NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 1/5/18

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.

Here, we'll put all of that together and take a look at who you should target on today's slate.

Best of the Best

Giannis Antetokounmpo (FanDuel Price: $11,000): Giannis' price-tag has been this low only three times this season, and one of those games was his season-opener. A recent slump has driven his salary down, but that slump spanned only five games. He still played at least 36 minutes in each of those (including at least 39 in three of them), and he has already broken out of it with a 57.5-point fantasy performance on Wednesday. The league's top fantasy producer (averaging 54.6 FanDuel points per game) has no business being priced this low even in an unexciting fantasy matchup against the Raptors. Tonight's slate is thin on high-end fantasy options, and numberFire's models project Giannis to score eight more fantasy points than any other player.

Damian Lillard ($8,700): Keep an eye on the news tonight as Dame is dealing with a calf issue, but he's listed as probable, so it doesn't look like there's too much to worry about. He averaged over 38 minutes per game in December before his hamstring injury, and even in a blowout, he played 32 minutes in his return on Tuesday. He brings that huge workload into a plus matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, who rank bottom five in defensive rating, and with a price-tag tied for his lowest of the year, Lillard should have little trouble returning some solid value.