NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 2/1/19

Dale Redman  —  @DTRedman Feb 1st, 2019
Stuck in a shooting slump and being shadowed by Paul George makes Josh Richardson a risky play on Friday. Who else are we staying away from in NBA DFS 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?

Josh Richardson, SF, Miami Heat

FanDuel Price: $6,500

Josh Richardson has hit a scoring slump for the Miami Heat. Over his last 11 games, Richardson has scored more than 14 points in a game just three times. He is averaging a disappointing 13.5 points despite taking 12.1 shots per game. Naturally, his fantasy production has dropped to only 20.7 FanDuel points per game in the last week. He shot just 28.1% from the field in the previous three games and will find it hard to break out out of the slog versus the Oklahoma City Thunder and Paul George on Friday.

George is known for his defense and has not disappointed this season, limiting those he defends to 41.9% shooting from the field and 30.3% from three, both well below league average. In the two games where the Thunder played the Heat last year, George held Richardson to 3-for-15 shooting (20%) for an average of 6.0 points on the 35.0 possessions per game.

If that wasn't enough, the Heat own the fourth-lowest implied point total of the day, leaving all signs pointing to Richardson flopping in DFS on Friday night.

Luke Kornet, PF, New York Knicks

FanDuel Price: $5,500

After missing the last five games, Luke Kornet is ready to return for the Knicks on Friday as he is listed as probable to play against the Boston Celtics. Despite the New York Knicks acquiring DeAndre Jordan on Thursday, Kornet is expected to see plenty of run on Friday with Jordan not supposed to be active. Kornet will resume splitting up minutes with Mitchell Robinson and Noah Vonleh up front.

Despite getting a good run of minutes before his injury, Kornet was volatile in DFS, having posted two games with 38-plus FanDuel points in his previous seven contests but fewer than 17 in the other five. Kornet’s inconsistent scoring is mostly to blame. He has tallied six or fewer points in five of his last seven games, all starts. Facing an elite defense in the Celtics on Friday won’t help his chances.

The Celtics hold opposing frontcourts down in fantasy, allowing the fifth-fewest FanDuel points per minute to centers and the fourth-fewest to power forwards. Overall, opponents are shooting just 44.0% against them this season, the second-lowest rate in the league. The Knicks are also holding the second-lowest implied point total of the day (102.25), reinforcing Kornet as a risky play tonight.

Eric Gordon, SG, Houston Rockets

FanDuel Price: $5,300

Eric Gordon can light up a scoreboard, but over his last few games he's been hit or miss.

Gordon has scored 17 or fewer points in three of his last five games, leaving him unable to break the 23-FanDuel-point mark in those games. In his previous two games, he averaged 16.5 points but not much else, posting 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in over 35 minutes a night. The return of Chris Paul for the Houston Rockets on Sunday has been a significant factor in Gordon's decline.

While Gordon has remained in the starting lineup, his usage rate has plummeted to 19.5% with James Harden and CP3 running the show. With the two superstars in the lineup, which they both are expected to be, Gordon has become a three-point specialist, with 20 of his 28 shots (71.4%) coming from beyond the arc. Facing a Denver Nuggets squad who holds opponents to the fifth-lowest success rate from three (34.1%), Gordon could be in for a quiet night.


Dale Redman is not a FanDuel employee. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.