NBA

NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Tuesday 11/24/15

Blake Griffin looks to stay hot in a dream matchup against the Nuggets tonight.

If you've never played daily fantasy basketball before, it's time to start. Unlike traditional leagues, you're able to select the players you want on that specific day only, giving you a different squad to root for each and every NBA night.

Today's lineups can be found here. The information below is to help you understand why particular players are being picked, because we don't want you going into the night completely blind. We want to help you. Keep in mind, however, that things often change up until tip-off, so make sure you're refreshing the optimal lineups as close to the start of games as possible.

Let's get to it.

The Best of the Best

Blake Griffin - Coming off of his best season as a pro, Griffin has picked up right where he left of a year ago in the first month of this season. The Clippers' star has scored a career-best 24.8 points to go along with 8.4 boards and 4.5 assists per game. He has accumulated the 11th highest Usage Rate in the league (30.5%), ranks fourth in Player Efficiency Rating (27.8) and currently sits 11th in our player power rankings with an impressive 11.8 nERD. Tonight, Griffin gets the pleasure of facing off against a very short-handed Nuggets' frontcourt. With both Kenneth Faried and Joffrey Lauvergne listed as doubtful for tonight's matchup with Los Angeles, the Clippers' big man will likely see a lot of the duo of Nikola Jokic and Darrell Arthur. Griffin should dominate the two Denver backups en route to another huge outing against the Nuggets. 

Paul George - After missing the entire 2014-15 season following his horrific leg injury while playing for Team USA, George looks fully healed and has played spectacularly to open this season. The Pacers' star forward is averaging 24.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game this season. He has started all 13 of the Pacers games this season, has played 35.8 minutes per game and ranks inside of the top 10 in the NBA in both Usage Rate (31.1%) and nERD (12.1). With a matchup against a Wizards squad that ranks 19th in the league in Defensive Rating (105.7), has given up the 26th most points per game (105.3) and plays at the fourth fastest pace in the league, George should have plenty of opportunity to accumulate fantasy points tonight. He makes a great play in what is expected to be a fast-paced, high-scoring game in Washington.

Top Mid-Range Values

Isaiah Thomas - Thomas has gotten off to an incredible start early this season. He's posted 21.1 points with 6.5 assists, 1.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals with a massive 30.4% Usage Rate through Boston's first 13 games and will draw another start tonight for the injured Marcus Smart. The Celtics' diminutive point guard comes into tonight red hot, having scored at least 31 FanDuel and 32 DraftKings points in each of his last six outings and is coming off an impressive 27-point, 6-assist, 2-rebound performance against the Nets on Sunday. Thomas gets a plus matchup against a Hawks team that has given up the ninth most fantasy points per game to opposing point guards over their last seven games and should see another big workload in the absence of Smart. Do not hesitate to plug him into your lineups in all formats tonight.

DeAndre Jordan - As I mentioned earlier, the Nuggets are incredibly thin in their front court tonight. The will be without both their regular starting center and power forward as well as backups at each position. I already talked about how much I like Griffin tonight, but he isn't the only Clippers' big man I will be targeting. Jordan is one of just 11 players in the NBA averaging a double-double this season, earning 10.4 points and 13 boards to go along with 2.8 blocks per game. He has grabbed at least nine rebounds in every game this season and should have little trouble controlling the glass against the shorthanded Nuggets tonight. Just like his running mate Blake, DJ is a truly elite play tonight.

Basement Ballers

Avery Bradley - With Smart out tonight, Bradley will once again be in Boston's starting lineup. The Celtics' guard is coming off of his most productive game of the season -- he scored 27 points with 4 rebounds, 2 steals, a block and assist while pouring in 7 three-pointers in a whopping 40 minutes of action -- and draws the best matchup on the team against the defensively-challenged Kyle Korver and his 107 Defensive Rating. Additionally, the Hawks have given up the eighth most fantasy points per game to opposing shooting guards as a unit. Bradley should see more than enough playing time to take advantage of this plus matchup and should reach value easily.

Nikola Jokic and Darrell Arthur - Volume equals value in daily fantasy basketball and both Jokic and Arthur should have both tonight. Wilson Chandler and Jusuf Nurkic were already on the shelf, and now with Faried and Lauvergne both expected to be sidelined for the second straight game, Jokic and Arthur will likely be tonight's starting big men for Denver. Both are coming off of impressive outings against Golden State -- Arthur poured in 21 points and snatched 8 boards while Jokic posted an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double in 34 and 27 minutes respectively -- and should both hover around 30 minutes again tonight. Jokic is the more expensive of the two at $4,300 on FanDuel and $4,000 on DraftKings but still makes for an outstanding value play, while Arthur is an absolute steal at just $3,800 on FanDuel and $3,500 on DraftKings.