punt play going for me if Porzingis is out, and it's not really even close. We have a nice long track record of what Williams can do on a per-minute basis, and an unintimidating match-up with the Nets adds to his security. Great play in any format, as I've said before.

Brandon Knight - FD 6900 DK 7100
Opponent - WAS
FD Proj. Pts - 37.42 DK Proj. Pts - 39.82
John Wall - FD 9600 DK 10300
Opponent - PHX
FD Proj. Pts - 46.71 DK Proj. Pts - 48.06
It's always nice when the every lineup guys face each other - it means we can transfer a lot of the optimal lineups to big tournaments as well as 50/50s. Both are playing big minutes, and the irrelevance of their respective teams means defensive is scarcer than usual. Love both.

Jason Smith - FD 4100 DK 3800
Opponent - MIL
FD Proj. Pts - 17.92 DK Proj. Pts - 18.38
April Fools'. You should see your face right now.

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!