Welcome to the first Friday of the new year! We have a pleasant six-game slate, which is rare for a Friday. There is some major injury news we will need to hear about before we can really submit lineups, but here is an early afternoon primer for you all.

Check out today’s NBA Sharpshooter from DraftKings

Guards

James Harden (PG/SG – HOU): $10,900 vs. 76ers
This is the most interesting game of the night from an NBA fan perspective, as two of the better teams in the league face off on ESPN. The 76ers have been a really stout defensive team, allowing an average of just 211 DraftKings points per game (the league average is near 230). That will generally take me away from players against them, but Harden is at one of his lowest price points of the year so I have a lot of interest. The matchup is not as important for a guy like Harden, he has had some massive games against tough defensive teams this year and some of his worst games against bad defensive teams. The matchup is not the only reason for the price drop, as Harden has taken less than 20 shots in five of his last six games, which is a bit alarming, but the upside is just too huge at $10,900 to not have a piece of.

Bradley Beal (SG – WAS): $8,500 vs. Trail Blazers
Beal is listed as questionable right now, which is a huge deal and is preventing Vegas from giving us a line on this game. If Beal does play, however, this should be one of the juiciest games of the night, and I would be very interested in jumping on Beal well below the $9,000 mark. Before the injury stuff started with Beal, he was averaging 47 DraftKings points over his previous 20 games with a 32% usage rate playing 30 minutes per game (with a few games getting up near 40). There would be a bit of a risk that Beal would not play full minutes in his first game back from a short injury, but I would find it more likely that he would still see 30+ minutes and go right back to dominating the ball for the Wizards. If that happens, he should easily clear this price tag.