NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Thursday 5/23/19

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 one-game slate, which follows a different format than typical NBA contests on FanDuel. Your lineup consists of five position-less slots, with one designated "MVP" having their fantasy score multiplied by 2.0, a "STAR" multiplied by 1.5 and a "PRO" multiplied by 1.2, as well as two utility slots receiving their usual points.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks ($18,000)

Even in what ended up being a blowout loss, Giannis' 52.5 FanDuel points were a slate-high on Monday. That was 4.7 more than anyone else posted, and even if you happened to have Khris Middleton (the next-highest fantasy scorer) in your MVP slot, you would have been down almost 10 fantasy points from where you'd be with Giannis in the MVP position.

Antetokounmpo has topped 50 FanDuel points in all four games this series, while everyone else in the series combined has only done so three times, and his average of 58.1 FanDuel points per game in the series is 8.4 higher than the next-best mark.

At this point, there's really no question as to who goes in your MVP slot in this series -- it's Giannis.