NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 10/26/18

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 ($13,000): You probably don't need a ton of convincing to roster Brow at this point. He was on a historically great pace after DeMarcus Cousins went down last year, and his game log this year is made up of performances of 80.2, 54.0 and 70.6 FanDuel points. That "down" game of 54.0 came in a blowout that saw him play only 26.8 minutes. Nobody is producing like Davis does, and if you include last season, we also have a pretty good sized sample of this dominance at 36 games without Cousins. The New Orleans Pelicans have the slate's highest implied total, lead the league in offensive rating and rank second in pace. Davis is very tough to fade, even with the big price-tag.

Chris Paul ($9,700): Paul is back from his suspension tonight, and he joins a Houston Rockets squad that will be without James Harden (hamstring) for their matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers. Since joining the Rockets, Paul has a 31.7% usage rate and averages 1.62 FanDuel points per minute with Harden off the floor, compared to a 20.4% usage rate and 1.00 FanDuel points per minute when he's on with Harden. He averaged 47.1 FanDuel points despite playing a modest 32.3 minutes per game in 9 contests without Harden last year, and as only 3.0-point favorites tonight, the Rockets will likely lean on him for more minutes than that.

Kemba Walker ($8,500): Kemba is seeing a ton of offensive work to kick off the season, and his 32.7% usage rate is good for sixth in the NBA. He has put up at least 22 field goal attempts in 3 of his 5 games, and his 22.4 per game are fourth in the NBA, only 0.1 behind a two-way tie for second. We haven't seen that aggression with his shot take a toll on his other numbers either, though, as his 28.4% assist rate is right in line with his career-average (28.6%) while his 7.4% turnover rate is on pace to be a career-low by a margin of 0.9%. This has translated to big things in fantasy, as his previous career-high of 38.0 FanDuel points per game looks like nothing compared to the 44.8 he is averaging this year. His price tag does not reflect this increase at all, as that average is good for 5.3 per $1,000 of salary tonight, and it's well worth continuing to lean on him tonight.