NBA DFS Picks, Projections, Lineups, Injuries & More Today: New Years Day Playbook

Happy New Years! The 2025 calendar year kicks off with six games on DraftKings and eight games over on FanDuel starting at 7pm ET.

This slate is an interesting one with a ton of injury news that we are waiting on and some big names already ruled out such as Joel Embiid, Cam Thomas, Amen Thompson and John Collins.

Be sure you have your notifications turned on and have joined the discord as we will likely be giving updates right up until roster lock this evening.

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, New Years Day

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Pre-Lock Update

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.

NBA Injuries, News & Updates Today, 1/1

• Joel Embiid - OUT
• John Collins - OUT
• Cam Thomas - OUT
• Amen Thompson - OUT
• Ayo Dosunmu - OUT
• Aaron Gordon - OUT
• Terry Rozier - OUT
• Bruce Brown - OUT
• Naji Marshall - OUT
• Torrey Craig - OUT
• Ziaire Williams - OUT
• Jalen Brunson - Questionable
• RJ Barrett - Questionable
• Jordan Poole - Questionable
• Zach LaVine - Questionable
• Dereck Lively - Questionable
• Andre Drummond - Questionable
• Gradey Dick - Questionable
• Immanuel Quickley - Questionable
• Keegan Murray - Doubtful
• Tari Eason - Questionable
• Bogdan Bogdanovic - Doubtful
• Anthony Black - Questionable
• Duncan Robinson - Questionable
• Jose Alvarado - Doubtful

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.

Chicago Bulls vs Washington Wizards

• Total: 238
• Spread: CHI -6

Utah Jazz vs New York Knicks

• Total: 229.5
• Spread: NYK -12.5

Brooklyn Nets vs Toronto Raptors

• Total: 221.5
• Spread: TOR -2

Atlanta Hawks vs Denver Nuggets

• Total: 247.5
• Spread: DEN -6

Philadelphia 76ers vs Sacramento Kings

• Total: 223
• Spread: SAC -6.5

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

• Nikola Jokic (FD), Karl-Anthony Towns, Kyrie Irving, Jalen Johnson (FD), Trae Young (FD), Alperen Sengun

Mid

• Tyler Herro, Tyrese Maxey (FD), De'Aaron Fox (FD), Jamal Murray (FD), CJ McCollum, Josh Hart, Paul George (FD), Zach LaVine, Goga Bitadze, Cameron Johnson, Jalen Green, Fred VanVleet, Malcolm Brogdon, Ben Simmons, De'Andre Hunter (FD)

Value

• Dillon Brooks, Caleb Martin (FD), Jonas Valanciunas, Tristan da Silva, Patrick Williams, Clint Capela, Onyeka Okungwu, Jalen Smith

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Stacks

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