NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Wednesday 12/5/18

If you're new to daily fantasy basketball -- maybe you started your DFS journey during the MLB or NFL seasons, or maybe basketball is your sport and this will be your first year giving it a shot -- you're in for a treat. The NBA scene changes hugely on a week-to-week, day-to-day, and -- depending on injury news -- even a minute-to-minute basis, making every slate a unique one that requires an ever-changing approach.

With so much changing so quickly, we're here with plenty of tools to help you out. We have daily projections, a matchup heat map, a lineup optimizer, and a ton of other great resources to help give you an edge.

We'll also be coming at you with this primer every day, breaking down a few of the day's top plays at each price point.

Let's take a look at who you should target on today's main slate.

Best of the Best

Russell Westbrook ($11,000): The Russell Westbrook of old seems to be back ever since he returned from his second injury this season. His minutes have been cut short twice in that seven-game stretch in blowouts with 25-plus point margins of victory, but in those other five games he has triple-doubled three times, averaging 56.1 FanDuel points in 35.7 minutes per game. He draws a plus matchup tonight against Brooklyn, who rank bottom-10 in both rebound rate and defensive rating, with the Oklahoma City Thunder sitting as only modest favorites (6.5 points) we can expect Russ to see a full complement of minutes tonight.

Bradley Beal ($8,500): The Washington Wizards have ruled out John Wall (personal) for tonight, opening the door for Beal to get a huge boost in fantasy value. Wall hasn't missed any games yet this year, but in minutes with Wall off the floor, Beal averages 1.16 FanDuel points per minute with a 26.5% usage rate, compared to 1.06 per minute and 25.1% usage with Wall on. The Atlanta Hawks allow both the most points and most assists per game to opponents, leading the NBA, so Beal shouldn't have much trouble converting his expanded workload into production tonight.