NBA DFS Injury Pivots & Minute Adjustments (12/02/25)

Overview

• Slate is defined by massive frontcourt and wing spikes, with several secondary pieces gaining +14.0 min or more off key Questionable tags.
• Golden State, New Orleans, Memphis, and Philadelphia drive most of the high-impact pivots, while Boston and San Antonio quietly reshape their benches through Probable tags.
• There is plenty of cheap value volatility, which favors late swap discipline and differentiated constructions across DraftKings and FanDuel.

Daily Pivots

Key Pivots

Alpha Pivot

Trayce Jackson-Davis is the clear alpha pivot, gaining +19.2 min from the Jimmy Butler Questionable situation and another +15.3 min tied to Draymond Green being Probable. That range of outcomes suggests near-starter to heavy-starter workloads in multiple plausible configurations, which sharply elevates both his floor and ceiling on this slate.

Because his boost is driven by Golden State's highest-impact tags, he becomes a central decision point across formats. In cash and small-field, locking in that +19.2 min profile is very attractive, while in large-field GPPs you can play leverage off the field by pairing him with or against other GSW beneficiaries like Quinten Post and Gui Santos.

Secondary Pivots

• New Orleans wings: Trey Murphy III being Questionable creates a huge +17.4 min spike for Bryce McGowens, with Micah Peavy also gaining +14.5 min from Murphy and +14.8 min from Jordan Hawkins. These dual levers turn McGowens and Peavy into elite upside value pieces when those tags break in their favor, especially in correlation with or against Jordan Hawkins (+5.9 min) and Saddiq Bey (+6.9 min).

• Memphis second unit: Jock Landale Questionable funnels +15.7 min to Gregory Jackson II and +9.9 min to Scotty Pippen Jr., while Cam Spencer takes a huge -11.7 min hit. That makes Jackson a high-upside, likely underpriced frontcourt value, with Pippen Jr. a strong GPP pivot and Spencer a clear avoid in most builds when you are leaning into the Landale-absent scenario.

• Philadelphia rotation chaos: Andre Drummond Questionable pushes +10.4 min to Justin Edwards, +10.2 min to Eric Gordon, and +7.3 min to Jabari Walker, with Joel Embiid quietly gaining +5.9 min. Separately, Paul George Questionable gives Kyle Lowry +7.6 min and further boosts Walker and Gordon, while Jared McCain swings from -11.3 min in the George scenario to +14.3 min when Quentin Grimes is Probable, making McCain one of the most volatile plays on the slate.

• Boston bench wings: Derrick White being Probable gives Baylor Scheierman a huge +15.6 min and Jordan Walsh +8.3 min, with an additional +9.1 min to Scheierman and +7.4 min to Amari Williams from Neemias Queta being Probable. The flip side is meaningful hits to Josh Minott (-6.5 min), Payton Pritchard (-6.6 min), Anfernee Simons (-6.7 min), and Sam Hauser (-7.9 min), tightening the viable value pool in Boston lineups.

Value Targets

• Trayce Jackson-Davis profiles as the premier value, with +19.2 min tied to Jimmy Butler and +15.3 min tied to Draymond Green, making him strong in both chalky cash builds and as a core piece in most tournament constructions.

• Bryce McGowens and Micah Peavy are top-tier salary savers when you are building for New Orleans being thin on the wing, with McGowens at +17.4 min and Peavy carrying dual boosts of +14.8 min and +14.5 min; they work better as leverage in tournaments where others focus on more obvious star names.

• Gregory Jackson II, Justin Edwards, and Jared McCain headline the deeper value pool: Jackson gains +15.7 min if Jock Landale sits, Edwards gets +10.4 min off Andre Drummond, and McCain swings from -11.3 min with Paul George to +14.3 min with Quentin Grimes, making him a pure GPP volatility play.

Deep Rotation Notes

BOS - Bench reshuffle

• Baylor Scheierman is a significant winner, combining +15.6 min from Derrick White with +9.1 min from Neemias Queta, while Jordan Walsh and Amari Williams also gain meaningful run at +8.3 min and +7.4 min.
  
• Sam Hauser has a conflicting profile with +7.1 min from White but -7.9 min from Queta, and Josh Minott, Payton Pritchard, and Anfernee Simons all lose between -6.5 min and -6.7 min, making them fragile tournament-only darts at best.

GSW - Frontcourt leverage

• Beyond Trayce Jackson-Davis, Golden State's beneficiaries from Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler include Moses Moody (+10.4 min), Quinten Post (up to +9.7 min and +9.4 min), Gui Santos (+7.8 min and +6.9 min), Jonathan Kuminga (+7.8 min), and Pat Spencer (+7.5 min).
  
• Jimmy Butler himself actually loses -5.8 min in the Draymond Green Probable scenario, which slightly caps his ceiling relative to the surging role players around him.

MEM - Young upside

• With Jock Landale Questionable, Gregory Jackson II at +15.7 min is the clear priority, while Scotty Pippen Jr. at +9.9 min is a viable guard pivot when you need differentiation at low ownership.
  
• Cam Spencer taking -11.7 min is a glaring red flag, and he should generally be excluded from builds that assume Landale is limited or out.

NOP - Wing churn

• New Orleans is one of the most important value hubs: Bryce McGowens (+17.4 min) and Micah Peavy (up to +14.8 min) get massive boosts from the Trey Murphy III and Jordan Hawkins Questionable tags.
  
• Secondary winners like Saddiq Bey (+6.9 min), Jordan Hawkins (+5.9 min), and Jeremiah Fears (+5.3 min) become last-piece-in options, best used when correlating around specific New Orleans injury outcomes.

PHI - Guard and wing volatility

• Andre Drummond's Questionable status opens solid minutes for Justin Edwards (+10.4 min), Eric Gordon (+10.2 min), Jabari Walker (+7.3 min), and even gives Joel Embiid an extra +5.9 min.
  
• Paul George Questionable redistributes time to Kyle Lowry (+7.6 min), Walker (+7.1 min), and Gordon (+6.2 min), while Jared McCain becomes extremely sensitive, moving from -11.3 min in that scenario to +14.3 min when Quentin Grimes is Probable.

SAS - Fringe plays

• San Antonio's situation is subtle but usable in deep builds, with David Jones picking up +5.9 min from both Harrison Ingram and Riley Minix being Questionable.
  
• That dual boost offers a modest but stable path to extra floor minutes for Jones when you need a true punt in large-field tournaments.

Roster Construction

• Prioritize high-confidence spikes like Trayce Jackson-Davis (+19.2 min) and Bryce McGowens (+17.4 min) as foundational value in cash games and small-field contests, then rotate more volatile options like Micah Peavy and Gregory Jackson II in GPPs.

• In tournaments, group your exposure by team context: build New Orleans stacks with one or two of McGowens, Peavy, and Saddiq Bey, and Golden State stacks featuring Trayce Jackson-Davis plus one of Moses Moody, Quinten Post, or Gui Santos to maximize correlation on the injury outcomes.

• Limit or fully fade players with heavy negative deltas such as Cam Spencer (-11.7 min), Jared McCain in Paul George-heavy builds (-11.3 min), and Boston role players like Sam Hauser when leaning into Neemias Queta's impact (-7.9 min), preserving roster spots for the slate's true minute gainers.