Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) goes in for a dunk against the Chicago Bulls during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago, on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015. (AP Photo/Jeff Haynes)
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!
WARNING: This is a slow news day! I guess that isn't a warning so much as a note about how little is going on. It gives me both a feeling of calm and of mass panic at the same time. On the one hand it doesn't seem like we are waiting on much. On the other hand, the NBA ha a way of throwing massive curveballs out of nowhere.
This is a very helpful piece of news to know well in advance. It basically clears up any projection issues for the Pelicans going into tonight's short slate. Without Anderson and Davis (and Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans, yikes, the Pelicans man jeez) New Orleans will continue relying on Jrue Holiday and a misfit band of D-Leaguers, has-beens, never-were's and never-will-be's. More on Holiday and Luke Babbit down below, but know that without Anderson we have a pretty clear look at the Pelicans' projected minutes. (Except for Norris Cole, which I'll also get to.)
MAJOR UPDATE: Jrue Holiday is out. Initial bumps to T. Douglas, T. Frazier, Babbit and Cunningham.
This is the only real piece of outstanding news for the Pels. He's missed a ton of time and has been ruled out early in almost all of their past games. I don't suspect we see him on the court tonight, though he is officially listed as a game time decision. Cole playing would impact Jrue Holiday, Toney Douglas and to a lesser extent, Tim Frazier. Holiday wouldn't change too much for me, but the latter two would definitely see a minor bump down.
This would have some minutes' effect on the Bulls big men tonight. Though it's a little tough to say how. Guys like Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic and to a lesser extent Bobby Portis are difficult to project with minutes because the run's been so variable of late.
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 - UTA
FD Proj. Pts - 54.69 DK Proj. Pts - 56.55
This is both an easy one and a tough one. The easy part, seemingly, is that on such a short slate it becomes very difficult to fade a player like Westbrook considering there some easy and obvious ways to save and he isn't priced completely out of contention. The tough part is the defensive matchup against Utah is the hardest one of the slate and this game has the lowest expected total of the four. I'm somewhat willing to move past that because it's Westbrook but it is the one thing giving me some hesitation.
Opponent - IND
FD Proj. Pts - 47.91 DK Proj. Pts - 49.7
Opponent - IND
FD Proj. Pts - 25.96 DK Proj. Pts - 28.49
With Brow done for the year these two guys have been the biggest fantasy beneficiaries. Neither is priced correctly and should be in every one of your lineups tonight. The Pacers aren't a great matchup, but Holiday's usage is off the charts now (he pumped up 21 shots last game against the Heat) and Babbit is seeing a ton of minutes and looks as well. The latter is particularly mispriced and I suspect he's the highest owned player on the slate today because the salary isn't anywhere close to caught up.
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
Perhaps the kind of day where there is no big injury news but someone gets a night off right before lock tonight...oy
Yup, at some point OKC needs to rest guys. They aren't moving up or down in the standings and need to get some of these guys a night off. Same for the CAVS and then you have guys like Gasol who probably will sit. 6 teams on back to backs that could sit guys as well. I fully expect to be scrambling before tip putting together a lineup.
Yeah could go that route. This is what makes NBA the cruelest (yet most exciting) of the DFS sports IMHO
I feel like I'm chasing points tonight but with such a short slate I'm not sure how you do not play Love, Mirotic, and Porzingis. For the first time I got 1st place in a GPP yesterday - just a .25 cent game on DK but I was pumped nonetheless. Appreicate the help guys!
That's awesome! Nice score. And thanks for the nice words.
Is there anything to be concerned about with Cleveland.?I'm afraid they may rest or limit 1 or 2 of their stud players.
At shoot-around Lue said he "might rest guys tonight against BKN"
Gasol out tonight.
We worried about k. Irving getting a rest tonight?
If Gasol is out, what kind of bump could that give the lesser Lopez? or is that already baked in?
Purely for ease of use of this site, would you consider adding a time stamp to the visitor comments? Just makes it easier to discern which are newest (given that responses with the 'freshest' info don't necessarily end up at the bottom if they're a reply.
Agreed. Time stamp would be a great asset
Tonight is the night that the optimizer can really prove itself if it spits out a gem I'll promote for a week straight on my Twitter page to my 190k followers
how do we feel about mirotic?
Mixed feeling on Mirotic. Like him better if Gasol sits but it took Butler being terrible and an absolute blowout for him to put up that stat line last night. NY had a 19 point lead at the start of the 4th and the Bulls just let Mirotic run big minutes. ( believe he played the entire 4th quarter).