NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Thursday 12/14/17

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 slate.

Best of the Best

Kevin Durant ($11,900) - It's a Durant or LeBron James ($12,600) night (or both?). Both are worth it, but both come at a cost. There's the cost in terms of price, sure, but there's also an opportunity cost because small forward has a few strong value options. You can't roster both and load up on the value.

If choosing between Durant and James, Durant has the easier case in his favor. Stephen Curry is still out, and Draymond Green, Zaza Pachulia, and Nick Young will also miss tonight's game. Durant's usage rate without Curry and Green on the court is 32.9%, per NBAWowy. He averages 1.36 FanDuel points per minute in that split, too. To top it off, the Golden State Warriors are 11.5-point favorites over the Dallas Mavericks, a middling defense by defensive rating.