Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 4/13/16

The end of the NBA basketball season! And, like all last days of the NBA season, it should probably just be canceled for all of the horrific squads we're going to see today. But you know what that means - opportunity for the steady of hand and bold at heart. Let's break down what we should be keeping an eye on tonight.

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

A lot of teams are sitting a lot of guys. Here's the ones we have confirmed news on so far:

The Cleveland Cavaliers
They've announced they're going to sit Kyrie, Love, Smith, and LeBron for the concluding game of the season. This almost assuredly means Matthew Dellavedova will be a solid play (he played 31 minutes with Kyrie out last time around, and more than produced on his minimum salary). I'm also very bullish on Channing Frye's chances, assuming he gets the starting gig. I'm a little less excited about Richard Jefferson, who rates to get the lion's share of the hole left by LeBron, but he could still put up big numbers as well. I don't care about Jams Jones.

This is one of those crazy situations like we had in OKC last night - This is basically all of the Cavs' usage and 140 minutes a game to redistribute. Anyone who "knows for sure" how this will go is lying to you, but just know that anyone who plays on the Cavs tonight is likely to be a "value" relative to their price. How much a value? A better value than some others? Also kind of impossible to say, because they'll likely be playing against the Pistons' back-ups as well. The last day of the NBA = the wildest of wild Wests.

The Los Angeles Clippers
They've announced that Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, JJ Redick, and Jamal Crawford will be sitting. So, yeah. That's a lot of minutes and usage to go around. Cole Aldrich was dominant against the Jazz in this exact situation recently, and Austin Rivers was amazing in his own right on 3/31 when he got all the point guard minutes against the Thunder. Pablo Prigioni played a bunch of minutes and was quite solid against the Jazz, but that was without Austin Rivers. Still, those two could play together for sure tonight. Jeff Green played a lot of minutes against the Jazz, but wasn't anything to write home about. Paul Pierce was pretty good as well.

But really, all you need need are the great plays here. For me, that's Aldrich and Rivers. The rest of the guys should probably be considered tournament only plays - but man, there is a LOT of value here.

The Sacramento Kings
They're sitting everyone... Rondo, Gay, Cousins, Collison, Belinelli, and Casspi. This means Seth Curry, even at inflated prices, is going to get a LOT of ownership tonight. Sneakier plays are Kosta Koufos, who was great in high 30s minutes in their last game, and also Ben Mclemore - who is still minimum priced but easily capable of 10x points per dollar given the lack of other options tonight. Houston will be playing their real players, unfortunately, so this is almost assuredly a blowout... but with no players to play, the Kings don't have much of a choice.

Rudy Gobert didn't travel with the team
This opens up a fairly sizeable hole in the Utah front court, but unfortunately, there might not be a lot we can do with it. Derrick Favors is banged up himself, and there is just so much other value today that I am not sure playing Trey Lyles or Trevor Booker is worth the risk. I'd be fairly excited if I heard Lyles was going to get the start, but only in a "trying to win a big tournament by going off-board" sort of way. It's a great match-up with the Lakers, though, so definitely keep it in mind.

Jeremy Lin should be a good play since Nic Batum will sit again
Lin put up 52 fantasy points against the Celtics, and has another nice match-up with the Magic. Could be another huge night for him, and he has upside that's something separate from the run-of-the-mill punts you'll see everywhere tonight. You pay for him, but like Aldrich, you're paying for a higher quality (assuming he gets the start).
 

What We're Waiting to Know

Teams to watch tonight:
Any of the following teams could sit basically all of their good players, which would open up spots for their worse players to get more minutes. Let's break them down:

The Spurs
And this one is closer to a certainty than a guess for me, but they have only officially announced that Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard are sitting as of this writing. This means more minutes for Kyle Anderson (probably irrelevant given other values on the slate) and Patty Mills - who has much greater upside, but tons of downside risk as well. If the Spurs rest EVERYONE then we have a different story - someone is going to have to put shots in the air for them tonight. I'd like David West quite a bit in that circumstance. But since we don't have the news in just yet, I'm reserving judgment for now.

