NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 4/5/19

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 ($12,000): Averaging just a shade below 38 minutes per game over his last seven, Westbrook is still getting plenty of run while the Oklahoma City Thunder play for playoff seeding. Three of those seven games were decided by 10 points or more, so even with some blowout risk as 8.5-point favorites against the Detroit Pistons tonight, his minutes should be fairly safe. Today's other true top-priced option, James Harden, is dealing with a point spread twice as large, which also makes the blowout potential for Westbrook a lot easier to stomach. Ranking fifth in the NBA in FanDuel points per minute and fourth with 55.0 FanDuel points per game, his continued big minutes mean he'll remain a top fantasy option for as long as the Thunder have meaningful games.