Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/25/16

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

Kawhi Leonard is out, Kyle Anderson will start
Anderson hasn't been a particularly inspiring play with Leonard on the bench in the past, but losing a guy with a 26% usage means there are a lot of shots to go around. Aldridge gets a small boost from Leonard being off the court, but the biggest beneficiary seems to be Tony Parker, whose usage climbs from %23 to %28 with Leonard on the bench. Throw in a scheduled day off for Danny Green and Patty Mills, and this could be a very interesting night to grab Parker on the very cheap.

Jon Leuer should continue his reign of terror with Chandler sidelined
Tyson Chandler has already been ruled out, and Leuer played 41 minutes at nearly a fantasy point per minute in the Suns' game against the Lakers. Now not all fantasy match-ups are created equally, but the Kings have been plenty bad against opposing fours all season, and Leuer is a must own for double-ups tonight once again.

Marvin Williams is back
This sends Frank Kaminsky back to no man's land, and will temper of our projection system's love for Cody Zeller as well. I wouldn't play Williams, personally, as I just hate taking guys a game back from missing a contest for injury related reasons.

The Mavs are sitting Dirk, Deron, and Devin Harris
Huge news, obviously, for a number of reasons. First of all, guys like David Lee, JJ Barea, and Ray Felton will get more minutes. That's great and all, but this also throws the blowout risk through the damned roof, meaning this game becomes more unpredictable than anything. This throws the lineup optimizer through a roof, because it had liked guys on both sides of this game. Updates to come.

What We're Waiting to Know

What's up with Zach Randolph?
Z-Bo has been very solid since returning from his knee injury, but now he's got ankle woes. I wasn't going to play him against the Spurs anyway, but his missing any significant time would open up a round 2 of the JaMychal Green frenzy. Green is still fairly expensive based on his last run at daily fantasy basketball stardom, but would be worth a flier in big tournaments even in a tough match-up.

Update: Randolph is out, and the projection system isn't in love with JaMychal Green regardless. That is based on 30 minutes of playing time, though, so if you think he'd get more he becomes quite a competitive play.

Victor Oladipo's status
Oladipo is now being listed as questionable with a wrist injury. His absence would change a LOT in Orlando, as the Magic would have to redistribute high 30s minutes and his 24% usage. Mario Hezonja looks to be the main benefactor, but it would also mean more minutes and usage for Evan Fournier as well. Hezonja would definitely be a strong candidate in all formats if he were named the starter.

Will Darrell Arthur start for Kenneth Faried again?
Denver hasn't been totally forthcoming with news, here, as Faried keeps getting listed as questionable and then winds up missing the game entirely. Arthur has been a little up and down with Faried sidelined, but has turned in 2 great performance sandwiched around one dud. It's a great spot against the Lakers, and I'd be very inclined to guess we're looking at a solid fantasy performance in this one.

Will Luol Deng return?
He missed Wednesday's game, and the team is claiming that it was for precautionary reasons, but I'll believe that when lineups come out. In his absence, Josh McRoberts played 30 minutes, and Gerald Green got some extra run as well. Neither was particularly relevant, but McBob has big game capability when things break right.

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.

Stephen Curry - FD 10600 DK 10500
Opponent - DAL
FD Proj. Pts - 50.67 DK Proj. Pts - 54.66
Lots of value today means lots of room to spend up. For us, that looks like Steph right now. And it makes sense - value at a ton of other positions (PF and C in particular) means we can delight ourselves to actually rooting for Curry instead of rooting against him. Happy days!

Update! With the Mavs sitting, well, everyone, Curry is a lot less attractive than he was a little while ago. Sending his minutes down means his production could wind up being way down, and I'm not sure I can call him safe anymore.

Jon Leuer - FD 4600 DK 4100
Opponent - SAC
FD Proj. Pts - 32.22 DK Proj. Pts - 33.04
Mine, and I imagine everyone's, favorite value guy of the day. Already gave you the analysis above, but it's no surprise that he's showing up everywhere here. Tons of upside, a nice high floor, and a delight to own tonight. And since I wrote all that, I'm sure he'll get injured in the 2nd quarter.

Salah Mejri - FD 4700 DK 3800
Opponent - GSW
FD Proj. Pts - 28.41 DK Proj. Pts - 28.92
Still Salah time, even at an increased price. The absurd rebounding rate just gives him a fantastic floor on these prices, and even in a tough match-up with the Warriors, he should be able to do his thing. The one risk, I suppose, is that he would be pretty hopeless against the small-ball "lineup of death."

Update! This selection now comes with a lot of risk as well, as Mejri should be as susceptible to reduced minutes as anyone in this one.

Brandon Knight - FD 7200 DK 7500
Opponent - SAC
FD Proj. Pts - 36.7 DK Proj. Pts - 39.05
With the news of Dallas sitting everyone, room has opened up at the point guard position, and we're now looking at lots and lots of Brandon Knight. It's a great match-up in a game where Knights should have a lot of opportunity to wreak havoc on the Kings' sloppy D.

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!