DraftKings daily picks: Fantasy basketball lineup-January 4

The NBA has a solid set of seven matchups tonight with plenty of DFS fantasy basketball options for Wednesday, so check out today’s DraftKings daily picks as you put your team together.

Sacramento Kings forward DeMarcus Cousins (15) and Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph (50) are both in tonight’s DraftKings daily picks. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports

There is a lot of uncertainty on tonight’s schedule with illness, injuries, and back-to-back games setting up some uncertain matchups. There are a few key games to avoid and attack, though, so check out my DraftKings daily picks on the following slides to see who makes sense and who should be left on the pine for tonight.

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Tonight’s games start at the usual7:00 PM ET which will lock in your DraftKings lineup. Overall, it’s a slightly lighter slate than is typical for a Wednesday, but two games get going early when the Magic welcome the Hawks to Orlando and the Thunder visit the Hornets in Charlotte. At 7:30, the Bucks are in New York to face the Knicks, and the ESPN double-header starts at 8:00 when the Bulls and Jimmy Butler roll into Cleveland to to challenge the champs. Cleveland’s Big 3 are all dealing with issues and questionable for tonight, so it’s hard to know which way that game will end up going. After that flurry of activity early, there is a bit of a lull until the three late games tip off at 10:30 when the Clippers host the Grizzlies, the Kings come home to face the Heat as both teams play for the second night in a row, and the Blazers visit the Warriors in the second game of ESPN’s coverage. Of the 14 teams on the floor tonight, you’ll want to remember that the Grizzlies, Heat, and Kings are playing for the second night in a row while the Hawks, Hornets, Thunder, and Blazers have the second half of their back-to-back tomorrow.

With those 14 teams taking the floor tonight, there are some big names to consider as well as some solid sleepers to target. To see who I think are the top options based on form and matchup, scroll through my DraftKings daily picks on the following slides. My goal each day is to give you the information you need to build your own customized lineup to get you a win however you participate in DFS contests. In order to help you find what you need, I’ve separated my picks by position and price. You’ll find two slides per position–the first slide will feature the best high-salary options followed by some high-value options which cost less but still offer solid returns. Each slide contains at least two options with extras thrown in where possible.

I rank my picks for each contest using stars after each explanation to show my relative confidence in 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 personal lineup for today’s competition. This post isn’t a place to find a copy-and-paste lineup since there are plenty of places that will sell you access to their picks. In this free daily post, I suggest you build your own customized team with the players that you like the most. As always, you’re welcome to check out my lineup and use it as a place to get started.

Just one more quick reminder that each day in my DraftKings daily picks, all salary references and references to “fantasy points” refer to DraftKings pricing and scoring. If you are looking for similar coverage specifically for FanDue, check the box above for related posts or find the latest on the fantasy basketball hub. If you have any questions or are looking for any updates as the games get closer, follow @FansidedFantasy on Twitter. I’ll also use that account to tweet out links when we add new stories to the fantasy basketball hub.

With those ground rules established, its time to dive right in to tonight’s DraftKings daily picks starting with the big-salary PG set to produce big fantasy points tonight.