NBA DFS Picks, Projections, Lineups, Injuries & More Today: Thursday Playbook

It's Thursday, January 8th, and we have a 4-game NBA DFS main slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. 

It's an interesting four gamer with no players over 10K on DraftKings and only three players in the 9K tier as well. The top plays of the day are Anthony Edwards, Anthony Davis, and Donovan Mitchell. All four games have 232 implied points or higher and two of them are up over 240 implied points.

Before actually diving into the meat and potatoes, welcome to the NBA DFS season. If this is your first time reading our column on NBA DFS picks, I just want to welcome you and give you a few tips and tricks on what you should be looking for each night.

• News outlets: reliable sources that give us injury news & starting lineups
• Pace of play: who's playing fast vs. who's playing slow. Which teams get a pace-up spot (more possessions) vs. pace-down (fewer possessions)
• Usage rates: is a percentage of how many plays that player is being used in
• NBA DFS Projections
• Lineup Generator
• NBA Ownership

NBA DFS Picks & Daily Fantasy Playbook Today, January 8th

Be sure to like and subscribe to the Fantasy Alarm YouTube channel!

Pre/Post-Lock Update Section

This section will be used for anything that changes from the morning until right up to roster lock. 

Injury updates, players we’re higher on than we were in the morning and so much more.

All status updates after contest roster lock will be made in the Fantasy Alarm Discord: https://discord.gg/2yATJxXe8G

• Jay Huff is currently the highest-rostered play of the day. If he's starting he's firmly an option despite not being included in playbook until this point.
• UPDATE – 6:08 pm ET
• Kevin Huerter is OUT
• Ayo Dosunmu benefits the most from that injury designation. Coby White's minutes should not raise much higher than he played the other day (25) unless Billy Donovan tells us they will. 
• UPDATE – 6:50 pm ET
• Quenton Jackson starting at PG at near min salary. Playable.
• T.J. McConnell is still playable off the bench.
• Collin Sexton is starting over LaMelo Ball. Definitely playable.

NBA Injuries, News & Updates Today, 1/8

• Josh Giddey - OUT
• Brandon Miller - IN
• Bennedict Mathurin - OUT
• P.J. Washington - OUT
• Jaime Jaquez Jr. - IN
• Jalen Smith - OUT
• Coby White - IN
• Jaylon Tyson - IN
• Kevin Love - IN
• Brandon Williams - IN
• Ryan Kalkbrenner - OUT
• Grant Williams - OUT
• Isaiah Jackson - OUT
• Dean Wade - OUT
• Larry Nance - IN
• Kevin Huerter - OUT
• Tidjane Salaun - IN
• Darius Garland - IN
• LaMelo Ball - IN
• Anthony Edwards - IN
• Andrew Nembhard - OUT
• Jusuf Nurkic - OUT
• Ace Bailey - OUT

NBA DFS Slate & Game Overviews

In the section below, I’m listing the most notable things we need to look at in Las Vegas, including notable O/U and spreads. Not every game is listed, but every game listed has the pace and defensive numbers listed.

NBA DFS Core Player Pool & Lineup Picks

Here are the core players I’m looking at for my NBA DFS picks tonight. You can see the full analysis of tonight’s NBA DFS projections and player pool below or skip ahead to building the best lineups possible by locking these into the aforementioned lineup generator now.

High

• Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, Donovan Mitchell

Mid

• Pascal Siakam, Keyonte George, Lauri Markkanen, Nikola Vucevic, Cooper Flagg, Tyler Herro, Matas Buzelis, Jarrett Allen, Aaron Nesmith, Ayo Dosunmu

Value

• Moussa Diabate, Naji Marshall, Brandon Williams, T.J. McConnell, Daniel Gafford, Jay Huff, Johnny Furphy, Max Christie, Quenton Jackson, Collin Sexton

Don't Miss The NBA DFS Playbook Live Show At 5:00 PM ET

Stacks

{{stack.team.name}}	{{player.name}}
DraftKings	{{player.fantasy.price.value[8]}}-
Fanduel	{{player.fantasy.price.value[6]}}-