Update: I shouldn't have reserved judgment! The Spurs are predictably sitting everyone. David West is in play for double-ups and big tournaments, and the rest of those guys should be considered speculative tourney plays. Kyle Anderson is a possible exception, as we have a decent baseline for him in situations like these.

Update to the update: David West is now out. All hell is breaking loose, here. There are too many minutes for too few players. Look for big minutes for Boris Diaw, and possible Matt Bonner. Kyle Anderson gets a bump here as well.

The Toronto Raptors
The big candidates to rest here are Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, who both played yesterday (albeit in limited minutes). If they sat, both Cory Joseph and Norman Powell are very interesting options. Likewise, if we get word that Jonas Valanciunas is going to sit, I'd take a very long look at Bismack Biyombo, who put up terrific numbers as a starter earlier this season.

UPDATE: The Raptors have declared Lowry, DeRozan, and Valancunias out for tonight's game against the Nets. All three of their back-ups are in play.

The Detroit Pistons
They've got the 8th seed, and they won't do any better at this point. Reggie Jackson sat Tuesday's game, and Steve Blake was more than serviceable on a minimum salary. If the rest of the starters sit, the guy I'd be most interested in is Stanley Johnson, who performed admirably as a starter in big minutes earlier this season. Keep in mind that his two recent DNPs were of the coach's decision variety, rather than of injury. He's not a safe play, but is very interesting nonetheless.

The Indiana Pacers, and particularly Paul George
Their seeding got solidified on Tuesday, and with nothing to play for, I'd be surprised to see George suit up in this one. If he sits, Solomon Hill could get a big boost. If all the Pacers sit, well, I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

John Wall and Bradley Beal will likely sit
We don't "know" know this year, so I'll put it down here for now. But with both Washington studs dealing with nagging injuries, it'd be shocking to me to see them in a meaningless season-ender. I'd declare them out completely, except that this game is in Washington, and the Wiz might want to send them out there for to please the fans. Ramon Sessions is getting expensive, but is still a reasonable play. Marcus Thornton remains a phenomenal play since his price didn't climb nearly as dramatically as Sessions'.

Will Markieff Morris be active?
He'd been putting up great fantasy totals before a surprise rest against Brooklyn, but I suspect we'll see him in the last game of the season, as he's become a bit of a fan favorite in Washington. If he does get the start, I'd expect big minutes and big production. But he's anything but safe until we get complete assurance that he's playing.

Tyson Chandler is likely out again
But I'm not sure it matters for your purposes. Alex Len and Mirza Teletovic are both expensive compared to the insane value today, and Jon Leuer's minutes are too erratic to call him anything but a big tourney play. Still, it's a great match-up against the D-League squad the Clips are throwing out there tonight, so I wouldn't be shocked by huge lines from any of these guys.

What's going on with the Mavs' point guards
But I'm not sure it matters. Williams and Barea are overpriced compared to other values tonight, and Felton is too. Only matters if you want to cut against the grain in big tourneys.

Update:
With Barea and Devin Harris both ruled out, and Williams questionable - Felton becomes a much more attractive play given that the Mavs are already in the playoffs. He's now a distinct possibility for me.

Will Aaron Gordon return?
Not relevant because you want to play him, but it would crunch interesting punts like Dwayne Dedmon and Jason Smith.

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.

Cole Aldrich - FD 5000 DK 4200
Opponent - PHX
FD Proj. Pts - 38.31 DK Proj. Pts - 38.88
For reasons cited above - he could put up absolutely huge numbers once again.

Damian Lillard - FD 8100 DK 8700
Opponent - DEN
FD Proj. Pts - 40.86 DK Proj. Pts - 44.02
Portland is trotting him out there for minutes, and clearly wants to hold that 5 seed. Great match-up. He gets his.

And the rest is all over the place. Best of luck tonight - everyone is going to need it 🙂

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