The NBA has eight games in tonight’s DFS fantasy basketball competitions. Get your team in the game with FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks.
The NBA has a solid night of NBA action on Friday night. Line-ups lock with the Mavericks at the 76ers and the Bulls at the Wizards at 7:00 PM ET. The Celtics at the Nets and the Raptors at the Pistons tip at 7:30, followed 30 minutes later by the Timberwolves at the Heat and the Rockets at the Pelicans. At 10:00 the Magic are at the Suns, and the nightcap at 10:30 pits the Bucks at the Lakers.
Some things I’ll be watching for on Friday night: all of the injury replacements and roster re-configuring that has happened of late. Eric Bledsoe was declared out for the season, which makes Tyler Ulis suddenly an impact player for the Suns. Rajon Rondo had already seemingly taken back the starting point guard slot and was playing well, and now Dwyane Wade is done for the year. Isaiah Thomas is out for two games, meaning that Marcus Smart should get the chance to run the Celtics against one of the worst point guard (and overall) defenses in the NBA. Outside of the position shifting, Nerlens Noel gets his first crack at a 76ers team that he was publicly unhappy with all season before they traded him. Karl-Anthony Towns and Hassan Whiteside wage what could be an epic battle in Miami. Giannis Antetokounmpo gets the chance to bounce-back from a pedestrian game against a weak Lakers defense. And finally, the Pelicans get a rematch of the first game of the Cousins/Davis era when they face the Rockets team that blew them out in their debut as a tandem. Lots and LOTS of action and storylines to look forward to.
My favorite plays of the day can be found on the following slides in FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks. Each day in order to offer a variety of price points at each position, you can find two slides for each position–one for high-salary options and one for high-value options. Each pick is ranked on a scale of 1-5 stars to indicate the confidence in the pick. The final slide of this post has more detail on what each level means, but in short, more stars means more confidence in the selection on a points-per-dollar basis.
Important note, every day the goal of this post is not to give you a copy-and-paste lineup. Instead, each selection is given while highlighting the factors you need to consider when building a customized lineup for yourself. If you want to see an example lineup, you can find it on the final slide of the post, but I suggest you adjust your lineup to fit your personal taste.
To keep up with all of FanSided’s DFS NBA coverage head over to the fantasy basketball hub where each day you can find a post like this tailored for FanDuel as well as one specifically designed for usage on DraftKings. In this post, all salary and “fantasy points” references are to FanDuel scoring system and salaries. If you have any additional questions or thoughts or are looking for updates as we approach tipoff, follow @FanSidedFantasy on Twitter or you can follow my account @ProfessorDrz or find me on my home turf of The Hoops Lab.
Let’s take a look at your best options for both studs and value players at each position.