Fantasy basketball tips and projections for Thursday - ESPN

ESPN's fantasy basketball and basketball betting tips cheat sheet is your pregame destination for basketball betting predictions and our best intel and data, featuring ESPN's proprietary Basketball Power Index (BPI) to help you make smart fantasy and wagering decisions. Fantasy advice is based on ESPN 10-team leagues.

New this season, ESPN Analytics will also generate daily NBA fantasy projections. By combining historical player and team data and specific game factors ESPN is able to accurately predict player box score stats. Accounting for injuries, trends in playing time, and other factors impacting future performance the statistical models can be used to help NBA fantasy players gain an edge in their league.

Stars and sleepers showed out on Wednesday in the NBA. The Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid posted an efficient 51 points in downing the league's top defense, while Utah's Talen Horton-Tucker (rostered in 15.6% of ESPN leagues) tied his career high in dimes in a loss to Cleveland.

Embiid absurdly has more points than minutes played, but we know how dominant he is. Players with significant changes in opportunity rates such as Horton-Tucker can immediately help fantasy rosters. Dallas Mavericks guard Dante Exum (16.1%) also qualifies as an ideal interim addition, especially after posting another strong last night. Both guards could lose minutes and touches when their respective teams get healthier, so the time is now.

In some unfortunate news, it appears the Knicks project Mitchell Robinson to miss the season due to ankle surgery. This means Isaiah Hartenstein (12.6%) could sustain strong rebounding and block results. Per tonight's injury report, there aren't many impact absences to consider. This rings especially