NBA DFS is widely popular among DFS players, but also one of the most time consuming to research. Players rest and sit-out daily, and this makes accurate minutes projections some of the most valuable information when building lineups. DFS Karma does the work for you in our Projections Portal — with minutes, fantasy points, value and more rates projected out nightly in an easy to read table. You can gain access to the projections by signing up for an NBA premium subscription here. This article will aim to identify some of the important injury situations to monitor throughout the day, and give you an idea of where to go if/when news breaks. Let’s get into Wednesday night…

Players Listed As Questionable

Wednesday night awards us a huge 12 game NBA slate. This is awesome for us, but at the same time, it’s going to create a ton of injury situations to monitor. Most of the people ruled out early in the day for NBA are guys that have either been out, or we know that they will be out. For that sake, I’m going to shift this daily articles focus to the guys who we don’t know abut — and who it affects should they miss. There are several players already out for tonight, such as Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson and more.

Darius Garland (D) + Evan Mobley

These two have both missed multiple games in a row, but that hasn’t mattered for the Cavs with Donny Mitchell going nuclear in their absence. Coming off a 71 point game, he will be no secret in DFS tonight should these guys miss. Caris LeVert was a chalk play on Monday, and will once again be a strong point per dollar option without Garland. If Mobley misses tonight, we can boost Jarrett Allen and Kevin Love will come back into play since he will enter the starting lineup again. I think it’s most likely Garland misses and Mobley plays as of now.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

SGA was a surprise scratch last night about an hour before tip-off with a non-Covid illness. It’s tough to tell whether they were just resting him due to their back-to-back or if he’s actually sick and in jeopardy of missing tonight’s game. With SGA last night, we ended up playing 4 Thunder players in our optimal lineup on DraftKings. Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams and Lu Dort would all get huge boosts — as well as Tre Mann even if he doesn’t start again. OKC has been a nightmare with their rotations this season, and it’s no telling what sort of chaos they could create on a back-to-back. Regardless, we will have to consider multiple OKC players if he’s out on Wednesday.

LeBron James

I don’t think Bron is actual jeopardy of missing this game, but that would certainly shake up the slate if he does. The entire Lakers lineup would get a massive boost and be the focal point of the slate. Russ leads the team in usage rate at 33% with LeBron and Anthony Davis off the court this season. Kendrick Nunn also owns over a 30% usage rate in that sample-size. Dennis Schroder and Thomas Bryant would also be strong plays in all formats – with over a fantasy point per minute potential.

Joel Embiid

Embiid once again received a mid-day downgrade to questionable like we saw on Monday. If he were to be ruled out, James Harden would become the top play on the slate and the rotation of big men behind him would become strong values. Both Montrezl Harrell and Paul Reed would be forced into cash game consideration, with the edge going to whichever of them finds the starting lineup.

Devin Vassell

This is not the magnitude of the aforementioned options, but his absence does affect the lineup. Keldon Johnson owns a 32% usage rate with Vassell off the court this season while Romeo Langford would start again in his place.

There are always more players listed as Q to play, but these are most of the bigger name ones (for now). I’ll always be in Discord to break down later injury news / any questions you have. You can get access to the Free channels by clicking here. 

 

Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)