Fantasy basketball tips and projections for Friday - 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.

Thursday featured a light five-game slate and we saw some interesting developments, as Marvin Bagley II, Kevin Huerter and Bennedict Mathurin all went off.

Bagley may have been the surprise of the night with his 20 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks as the Wizards' starting center in his debut for his new team. He played 39 minutes and hit 10 of 16 shots and added two steals and two assists in a tough loss to the Knicks. The Wizards are apparently going to use Bagley, and he's available in about 95% of ESPN leagues. He's worth picking up, if for no other reason than what he did on Thursday.

Huerter is rostered in 52% of ESPN leagues, but I'm not sure why the number is that high. He had scored in single digits in nine of his previous 10 games before scoring 26 on Sunday, 10 on Tuesday and a career-high 31 points with seven 3-pointers on Thursday night. Maybe he's finally ready to turn it on for the Kings. He's heating up just as Malik Monk is slumping. Given his last three games, Huerter looks like a «run,