DFS NBA Top Plays: Christmas

Injuries

*Draymond Green (knee) – Out
*D.J. Augustin (calf) – Probable
*LeBron James (ankle) – Probable
*Kemba Walker (knee) – Out
*JaMychal Green (calf) – Out
*Jimmy Butler (ankle) – Questionable
*Gabe Vincent (knee) – Questionable
*Kristaps Porzingis (knee) – Out
*Marcus Morris (knee) – Out
*Wenyen Gabriel (knee) – Out
*Alen Smailagic (knee) – Out
* Klay Thompson (achilles) – Out
*Tacko Fall (eye) – Out
* Romeo Langford (wrist) – Out
*Nicolas Claxton (knee) – Out

Update 7:15 PM ET: Jimmy Butler was added to the injury report with a questionable tag on his ankle. It’s the first game of the slate so we should know before lock. If Butler was unable to go, we’d expect Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and Goran Dragic to soak up most of the usage opportunities while the minutes ceiling on Duncan Robinson would raise and Kendrick Nunn would emerge as a GPP flier. D.J. Augustin was also upgraded to Probable so we’ve moved him back into the rotation. Augustin takes minutes from Sam Merrill and lowers the ceiling for Jrue Holiday while also taking a smidge from DiVincenzo, Forbes, and Connaughton. We docked all the MIL stars 0.5-1 minute with the added depth back. JaMychal Green has been confirmed OUT for Denver, so we expect the frontcourt minutes to be available for Millsap-Porter Jr. and a heavy dose of Jokic. Top Plays chart has been updated

Establish the Context

If you subscribed to us during the NBA Bubble season, Top Plays is going to look a little different for the 2020-2021 season. Instead of providing simplistic analysis on players in good matchups, noting the scoring environment or pace of the game, we felt it was more useful to provide context to the projections which alongside the Top Plays chart below provides recommendations on who to play. On the Live Show, we’ll cover more of the “why” and discuss thoughts for cash games and tournaments, but in here we’re going to discuss where projections might be fragile and where they’re rock solid so you have a better handle on how to build.

With a game under our belts, the question marks have narrowed significantly. Let’s take a look at each of the 10 teams on the slate.