FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Tuesday 4/11/23

Since it's much simpler to predict than baseball or football, daily fantasy basketball would get plenty of votes as the best sport to play on FanDuel. Players usually stick to the same minutes and produce at roughly the same rate. Sounds easy, right?

As a result, NBA daily fantasy is highly reliant on a player's opportunity, so you'll need to ensure 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.

With so much changing so quickly, we're here with plenty of tools to help you. We have daily projections, a matchup heat map, a lineup optimizer, and a bunch of other great resources to help give you an edge.

We'll also come at you with this primer daily, 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

Just as the NBA's regular season and postseason feel like two different sports to the players, it's also an entirely different sport in DFS. We just won't have the volume of significant injury news we had with players' load managing in the regular season.

Today's injury report is actually quick thick for a two-game playoff slate, and remember, these are single-game rounds in the play-in tournament.

In the first contest, Miami has Kyle Lowry (knee) listed as questionable. The visiting Hawks have a squeaky clean report.

The nightcap has some substance. The Timberwolves suspended Rudy Gobert for tonight's game after a punch thrown on Sunday. Jaden McDaniels also broke his hand punching a wall. Things are awesome in Minneapolis!

They also have Karl-Anthony Towns (calf) listed as questionable, but he's played six straight through the listing. That's why the Lakers' trio of LeBron James (foot), Anthony Davis (foot), and D'Angelo Russell (foot) would also be shocking absences from tonight's game, too.

Guards

In a playoff series last year, Miami heavily pressured Trae Young on the ball and melted him. He posted just 21.5 FanDuel points per 36 minutes in a four-game sweep.

As a result, I want to buy Dejounte Murray ($8,500) in this game. He'll likely have more room to roam until the strategy proves to no longer be working with Murray's extra shot creation the only difference between last year's playoff rotation and this one's.

With rotations shrinking across the league, the full-time roles we can find at a modest salary are worth their weight in gold. D'Angelo Russell ($7,500), Mike Conley ($6,100), and Gabe Vincent ($4,900) appear to have those for the other three squads, but Kyle Lowry ($5,600) could see crunch-time minutes in place of Vincent, too.

Dennis Schroder ($5,000) is likely the only other guard-eligible player on the slate with the potential to eclipse 20 minutes on the court.

Wings

My definition of a "guard" on FanDuel is one without forward eligibility, so some of these guys can fill the shooting guard spots, too.

Jimmy Butler ($9,800) isn't one of them, but this is Jimmy Buckets' time of year. He posted 48.8 FanDuel points per 36 minutes on a 28.0% usage rate last year, and that should be even higher with Lowry and Tyler Herro in lesser roles this season.

Butler is a cash-game must, but LeBron James ($10,900) could work as a tournament pivot. His do-it-all style in the playoffs isn't breaking news, but there is just more of a downside with another superstar potentially in line to go bananas on his squad. Austin Reaves ($6,000) should also eclipse 30 minutes for L.A.

This section has -- by far -- the two most crucial value plays of the slate. Kyle Anderson ($6,500) should start in the frontcourt for the suspended Gobert, and Taurean Prince ($4,700) likely slots in for the injured McDaniels. Prince nailed eight triples in a start for Jaden earlier this year. Nickeil Alexander-Walker ($3,800) could also see elevated minutes.

For the daring, Anthony Edwards ($9,400) sees a bump of 5.5 FanDuel points per 36 minutes with Gobert off the floor, too.

Saddiq Bey's salary is elevated from when De'Andre Hunter ($5,400) was hurt, but Hunter has led the rotation since the trade deadline. Producing just 29.3 FanDuel points per 36 with Atlanta, I'm not even sure Bey would be worth a look even with added court time. Bogdan Bogdanovic ($5,300) is a better dart for a microwave-like scoring effort off the bench.

Bigs

There's little doubt that Anthony Davis ($11,600) is the top overall stud on the slate, but getting to him could be tricky.

The Lakers have been in must-win mode for weeks, which Davis has responded to with 53-plus FanDuel points in seven of his last nine games -- including torching the Wolves for 38 points and 17 boards with an active Gobert.

However, the salary is an obstacle. The mark on Karl-Anthony Towns ($9,000) is less of an issue, and Towns -- predictably -- sees team-best bumps in usage rate (4.0 percentage points) and FanDuel points per minute (10.0) with Rudy off the floor.

Thankfully, both are forward-eligible and leave Bam Adebayo ($8,200) in the mix as the pivot. Adebayo posted 39.8 FanDuel points per 36 for the entire season, so he's set up nicely at this salary with a boost to playoff-level minutes.

Nathan Knight ($3,500) would be next in line for minutes at center when Towns rests at minimum salary, and he only fills a forward spot. That type of dart to fit more studs could be a nice move for a tournament build. The T-Wolves should stay small, though. That dampens the appeal of Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura from the Lakers' side.

Clint Capela ($6,700) and John Collins ($5,900) likely see the bulk of the work in Atlanta's frontcourt, and Collins would dodge Bam's excellent on-ball defense.

Caleb Martin ($5,200) is also a gritty rebounder and defender that I'd expect to see most of the Heat's power forward minutes over Kevin Love, whose skill and minimal physicality likely shined better during the regular season.