Daily Fantasy Basketball Picks for the Two-Day 5/22/16 and 5/23/16 Slate
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.
Our projections can be found here. The information below is to help you understand why particular players are in good spots, 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, and this two-day slate could make injury news even more difficult to handle.
Oh, and if you're interested, check out our daily fantasy basketball heat chart for this slate. It's full of information like Vegas lines, team offensive and defensive efficiency ratings, pace, fantasy points against and so much more.
As for the picks for this slate -- let's get to it.
The Best of the Best
Russell Westbrook ($9,800 on FanDuel) - Westbrook is shooting just 12 for 35 (34 percent) in the first two games of the Western Conference Finals. Despite the poor shooting performances, his fantasy output has still been there as he scored 63 fantasy points in Game 1 and 36 fantasy points in limited minutes in Game 2. Westbrook shot 45.4 percent during the regular season, so there is still room for growth.
LeBron James ($10,100) - James showed signs of being human in Game 3 as he shot 9 for 17 and scored 43.1 fantasy points, which is still really dang good. As a whole, the Cleveland Cavaliers struggled all game against the Toronto Raptors' much-improved defense. James' price has increased a bit -- so he loses a little bit of appeal -- but he still seems to be one of the safest top-tier players. Cleveland will likely score more than the 84 points it did in Game 4, and James will be in the middle of it. He scored 1.1 fantasy points per minute in Game 3, compared to his season average of 1.27.
Top Mid-Range Values
Kyrie Irving ($7,400) - Irving had one of the worst games of his career in the Game 3 loss. He shot a terrible 3 for 19 on his way to 13 points. Irving also recorded just one assist, which has only happened four times all season for the guard out of Duke. The poor performance was a true outlier as Irving hadn't been below 30 fantasy points the entire postseason. He has been great and will continue to be great. The bad performance may keep his ownership level in check. Use that to your advantage.
Klay Thompson ($7,400) - Thompson had 10 straight games of at least 32 fantasy points prior to Game 2. Thompson shot just 5 for 17, including 2 for 8 from deep, in Game 2, so there is definitely room for improvement. The sharpshooting guard will be heavily involved in the game plan and has gotten his shot often against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Similar to Irving, he may have burned you a bit last game, but in this case, it was because the minutes were limited due to a blowout. With the next game in Oklahoma City, it is unlikely he sits in the fourth quarter again.
Basement Ballers
Andre Iguodala ($4,500) - Iguodala is very inexpensive and actually produces at a solid level. Averaging 24.1 fantasy points in the first two games, Iguodala is an easy candidate to put up over five times his salary. Like everyone priced below $5,000, he could put up a dud at any moment. However, he is playing a lot of minutes and is very involved in the offense for someone his price. Iguodala's fantasy value comes from multiple categories, which is important because a bad shooting night won't cripple his production. The savings here are just too much to pass up.
