Griffin Wong dives into Thursday’s two-game NBA slate to find three players who need to be in your fantasy lineups.
The NBA has returned with a flurry for the 2025-26 regular season, and tonight, the final two teams — the Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers — will finally get the chance to make their season debuts. Indiana will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in a rematch of the 2025 NBA Finals, while the Nuggets will open against the Golden State Warriors.
Tonight’s slate is small, but it features the MVP and runner-up in each of the past two seasons in Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ($10,500) and Denver’s Nikola Jokić ($11,500). Only one of the two can make my must-start list, given that starting both of them would use 46% of the allotted budget. Here’s my pick between them, plus two other players who should be in your fantasy lineups for tonight’s featured DFS contest.
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C Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets at Golden State Warriors, $11,500
Gilgeous-Alexander may have won MVP in 2024-25 and gotten his repeat bid off to a strong start with a 35-point, five-rebound, five-assist, two-block, two-steal (55.8-FPT) performance in the Thunder’s season-opening double-overtime win over the Houston Rockets, but Jokić is simply a more all-around player whose fantasy value should be even higher than it is. Gilgeous-Alexander’s $10,500 salary would return 0.0053 FPTS per dollar, whereas the 66.6 FPTS per game Jokić averaged last season would average out to 0.0058 FPTS per dollar, making Jokić objectively better value. Plus, Jokić is by far the best primary center on the slate.
The Warriors did allow the third-fewest points, sixth-fewest rebounds, fourth-fewest assists, and 10th-fewest steals per game last season after dealing for Jimmy Butler ($7,400), but that hardly mattered in their season-opening win over the Los Angeles Lakers, when they allowed Luka Dončić to post 43 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists, two steals, and a block (78 FPTS). Golden State struggled on the boards in the postseason, allowing the third-most rebounds per game, and Jokić has the 14th-highest career rebounding percentage in NBA history. The Warriors only allowed 23 assists against Los Angeles, but they could have allowed more if not for some poor long range shooting.
SF/PF Jimmy Butler, Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets, $7,400
Surprisingly, it was Butler, not Stephen Curry ($9,000) who was the decisive factor in Golden State’s win over the Lakers, as last season’s midseason acquisition enjoyed a 31-point, five-rebound, four-assist (45.3-FPT) effort. The 36-year-old’s scoring aggression waxes and wanes — he scored as many as 30 points and as few as five in his 30 regular season games with the team last season — but all in all, he’s a very well-rounded player, as one of just 14 players to average at least 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, and one steal per game, and his basketball IQ has been an asset in the Warriors’ ball movement-heavy offense.
His confident passing and savvy cutting should especially be critical against a Nuggets team that allowed the second-most assists per game last season and conceded the seventh-most fantasy points per game to forwards overall. Last season, Butler scored a combined 17 points in 70.5 partial possessions against Aaron Gordon ($5,700) and Peyton Watson ($3,900), and he also dropped nine points on two-for-four shooting in 19.9 partial possessions against new acquisition Cameron Johnson ($5,900). He averaged 43.9 FPTS per game across his two matchups against Denver last season.
PG/SG Andrew Nembhard, Indiana Pacers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder, $6,400
Thunder fans must surely be annoyed about the prospect of facing Nembhard after a hard-fought NBA Finals in which he averaged 23.6 FPTS per game to go along with gritty defense and a level of shot-making that he’s never demonstrated in the regular season. The Canadian is a career 33.5% three-point shooter during the regular season, but he’s connected at a 47.3% clip during the playoffs, including 42.3% in the Finals. He’s expected to take a leap this season with Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton out with the torn Achilles that he suffered in Game 7 of the Finals, which should open up opportunities for everyone else on the roster.
Nembhard should know every Oklahoma City defender’s tendencies after the Finals. In that series, he scored eight points when guarded by Gilgeous-Alexander and 10 when guarded by Luguentz Dort ($4,300). Plus, two of the defenders who guarded him most frequently in the Finals, Jalen Williams ($8,000) and Alex Caruso ($4,400), which will force the Thunder into matchups they’re not as familiar with. As a passer, he shouldn’t miss Haliburton too badly, as he assisted Pascal Siakam ($8,200) more frequently than he did Haliburton in both the regular season and the playoffs.
