Fantasy Basketball Injury Updates - Play-Ins and Playoffs

April 11, 2023

Max Kulish's NBA injuries report for fantasy basketball in the Play-Ins and Playoffs. He recommends NBA injury replacements to set optimal lineups for seasonal and DFS formats.

For the final time this season (actually); welcome back, RotoBallers! The postseason is upon us, so I wanted to do one final round-up of what injuries there are for the 20 teams still in contention to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy this summer. So, as always I'm here to help you stay up to date on injury news in case you had a busy weekend and couldn't keep track of everything.

I'm doing this midday on Monday for release Tuesday morning, so any news that drops on Monday night won't be covered. I'll just cover what has changed since last week.

Drop me a follow on Twitter (@Maxadelphia) for all things fantasy basketball and nightly NBA plays. Be sure to also bookmark our awesome free NBA injuries report tool for up-to-the-minute fantasy basketball injury updates.

Short-Term Injuries for Fantasy Basketball

Rudy Gobert, C, Minnesota Timberwolves - Suspended

After the infamous "Insecurity is always loud...." punch seen around the NBA world, the Wolves had to do something and with their season on the line decided to suspend Gobert for their game Tuesday night. Thankfully, should they lose against the Lakers, they would still have a chance to grab the 8th seed.

Julius Randle, PF/C, New York Knicks - Ankle

Randle sprained his ankle on 3/29 in a win over the Heat, and it was reported the next day he'd be reevaluated in two weeks. With the Cavs awaiting the Knicks in a 4-5 matchup, I can't imagine Randle won't be good to go for Game 1 of the first round.

Long-Term Injuries for Fantasy Basketball

Jaden McDaniels, SF/PF, Minnesota Timberwolves - Hand

The good news for McDaniels is that he only had the second-most talked-about punch by a Timberwolves player on Sunday. The bad news is that he really messed up two metacarpals in his hands, and won't see the floor in the playoffs this year.

Zion Williamson, PF/C, New Orleans Pelicans - Hamstring

The Pelicans announced on Monday they "don't believe [he's] close to returning to game action". Given his injury history and how the organization handles his injuries, that makes me think this will be another year where Zion is absent from a Pelicans playoff run.

Naz Reid, PF/C, Minnesota Timberwolves - Wrist

Reid has had the best year of his career for the Wolves, largely in part to his impact during the 50+ games Karl Anthony-Towns missed. Reid suffered a fracture to his left wrist, and his recovery time is listed at 6-8 weeks. This means that unless the Wolves go on a deep run, Reid is done for the year.

Paul George, SF/PF, LA Clippers - Knee

Clippers fans saw their season flash before their eyes when George went down with a scary-looking knee injury last Tuesday night in OKC. Thankfully, it was only deemed a sprain, and it looks like George should be able to return before the end of the first round of the playoffs, should the Clippers maintain their current #6 seed and not have to worry about the play-in games.

Update 4/10: Shams reported Monday that George is still recovering, but will be sidelined to start the Clippers' first-round matchup with the Suns.

The Tank Corner 

It was a fun inaugural year for the Tank Corner, but as one final order of business, I want to award the most prestigious award here at Rotoballer – the Tank of the Year.

This award goes to none other than the Dallas Mavericks! After trading major assets for Kyrie Irving, the Mavs went 9-17 in their final 26 games to end the season in 11th place in the West and miss the play-in games. The Mavs lose their pick to the Knicks if it falls outside the top 10, and they chose to bench their best players to try and hang on to that pick. A truly remarkable underdog story for the Mavericks, no one saw this coming!

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