NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Thursday 1/3/19

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 main slate.

Best of the Best

James Harden ($13,000): With Harden's salary so high, your approach to roster construction tonight is going to depend heavily on whether or not you're playing him. While he's not someone you need to make sure you have 100% exposure to in tournaments, he should be the backbone of most of your lineups on this three-game slate. Over his last 10 contests, Harden has averaged 64.9 FanDuel points in 39.0 minutes per game. He has more games with 70-plus FanDuel points (3) than with fewer than 60 (2) in that stretch, and he has at least 53 fantasy points in all 10. With Chris Paul and Eric Gordon (both out tonight) off the floor this year (216-minute sample), Harden's usage rate sits at an absurd 46.3%, and he averages 1.68 FanDuel points per minute. We don't have to be as picky about matchups on a short slate, so a meeting with the Golden State Warriors isn't much of a deterrent. Harden easily has both the highest floor and highest ceiling among anyone in action tonight.