NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 4/4/18

The Heat present a tough matchup for Dewayne Dedmon and the Hawks. Who else should you stay away from tonight?

In daily fantasy basketball, finding players you want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid.

You can find a ton of great information and research on guys you might want to include in your DFS NBA lineups, but what about guys you may want to lessen your exposure to, or even fade altogether?

Avoiding players whose matchups or situations aren't as great as they seem can often be just as important as finding the best targets. After all, it takes only one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference between winning and losing your contests. Which players should we avoid tonight?

Dewayne Dedmon, C, Atlanta Hawks

FanDuel Price: $6,200

After being a late scratch on Tuesday, Dewayne Dedmon (ribs) is officially listed as questionable for Wednesday's game against the Miami Heat. This makes him a risky DFS target in general, however, even if Dedmon does play, he is up against a tough matchup in Hassan Whiteside.

The Heat are holding opposing centers to 1.06 FanDuel points per minute, which is eighth-best in our DvP Matchup Chart. With that in mind, our models temper expectations for Dedmon, projecting him for 26.6 FanDuel points (if he suits up).

Isaiah Taylor, PG, Atlanta Hawks

FanDuel Price: $6,000

Isaiah Taylor is coming off a nice road performance against the Miami Heat, but even as the Atlanta Hawks head back home our models have little love for their offense.

The Hawks have a 99.5-point implied total in our Matchup Heat Map on Wednesday, and despite going for 15 points and 9 assists Tuesday, Taylor's pathway to repeating that is tough. The Heat have been pretty good overall against point guards this season, limiting them to 0.86 FanDuel points per minute while rating as the league's sixth-best defense since the All-Star break.

Anthony Tolliver, PF, Detroit Pistons

FanDuel Price: $5,200

With Blake Griffin out for the Detroit Pistons, Anthony Tolliver has started and played bigger minutes down the stretch. If you're just looking for minutes and a solid workload, it's easy to see the intrigue. He is coming off a nice double-double over the weekend against the Brooklyn Nets, however, Tolliver has a much tougher matchup Wednesday against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Sixers are holding power forwards to just 0.91 FanDuel points per minute, and even though the Philly frontcourt is banged up, they have enough depth to keep a guy like Tolliver from having a big game. Our models project Tolliver for only 21.3 FanDuel points over 31.5 minutes Wednesday night, which is not enough to pay off his price tag.


Jordan Sharp is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jordan Sharp also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username TEHSHARP. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.