We are officially on our second day of NBA DFS basketball and Thursday's three game slate has a lot to live up to. There are already plenty of names starting to emerge and unfortunately for the Miami Heat, they will be the only team on the second night of a back-to-back. A little cruel, but regardless we need to take advantage wherever possible. Also, the Lakers-Trail Blazers game is great for stacking and chances are, cashing out will require multiple players in that late game. In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy basketball lineup picks for FanDuel on 10/18/18. These DFS lineup picks can vary from higher-priced players and elite options to lower-priced players and value picks on FanDuel. You can also check out today's DraftKings lineup picks and our Premium DFS Cheat Sheet. As always, don't set your lineups to early and check player statuses prior to opening tip. You can find me in the NBA Chat Room or on Twitter, @HalfCourtJester. Our friends at Monkey Knife Fight are hooking you up. Get a 100% instant deposit match up to $50 with promo codewith your first deposit. Claim your 100% instant deposit match now, and use our prop picks to get off on a winning foot! Sign Up Now! FanDuel DFS Guards Goran Dragic - PG, MIA @ WAS (FD - $6,000) Goran Dragic was shooting incredibly well Wednesday night and that should continue going into Thursday. He does face the Wizards backcourt, but if Dragic's shooting continues, it won't matter. The Heat look like an entirely different team and play like a contender when they have a someone playing like Dragic did Wednesday, acting as a nightly superstar. Dragic has the ability to be a top guard but struggles with shooting consistency. Even then, he tends to start strong so look for him to continue this uptrend for the next week or so. Evan Turner - SG, POR vs LAL (FD - $4,200) It's not guaranteed Evan Turner will play tonight so be cautious, but he is one of the better isolation players on the team and is a top reserve. With a price this low and a defense as skeptical as the Lakers, Turner could be a top sleeper as long as he is hitting his shots. He fills the stat sheet and plays enough defense to justify minutes, he just needs to be healthy before he is thriving in DFS. Nights like tonight are ideal for veterans because young guys are prone to struggle in their first few games. FanDuel DFS Forwards Ben Simmons - SF, PHI vs CHI (FD - $9,500) After his first game, it's once again clear you can't really fade Ben Simmons on nights like tonight. His stat lines are already absurd and the Bulls defense has not really improved since last season. They added a few pieces but still lack a defensive foundation outside of Robin Lopez. Until then, stack the superstars against Chicago and especially Simmons. There is no reason he shouldn't post a similar stat line unless he literally just doesn't play well, but I wouldn't bank on that. Simmons looks like he's gotten better. Still can't shoot though. Jabari Parker - PF, CHI @ PHI (FD - $5,200) Jabari Parker is going to start this season as the best player on the Bulls and it should reflect the box score. The 76ers defense, mainly Robert Covington is capable of limiting Parker but he shouldn't keep him from getting to his spots and producing. The Celtics were able to shoot all over the 76ers and although the Bulls don't have that scoring capability, Chicago have a mixture of athleticism that can open the door specifically for Parker to contribute all over the court. FanDuel DFS Centers Dwight Howard - C, WAS vs MIA (FD - $5,900) If Dwight Howard is playing, you should absolutely roster him. Not only are the Heat going to be somewhat fatigued from their game Wednesday, but they don't really have a strong paint presence. Hassan Whiteside used to be a shot blocker, but his defensive effort has significantly changed over the past two seasons and he struggles against veteran bigs. In this case, Howard is ideal for usage, but if he doesn't play, Jason Smith should get the start and must be played. Smith still has the rebound ability to be relevant and his outside shot just increases his upside even more. Ivica Zubac - C, LAL @ POR (FD - $3,400) Not many cheap options with the ability to post numbers like Ivica Zubac. He is going to get plenty of minutes and although he won't have eye-popping stats, for his price it's going be hard for him not to exceed his projected. Zubac is not the most skilled big, but he does have the ability to get easy rebounds and score in the paint, especially against someone like Jusuf Nurkic. Assuming that the Trail Blazers leave Nurkic to hold Zubac, this could be a big step in the right direction for the young center. Either way, this is a cheap option with solid upside because of his height and role, but don't be surprised if he posts a typical young player stat line and struggles to score. NBA News and Player Updates<doc-sep>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 Anthony Davis ($12,400): With DeMarcus Cousins no longer in New Orleans, we could see Anthony Davis put up historically great numbers this year. In 33 contests sans Boogie last year, Davis averaged an absurd 60.8 FanDuel points per game. That's more than any player has averaged in a season since FanDuel's inception. He was absurdly consistent (50-plus FanDuel points in 26 of those 33 games) and offered unmatched upside (90-plus FanDuel points three times). Opening the season against Houston in a game with a slate-high 229.5-point over/under, don't be surprised to see the Brow pick up where he left off.<doc-sep>With Jimmy Butler still in Minnesota to start the season, Andrew Wiggins is a player we are avoiding in DFS. Who else are we passing up on Wednesday's 11-game slate? In daily fantasy basketball, finding players you want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid. You can find a ton of great information and research on guys you might want to include in your DFS NBA lineups, but what about guys you may want to lessen your exposure to, or even fade altogether? Avoiding players whose matchups or situations aren't as great as they seem can often be just as important as finding the best targets. After all, it takes only one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference between winning and losing your contests. Which players should we avoid tonight? Kyle Anderson, SF, Memphis Grizzlies FanDuel Price: $7,200 Former San Antonio Spurs small forward Kyle Anderson signed a lucrative offer from the Memphis Grizzlies this offseason and is expected to play a significant role on his new team. On opening night, though, his role is unclear. The versatile defensive