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FanDuel daily picks: Fantasy basketball lineup-April 7

By Zachary Thompson

April 5, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Andrew Wiggins (22) shoots the basketball against the Golden State Warriors during the second half at Oracle Arena. The Timberwolves defeated the Warriors 124-117. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
April 5, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Andrew Wiggins (22) shoots the basketball against the Golden State Warriors during the second half at Oracle Arena. The Timberwolves defeated the Warriors 124-117. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /
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On a busy day packed with sports this Thursday, the NBA has five games scheduled to wrap up the evening, so take your chance at DFS fantasy basketball glory with my FanDuel daily picks.

Mar 19, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) passes over San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green (14) at the AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) passes over San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green (14) at the AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports /

The NBA has under a week left in the regular season which makes the DFS fantasy basketball landscape a tricky one to navigate on a nightly basis with last-minute availability changes, players resting or shut down, and other players stepping up.  To give you a road map to see through as many of the obstacles as possible, check out my FanDuel daily  picks on the following slides.

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The tricky thing with FanDuel in particular at this time of year is that when the first games of the night tip off your roster for the whole night is locked in.  Last night, the Thunder had said no one was resting when things locked in at 7:00 only to change their tune and rest Serge, Durant, and Westbrook against the Blazers.  I have no problem with them resting–they’ve earned it and secured the #3 seed, but I wish we could adjust our lineup on FanDuel like on DraftKings where you can swap out a player any time before his game starts. With no late-swapping, FanDuel only raised the “luck” factor and decreases the “skill” portion of DFS fantasy basketball.

With that being said, there is still money to be earned if you can anticipate who’s in and who’s out for tonight’s games.  The trickiest matchup to forecast is the final game of the night which is also the greatest regular season matchup ever by some metrics.  Never in NBA history have two teams met in the regular season that have each won 65 games, and we’ll get that matchup tonight as the Spurs take on the Warriors.  Who plays and who sits will be interesting to follow leading up to tip-off, but my guess is we won’t know enough in time for tip-off to start many players from that contest with confidence.  In the other four games on the slate tonight, the Bulls meet the Heat at 8:00 which is when rosters lock for the night while at the same time the Suns take on the Rockets in Houston and the Hawks welcome in the Raptors.  At 10:00, the T-Wolves take on the Kings in Sacramento as the last game before the marquee matchup in Oakland tonight.

With those ten teams ready to roll, there are a lot of different options to consider for my FanDuel  daily picks tonight. To see the players that I think are in a position to help you, check out my FanDuel daily picks on the following slides. My goal is to give you the information you need to build your own lineup that can bring home a win for your team tonight. In order to help you find the position and price-point that you need, you’ll find two slides per position in this post–one with high-salary options and one with high-value options. Each slide contains at least two options with extras thrown in where possible.  I base each pick on the current form of each player and the positional matchups each player will face in tonight’s game.

At the beginning of 2016, I  started to rank my picks using stars after each selection to show the strength of the pick. For a full explanation of the rating system, check out the last slide of this post, but in short, more stars means more confidence (on a point-per-dollar basis). Also on the final slide of the post, you can see how I’m putting together the best of my picks into my lineup for tonight’s competition. I suggest you build your own customized team with the players you like the most, but you’re welcome to check out my lineups and use them as a place to get started.

In this post, all salary references and references to “fantasy points” refer to FanDuel pricing and scoring.  If you are looking for similar coverage specifically for DraftKings, check the box above for related posts or find the latest on our new-look fantasy basketball hub.

If you have any questions about my picks for today or any of our FanSided fantasy coverage, you can leave them at the bottom of the page in the comments section.  For an even quicker response, you can find me throughout the day on Twitter @FansidedFantasy. I’ll also use Twitter to keep you up to date on the latest availability news leading up to 8:00 when rosters lock.  Unfortunately, we may not have all the answers at that point, but I’ll let you know as much info is available.

If you find my picks and analysis helpful and would like to check out my DFS fantasy basketball posts each morning, the easiest way to find the FanDuel daily picks is to drop a bookmark on our fantasy basketball hub or follow on Twitter where I’ll tweet out the links each day when my picks go live.

Let’s get going with tonight’s FanDuel daily picks starting with some PG primed to produce tonight.

Next: High Salary PG