Tarik Black Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Capela has officially been ruled out and won't play in Monday's game against the Utah Jazz after previously being listed as questionable in the latest version of the Houston Rockets' game notes with an illness. He'll join Eric Gordon, Brandan Wright, and Ryan Anderson among the Rockets' inactives, which will enable Tarik Black to enter the rotation and start at center in Capela's place. Meanwhile, Nene will be available to play off the bench following a one-game absence due to planned rest on the front end of this back-to-back set in Sunday's win. Gerald Green was a DNP-CD last night, compared to the 28 minutes that were allocated to recently-signed Joe Johnson in the wing rotation, even with Trevor Ariza playing 32 minutes in his second game back from a lengthy absence due to a hamstring injury. That said, Green will more than likely be forced into a significant role with the second unit in tonight's contest given the Rockets' overall lack of depth due to the aforementioned player ailments.

Ariza had originally been ruled out but has now been upgraded to questionable on the Houston Rockets' injury report for tonight's game against the Memphis Grizzlies with a sprained left foot. Meanwhile, Black has also been listed as questionable with a right hip contusion that limited him to just nine minutes in Friday's contest. Nene is still a game-time decision with a sore left Achilles, and if he misses a third consecutive game, leaving Ryan Anderson as the main recipient of the backup center minutes behind Clint Capela, if Black is ruled out as well, in addition to his normal power forward workload. However, the matchup for Capela and the remaining Rockets big men is less than ideal, Marc Gasol is a capable defender and one of the better rebounding centers in the entire league, relegating Capela to a fringe tournament option at an elevated price tag.

Russell will not play in tonight's game against the San Antonio Spurs due to a sore left knee despite never appearing on the Lakers' injury report at any point throughout the day. In his absence, Tyler Ennis will draw the start at point guard and immediately enters tournament consideration despite the difficult matchup, while Tarik Black has also been cleared to play, but Lakers head coach Luke Walton failed to confirm whether Black would reclaim the starting center spot from Larry Nance, who started alongside Julius Randle in the previous game. Russell's injury is not considered serious and this is probably closer to a rest day for him than anything more significant. With Russell off the court since the All-Star break, both Ennis (24.6%) and Jordan Clarkson (33.8%) have been the clear beneficiaries of his time off the floor, as they each own at least a positive +3.5% usage rate differential (Clarkson sees a whopping +8.0% increase), albeit a limited sample. The matchup is less than ideal but Clarkson and Ennis are both more than worthy of tournament exposure on Wednesday's slate.

Black will not play in today's game against the Memphis Grizzlies to a sprained left knee he sustained towards the end of Saturday's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. His absence from the rotation will guarantee that Larry Nance will draw the start at center once again with Ivica Zubac sidelined for the rest of the season. Nance remains in play on FanDuel, where he is only $3.9K, but Thomas Robinson may be the preferred punt option on DraftKings and FanDuel after coming off a monster performance relative to his price tag in 22 minutes yesterday. It's realistic for Robinson to see similar run this afternoon, and the Grizzlies frontcourt defense is much less imposing with Marc Gasol unavailable for Memphis.

Black will not play in tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks after previously being listed as questionable on the Lakers' injury report as questionable due to an illness. The Lakers recently shut down Timofey Mozgov for the remainder of the season, meaning Ivica Zubac, Julius Randle, and Larry Nance will absorb a large majority of the available frontcourt minutes, while Thomas Robinson may even reenter the rotation to play minimal minutes. Zubac put up a massive dud in the Lakers' previous game, which caused his price on FanDuel to plummet, but this is an ideal bounce-back spot at possibly reduced ownership given the Lakers' lack of frontcourt depth and an exploitable matchup with the Bucks defense, who rank 19th in DvP against opposing centers.

Black has come down with an illness and did not take part in the team shootaround. He's been downgraded to questionable for the Lakers game against Milwaukee tonight. Black's role has diminished lately as he seldom tops 15 minutes of playing time but his absence would open up more minutes for Lakers rookie Ivica Zubac, who would be a viable value option tonight if Black sits.