specialist may come off the bench to start the season as the Grizzlies mix-and-match their rotations and lineups, making it hard to trust Anderson's workload in the season opener. Our models project only 27.0 minutes for Anderson on Wednesday. The Pacers-Grizzlies game on Wednesday is expected to have the fewest amount of points of the slate with Memphis scoring just over 100.25 -- the second-lowest implied total. With Indiana and Memphis finishing 2017-18 in the bottom-10 in pace of play and Anderson averaging 7.9 points in over 26 minutes per game last season, points will be hard to come by for the forward. Spending over $7,000 on someone projected to drop fewer than 10 points is hard to justify on such a packed slate. Andrew Wiggins, SF, Minnesota Timberwolves FanDuel Price: $6,800 The Minnesota Timberwolves are a mess. They struggled offensively this preseason, shooting just 40.8% from the floor (fourth-lowest in the NBA). All the canceled practices and drama surrounding Jimmy Butler and his trade demands aren't helping things, as the team seems to be incredibly dysfunctional at this point. With all that's swirling around in Minnesota, it's fair to rule out any T-Wolf in DFS until we see how everything unfolds, especially with Butler remaining with the team and expected to start on Wednesday. In particular, the presence of JB in Minny has wrapped an anchor around Andrew Wiggins' fantasy value. When Butler was off the court last season, Wiggins averaged 0.86 FanDuel points per minute with a 25.5% usage rate. Playing alongside Butler, that number fell to 0.77 points per minute and a 21.8% usage rate. Add in facing a tough defensive team like the Spurs on Wednesday, where Wiggins averaged just 28.0 FanDuel points per game last season, and it's hard to justify spending nearly $7,000 on the third wheel in an offense projected for the sixth-lowest total of the day (104.25). Josh Jackson, PF, Phoenix Suns FanDuel Price: $5,700 Josh Jackson ended the 2018-18 season hot, scoring at least 31 FanDuel points in 11 of 12 games. The hope would be his growth would carry over to his sophomore season, and it still may. However, on Wednesday, the Phoenix Suns swingman is expected to come off the bench, a role that didn't work well for him in DFS last season. Jackson averaged just 20.3 FanDuel points per game off the bench. With Isaiah Canaan starting at the point and Trevor Ariza at small forward, the versatile Jackson will have to battle T.J. Warren, Mikal Bridges, Dragan Bender, Jamal Crawford, and Troy Daniels for minutes off the bench. While the second-year player should emerge as the team's sixth-man, his struggles shooting (35.3% this preseason and 41.7% last year) may hinder his chances early on. Starting the year against a Dallas Mavericks squad in the season opener that ran at the fifth-slowest pace, the volume may not be there, making it best to pass up Jackson when building your lineup on Wednesday. Dale Redman is not a FanDuel employee. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.<doc-sep>
The NBA is back and we are dealing with an 11-game slate to really get things going today. Since we are at the start of the year, I'll be looking back at some of the player's stats from last season, until we get a better picture of how they are used in their offenses. In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy basketball lineup picks for FanDuel on 10/17/18. These DFS lineup picks can vary from higher-priced players and elite options to lower-priced players and value picks on FanDuel. As always, don't set your lineups to early and check player statuses prior to opening tip. Give me a follow on Twitter @DFS_Tom with questions or comments. Good luck everyone. Our friends at Monkey Knife Fight are hooking you up. Get a 100% instant deposit match up to $50 with promo codewith your first deposit. Claim your 100% instant deposit match now, and use our prop picks to get off on a winning foot! Sign Up Now! FanDuel DFS Guards Trae Young - PG, ATL @ NY (FD - $6,100) It has already been confirmed that Young will start the season opener for the Hawks, so if you want to buy in early on the rookie hype, now is the time. If you remember him from college, he can be very electric, but he can be streaky with his shooting. His price is reasonable today, but I would lean to him in GPPs only since you should be going for consistency in your cash games. Donovan Mitchell - SG, UTA @ SAC (FD - $8,000) Spida is back for his second season and oh boy, we should all be excited for what he could be bringing this season. He had a usage rate sitting around 30% last season, so we should be in for much more of the same this season. He will be playing up in pace and against a weaker Kings team, so we should be looking for him to have a large role in the offense, despite this not being the highest scoring game on the slate. FanDuel DFS Forwards Cedi Osman - SF, CLE @ TOR (FD - $4,500) Osman will be starting at small forward for the Cavaliers tonight and you should be looking at him as a solid savings play, along with bringing good point per dollar value. Last season, when he saw the floor for extended periods of time, he was actually very effective and was able to reach value on FanDuel. If he busts tonight, that should be an issue since FanDuel is now dropping the lowest score in your lineup this season. Tobias Harris PF, LAC vs DEN (FD - $7,600) This game has an over-under set at 227, which is second highest on the slate, so you should be looking here for plenty of offense. There is a massive difference in the NBA when it comes to higher and lower scoring games, which translates right to DFS. More opportunities on the ball and more possessions mean more potential upside. Harris is a great pick in this game since he consistently scored near or over 20 points last season while adding plenty in the other categories. FanDuel DFS Centers Nikola Jokic - C, DEN @ LAC (FD - $9,900) The Joker is an absolute stud in the NBA and even better in NBA DFS. Love paying all the way for him at center, since you can be looking at a triple-double quickly with what he has shown he can do. This game has an over-under set at 227, so plenty of scoring to go around and if you simply look back at his game log from last season, you can see he is almost a lock for at least a double-double every night. Willy Hernangomez - C, CHA vs MIL (FD - $4,000 Hernangomez is a bit of a punt play, but he had been very efficient at times last season. The matchup is very strong for him tonight since he will be going up against the Bucks who have been in the bottom 10 of guarding centers over the past two seasons. NBA News and Player Updates