Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/18/16 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! START YOUR FREE TRIAL! What We Know Tim Frazier is starting Frazier caught a lot of daily fantasy basketball players' eyes on Wednesday, dropping 33 fantasy points in 27 minutes in a blowout win over the Kings. He caught Alvin Gentry's eye, too, as Frazier has been announced the starter (likely in place of Toney Douglas) for Friday's tilt with with the Trail Blazers (revenge game, btw!). But man, it's pretty tough to figure out exactly how many minutes he's going to play. He'll be directly competing with Jrue Holiday, Toney Douglas, and Luke Babbitt for minutes, and Gentry's "short leash" tendencies have me a little spooked. Still, it's a good sign that he played 27 minutes in his first game with the Pelicans, and an even better sign that his coach was so inspired as to bump him into the starting lineup after one game. I'd guess he'll play high 20s minutes tonight, and should have no problem paying basically minimum prices. All of this assumes that Norris Cole is out again, by the way. Chances are good that Frazier's signing was an indication that Cole isn't close, but if he does come back, I wouldn't play Frazier anywhere. Brandon Bass is playing tonight We were on this in Bass' last game, and his absence predictably meant a rise in minutes for Julius Randle. Well, with Bass back tonight, it's only sensible to offer downward guidance on Randle even in a great match-up with the Suns tonight. Still some upside there, but don't count on him for 30 minutes.   What We're Waiting to Know Reggie Jackson - Will his breathing issue hold him out? Jackson missed practice on Thursday with what's being called a "breathing issue," and the Pistons have gone ahead and signed Lorenzo Brown as "insurance" against Jackson not playing tonight. I don't think I'd play a guy fresh up from the D-League in anything but a big tournament, but I'd turn my attention to...

Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/16/16 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! START YOUR FREE TRIAL! What We Know Taj Gibson is still a great play with Pau Gasol out He's the only thing they've got resembling a strong 5 at the moment, and should play big minutes against the Wizards here. The more interesting discussion for me is what happens with Nikola Mirotic. We're tentatively slating him for 29 minutes, but I could see scenarios where he plays both more or less. How's that for helpful? I think he's still a useful play against the Wiz. JaMychal Green is starting for Zach Randolph again But we're on back to back awful games from him after his break-out stretch. It's not the worst match-up with the Timberwolves, but it's impossible to call him safe given his uncertain role and erratic play. Still, he makes for a nice big tournament play given the industry malaise surrounding him right now. Kristaps Porzingis is back, Arron Afflalo will still come off the bench, and Sasha Vujacic will start Porzingis can only be considered a big tournament play (though he's an intriguing one, to be honest) given what he can do if his minutes break right. Afflalo and Vujacic, meanwhile, are both unplayable in any format on account of them splitting minutes. Update: Lebron is out. Irving, Love and Shumpert are borderline must plays.  Update: Rajon Rondo out. Collison gets a bump.  What We're Waiting to Know Will Derrick Rose return? He's been out for three games, but he went through a full shoot around on Wednesday, and Hoiberg is "optimistic" that he'll be back here. E'Twaun Moore would likely be the odd man out if he does come back, as the wing/guard spots are starting to get crowded not that Dunleavy and Mirotic are both playing as well. Rose is going to play on a minutes' restriction.  Will Lance Stephenson play? Stephenson looked good during shoot-around for the Grizz on Wednesday, and his return would certainly steer minutes away from some of the zillion...

Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/15/16 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! SEE OUR NEW TOOLS NOW! What We Know Elfrid Payton and Nikola Vucevic are out again Enter CJ Watson! If he plays. He's got the NBA Flu, and this might just be Brandon Jennings instead. But Jennings also has Achilles issues. Maybe Shabazz Napier? Oy, what a mess. If he does play, Watson is very interesting. He was bad against Portland, but great against the Kings. It's clear that the Magic are content to play him high 20s low 30s minutes if things are going well, but that makes me a lot more confident to deploy him in big tourneys than in 50/50s. Meanwhile, Vucevic's continued absence makes way for more shots for everyone, and increased playing time for Dedmon and Jason Smith. Smith put up one monster game in this role, and both have been fairly solid. But the combination of getting Skilesed and generally low minutes to begin with has me a little cautious with playing either in a 50/50. Hollis Thompson, Nerlens Noel get bumps with Covington and Grant out again All three have shown big fantasy upside, and Landry and Noel have shown great safety as well. Terrific match-up for all of them, and I'd be happy to play them anywhere. Lou Williams screwed up everyone's minutes in LA Well, him and Kobe playing together did. It's a real shame, because this is an awesome match-up for guards, but I'm not sure you can trust anyone to play more than 30 minutes. And their various prices, that leaves only Kobe Bryant as a consideration for me on the Lakers tonight. Brandon Bass sitting (more on that later) would free up some of the big minutes, but the guard situation is just a quagmire right now.   What We're Waiting to Know Kobe Bryant - a "game time decision" The Lakers have slapped Kobe with a GTD every day it seems, but we often know well before tip-off what the real story is. As of now...

Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/15/16 Breath catching time! I just got done entering my Monday lineups, which happened to be just about the craziest slate I've played in a while. Happy that I guessed right on the Lance Stephenson situation, but there is still a lot of basketball to be played and a lot of dominoes to fall. We shall see! Tuesday seems to be a fresh infusion of sanity. It's a relatively short slate, and there are relatively few unknowns that I gathered during my initial player audit (in case you didn't know, we examine every player every night to ensure we are caught up on every player's situation), and I'm feeling like I've got a pretty good handle on just about everything except those wacky Lakers. On to the NBA picks! Now’s your chance to get DFSR Pro with NBA Optimal Lineups, Projections, Player Cards and Google Chrome extension that auto-populates your lineups into FanDuel. Or try a free trial of our base package with projections for every player. While the seasons overlap, you'll get access to our tools for the NBA and NHL (and MLB when the time comes)! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with NBA? Be sure to read our free NBA Ebook on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. A quick heads up - we post an updates article every day (except Sunday) in the early afternoon, EST, to catch everyone up on how things are changing as a result of whatever news has come through. We also have great talks in the comments of that article. Hope to see you there! We've also launched a Stats and Research Page, which includes a lot of the individual statistics that we use to make our projections. It's free! Enjoy. POINT GUARD Ish Smith - FD 6500 DK 6700 Opponent - BKN FD Proj. Pts - 33.37 DK Proj. Pts - 34.36 Point guard is pretty deep for a 5 game slate, but I still like Ish best. When it comes to evaluating Smith, you need to look at one key stat: drives per game. He led the league with a staggering 14.5 drives per game in the month of January, and that dipped to a low of 8.8 per game at one period in February. In March, he's back up to 4th in the league, with 11.8 drives per game. He remains a value, though, because his price remains below its peak in January. This is a great match-up for Smith A) because the Nets have allowed the 7th most fantasy points per...

Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/14/16 We come off a short slate Sunday with a 9 game Monday slate that's full of intrigue. The Memphis situation is still bananas, the Bulls might start an entire D-League team, Brandon Knight just played huge minutes in Phoenix, the Warriors could score 140 points against the Pelicans... oy. Not an easy day to take on the daily fantasy basketball world. Let's wade in and see what we can pull out of this quagmire. Now’s your chance to get DFSR Pro with NBA Optimal Lineups, Projections, Player Cards and Google Chrome extension that auto-populates your lineups into FanDuel. Or try a free trial of our base package with projections for every player. While the seasons overlap, you'll get access to our tools for the NBA and NHL (and MLB when the time comes)! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with NBA? Be sure to read our free NBA Ebook on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. A quick heads up - we post an updates article every day (except Sunday) in the early afternoon, EST, to catch everyone up on how things are changing as a result of whatever news has come through. We also have great talks in the comments of that article. Hope to see you there! We've also launched a Stats and Research Page, which includes a lot of the individual statistics that we use to make our projections. It's free! Enjoy. POINT GUARD Brandon Knight - FD 6600 DK 7200 Opponent - MIN FD Proj. Pts - 32.34 DK Proj. Pts - 34.54 He was right back up to his old ones against the Warriors, putting up 20 shots in 37 minutes and a huge fantasy total (46 FanDuel points). It's a fine match-up with the Timberwolves - they've allowed the 6th most fantasy points per game to opposing point guards this season - and it should shock exactly no one if he goes off here once again. The only real risk in play is him getting reduced minutes for some sort of precautionary reason (since he's still not that far away from a long stretch of missed games due to injury), but I'm ready to call him safe for double-ups. Ricky Rubio - FD 6600 DK 6200 Opponent - PHX FD Proj. Pts - 35.67 DK Proj. Pts - 36.81 A lower upside, higher floor version of Brandon Knight. Rubio's got 3 double-digit assist games in his last 4 contests, and has been consistently crashing the boards and getting in the lane as well. The Suns, meanwhile, have...