FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Monday 4/25/22

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 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 bunch of other great resources to help give you an edge.

Daily fantasy basketball is very reliant on a player's opportunity, so you'll need to make sure that you're up-to-date with key injuries. Our projections update up until tip-off to reflect current news, we have player news updates, and the FanDuel Scout app will send push notifications for pressing updates regarding your players.

We'll also be coming at you with this primer every day, breaking down a few of the day's top plays at each position.

Let's break down today's main slate on FanDuel.

The Slate and Key Injuries

There is just one player in any sort of doubt on Monday's injury report.

It's Fred VanVleet of the Raptors. He's listed as questionable with a hip issue that took him out of Saturday's game early. I'd peg him closer to doubtful with the same swift hook we saw on Kyle Lowry, and Lowry missed the following game for Miami.

The 214.1 average total on this slate is the lowest mark on an entire slate of basketball all season. Points will be hard to come by, so prioritize playing time and multi-category upside.

**Editor's Note: VanVleet is officially out Monday. This article was written and published under the assumption he would be.**

Guards

Luka Doncic ($10,400): Luka's fine. That's your key takeaway from the Slovenian All-Star's return in Game 3 where he posted 30 points in 30 minutes. His return squashes most of the Dallas role players in his wake, and his salary is even lower than the regular-season mark he left behind. This is a must-win for the Mavs to avoid facing elimination in Salt Lake, so his minutes total should rise closer to 40.

Seth Curry ($4,400): Like his brother, Curry just rises to the occasion. As a 47.0% career three-point shooter in the playoffs, I trust Seth to make good on his extra looks as the Brooklyn Nets are facing elimination. Boston has totally muted the production of stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Their approach has been to funnel the ball to others, and if Curry sees extra looks at home, he can score in bunches.

Others to Consider:
Marcus Smart ($6,000): Fair salary for a contributor in all categories. Hit value at this mark in two of three games so far.
Mike Conley ($5,400): My "angle" much of this series has been rostering Conley over Donovan Mitchell in hopes that Mitchell's shot cools off or he finds foul trouble. It hasn't happened yet.

Wings

James Harden ($9,200): With Joel Embiid's thumb injury, the big man shot just one three-pointer on Saturday and missed. Moving forward, more of this Philadelphia offense should be in Harden's hands. His usage rate skyrocketed from 22.6% in the first two games of this series to 27.4% in Game 3. That's not a blip or a fluke. He's projected well by numberFire as the Sixers look to complete this series.

OG Anunoby ($5,900): Deciding what to do with Gary Trent Jr. will be critical in tournaments tonight. Trent sees -- by far -- the largest increase in usage rate (3.7 percentage points) during floor situations with VanVleet off the floor. That's tremendous. However, 61.2% of Trent's FanDuel volume this season came from scoring. If his shot is cold, turning to well-rounded stat stuffers like Anunoby and Scottie Barnes instead could make all the difference.

Others to Consider:
Jaylen Brown ($7,900): Insane floor at this salary with upside from scoring. Great mid-range piece.
Danny Green ($3,900): Matisse Thybulle can play again in Philly, but Green saw 29.5 minutes per game in blowouts in Games 1 and 2 anyway.

Bigs

Pascal Siakam ($8,700): Siakam was bound to regress from dreadful 40.7% shooting in the first three games of this series, but his monstrous Game 4 didn't come from that. He shot just a modest 52.6% from the field, but Siakam logged 44 minutes in a desperate attempt to stay alive -- and it worked. He's likely in store for that until Toronto is officially axed, and he showed on Saturday he can produce a monster game on just so-so shooting.

Rudy Gobert ($7,200): My small hypothesis -- the return of Luka Doncic helps Gobert's ability to stay on the floor. Doncic is not a fleet-footed guard abusing Gobert off the dribble like Jalen Brunson. As a result, we saw Gobert's best game of the series in Game 4 with 17 points and 15 boards. Uncharacteristically, he had no blocks in the affair, failing to tie it all together on FanDuel. He absolutely can moving forward.

Others to Consider:
Al Horford ($5,500): Minutes are already shrinking with the return of Robert Williams, but he's projected well at a nightmare power forward position on this slate.
Thaddeus Young ($4,700): He was "the chosen one" in Game 4. 29 minutes in lieu of VanVleet's injury. That's far from a certainty in Game 5, but if he starts, wave the green flag.