FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Monday 4/17/23

Since it's much simpler to predict than baseball or football, daily fantasy basketball would get plenty of votes as the best sport to play on FanDuel. Players usually stick to the same minutes and produce at roughly the same rate. Sounds easy, right?

As a result, NBA daily fantasy is highly reliant on a player's opportunity, so you'll need to ensure that you're up-to-date with key injuries. Our projections update up until tip-off to reflect current news, we have player news updates, and the FanDuel Scout app will send push notifications for pressing updates regarding your players.

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

We'll also come at you with this primer daily, breaking down a few of the day's top plays at each position.

Let's break down today's main slate on FanDuel.

The Slate and Key Injuries

We've set a new seasonal record for the shortest injury report.

Of the rotation players in action on Monday, only Golden State's Jordan Poole is listed. He's questionable with an ankle injury.

All others from the Warriors, Kings, Nets, and 76ers are ready to roll.

Guards

These two environments are polar opposites. The one in Philadelphia stinks, and the one in Sacramento would be a target on a full, regular-season main slate.

As a result, it's hard not to prefer Stephen Curry ($10,000) and De'Aaron Fox ($9,400) to James Harden at the top of guard. In almost exactly 36 minutes, Curry's 30 points on Saturday were what you'd hope for, but with just a pair of assists, he underperformed his per-36 minute average for helpers (6.54) considerably. Plus, he had no stocks (steals plus blocks) and five turnovers.

Fox is a bit iffier. He did score 38 points, but adjustments should be coming from the Dubs. Plus, Kevin Huerter ($5,400) shot just 3-for-12 (25.0%) in 31 minutes, and Fox -- and Malik Monk ($5,500) -- would likely take a step back if Huerter isn't struggling from the field. Monk's scoring explosion will lead to higher popularity than he deserves, but 28 minutes at that salary is still a viable DFS plug.

In the other game, Spencer Dinwiddie ($7,400) is projecting well behind the 36 minutes he logged in Game 1. Dinwiddie hit just one of five three-point attempts if you're looking at where an improved ceiling might lie.

Klay Thompson ($7,500) and Tyrese Maxey ($6,800) are the two others seeing considerable minutes at this positional group, and Philly's De'Anthony Melton ($4,600) has a low enough salary to take a stab at a hot night from the field in around 22 minutes -- the total he logged on Saturday.

Wings

Melton isn't a must because we'll be grabbing value options from here. The highest-salaried player is Brooklyn's Mikal Bridges ($8,400).

Bridges is viable -- but no bargain -- at that mark. 71.0% of his FanDuel output has come from scoring the ball since joining the Nets, so his range of outcomes absolutely includes dropping 30 while disappointing from a fantasy perspective, which happened in Game 1. Plus, the Sixers likely will adjust to stop Bridges given his effectiveness offensively versus the others.

Andrew Wiggins ($6,400) saw a surprising 28 minutes off Golden State's bench in Game 1. It wouldn't be shocking to see him start soon. While a repeat of his four blocks is unlikely, Wiggins' return did wholly squash Donte DiVincenzo from a DFS perspective.

The Kings and Nets are the remaining situations to evaluate here. Behind Bridges, Brooklyn gave Cameron Johnson ($5,700) and Royce O'Neale ($5,000) 27 minutes apiece in Game 1, and Dorian Finney-Smith ($4,700) was limited to just 17. Finney-Smith starts, so a hot start could reverse that trend at O'Neale's expense.

As for Sacramento, it wasn't surprising to see veteran Harrison Barnes ($5,600) lead the way in minutes (36) on Saturday. The surprise, to me, was Huerter playing ahead of Keegan Murray ($4,600). The rookie was hot down the stretch but logged just 16 minutes in Game 1.

Golden State's tendency to run three-guard lineups likely keeps that pattern status quo, but the "hot hand" can affect playing time. We'll see if Keegan can find it in one of these games.

Bigs

The bigs in Philly should continue to be an issue.

Joel Embiid's effectiveness -- at a gaudy salary -- should be in doubt all series given the furious double teams and the fringe all-NBA defense of Nic Claxton ($7,800). Claxton's 30 minutes surpassed all the wings to stalk the season's likely MVP, but he's also at risk for foul trouble with such a tough assignment.

Although he's unlikely to repeat a 64.0% shooting night, Tobias Harris ($6,100) is still a full-time guy at a low salary from that one. P.J. Tucker also fits that description, but without an absurd five steals in Game 1, Tucker would have scored 17.4 FanDuel points. I'll pray to the stock gods and fade him.

There's supreme clarity in Sactown. Domantas Sabonis ($9,700) is the only big who tallied over 18 minutes for the Kings, and I love him as a buy-low spot coming off an extremely uncharacteristic 29.4% shooting effort. He shot 61.5% as a whole this year.

Golden State also played two bigs over 30 minutes, and both Draymond Green ($6,600) and Kevon Looney ($5,500) come at fair salaries for such a nice workload. Looney, who averaged 36.1 FanDuel points per 36 minutes this season, didn't really see that kind of work in the regular season, so his prospects are exciting at that mark.