Daily Dribble: Tuesday, February 25th

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Tonight’s Injury News

More heartache then hope in today’s injury report, but that should provide plenty of opportunity to find some value on a night with just seven games on the schedule.

The steal of the trade deadline, Evan Turner, will come off the bench for the Pacers tonight against the lowly Lakers. I would not be surprised to see Turner get plenty of run tonight, in a game that Vegas expects to be a high-scoring blowout in favor of the Pacers (-13.5, 213 over/under). The question is will Turner's playing time come at the expense of Lance Stephenson or George Hill, so you may want to be cautious if you were considering either Pacers starter tonight in DFS.

Nikola Pekovic (ankle) remains questionable for Tuesday's game, the Star Tribune reports. He'll test his ankle out again before the game to see if he can go. Ronny Turiaf (knee) had an MRI that revealed a right knee bone bruise. He will be sidelined indefinitely. If both players are out than Dante Cunningham will get the start. Cunningham will make the most of his 25 or so minutes as was evident in his last game where he fired up 14 shots in 25 minutes finishing with 12 points, six rebounds, and a block. The price on Cunningham is reasonable, but I would lean towards him on DFS where they do not count for missed shots and would use him in a GPP only as the Suns have been solid of late in defending the power forward/center position and the game is in Phoenix.

Kevin Martin (thumb) will not play Tuesday, the Star Tribune reports. So Chase Budinger would likely start again, but is not worth considering, regardless of his price, as he is averaging just 26 minutes per game and 10.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, and an assists over his last five games. Instead look to the opposition in Gerald Green of the Suns who should have a field day against the slower Budinger or whoever the defensively challenged TWolves decide to throw at him or his backcourt mate Goran Dragic who should also be one of your top targeted players regardless of position this evening as he scored 26 points (40 FP) in the team’s only matchup this season and is coming off a career-high 35 points in his last game.

LaMarcus Aldridge (groin) joined the team to Denver, but will not play Tuesday. With Aldridge out this opens up plenty more opportunities for other players on the Blazers to produce/provide value as the Nuggets suck defensively as they are allowing the third most points to opponents per game this season and opponents are rebounding at the fifth highest rate in the NBA against the Nuggets. So, if you do not have Damian Lillard, Robin Lopez, Nicolas Batum, and/or Thomas Robinson on your team tonight you should have your head checked out.

Atlanta Hawks will be without forward Paul Millsap for at least two more games due to a right knee contusion, coach Mike Budenholzer said. Pero Antic and Gustavo Ayon are also out, which will mean plenty of minutes for Elton Brand, Mike Scott, and DeMarre Carroll whom I rank in this order Carroll, Scott, Brand, but my true ranking would be to avoid all as the Bulls are allowing the fourth fewest points to opponents over the last three games and second fewest on the season.

Kenneth Faried will start at power forward and Timofey Mozgov will start at center versus the Blazers tonight while J.J. Hickson will come off bench for 4th time this season. Faried’s production fell off the last two games, but he should get back on track tonight against a banged up Blazers team. Faried is averaging about 10 more FP at home at 25.6 compared to when playing away from the Pepsi Center, which stands out more to me then his sub-par performances the last two games.

Timofey Mozgov will have a better chance of reaching value (about 14 FP) now that he is starting and at under 7% of your cap is worthing considering with just seven games tonight and only a few exciting options at the center position like Bulls Joakim Noah and Rockets Dwight Howard. So, if you do not want to spend money at the position and are looking for an option even cheaper than Blazers Robin Lopez or Raptors Jonas Valanciunas than Mozgov could be your guy.

Anderson Varejao (back), Dion Waiters (knee) and C.J. Miles (ankle) all still out for Cavs vs. Toronto tonight. The player who has benefited the most due to this injuries seems to be Luol Deng who finished with 32 FP two games ago against the Raptors, in Toronto, for his highest fantasy output since the third of this month.

Kevin Seraphin (right knee) is out tonight vs Orlando and Trevor Booker will likely start in place of Nene who has suffered only a sprained left MCL and will miss 4-to-6 weeks. Booker is about 2-3% cheaper than Blazers Thomas Robinson if you were looking for a more discounted option than TRob with similar upside at the power forward position tonight, granted I like Robinson’s matchup much better (Denver allowing 4th most FP to PF last 15 days while the Magic are allowing the 5th fewest).

Nick Young will miss tonight's game because of knee soreness. Mike D'Antoni: "No need to push him." He will likely not play on road trip. With Young out that means more PT for Kent Bazemore whose price tag is still around league minimum and is averaging 19 FP over his last two games, a total he could reach now that there is one less shoot first player for Bazemore to contend with on his team, but unfortunately he will have to contend with one of the better defenses in the league in the Indiana Pacers, which would lead me to consider an alternative option at the guard position like Nuggets starter Aaron Brooks who has a much more favorable matchup against the Blazers (see above).

Jimmy Butler (ribs) is a game time decision tonight versus Atlanta. If Butler is out I would lean towards his replacement, Tony Snell, over Bazemore as well. Snell scored a career-high 20 points filling in for Butler when he went out late in the first quarter of the team’s last game against the Nuggets. Snell would have another favorable matchup tonight against an Atlanta team that is around the top 10 worst teams in terms of defending the shooting guard position this season. So if not Aaron Brooks, then Snell, followed by Bazemore out of the three previous players listed if you were looking to save a few dollars at a guard position this evening.

Best of luck everyone in your DFS contests tonight and do not forget to sign up NOW for our free, exclusive SKYLLZONE’s Fan vs. Machine contest. Any questions on the SKYLLZONE contest and/or who to roster tonight feel free to post in the comments section below or send me a tweet @FantasyNomad.