NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 2/5/19

Dale Redman  —  @DTRedman Feb 5th, 2019
Dennis Smith's price tag is pretty steep on Tuesday, making him a tough-to-stomach investment. Who else should you shy away from?

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?

Dennis Smith, PG, New York Knicks

FanDuel Price: $6,800

Dennis Smith has a new home and a brighter outlook in fantasy, but his salary on Tuesday is way too high to justify playing the New York Knicks' guard.

Smith’s $6,800 salary is the third-highest his price has been all year and the most since October 24th. For Smith to reach value on Tuesday (5.0 FanDuel points per $1,000 of salary), he would need to collect 34.0 FanDuel points, something he has done just five times (out of 33 games) this season. In his Knicks debut, even with limited backcourt options for New York, he saw only 25.5 minutes of action. He finished with just 8 points on 3-for-9 shooting, limiting him to 24.6 FanDuel points.

While we would expect his minutes to rise Tuesday, the matchup with the Detroit Pistons will not do Smith any favors. The Pistons have held opposing point guards to 0.90 FanDuel points per minute, a below-average rate in the league. They also own a top-four defensive rating over the last 10 games while playing at the third-slowest pace in that span. Add in a low implied point total for New York (101.75), and Smith becomes a player to stay away from on Tuesday.

Kyle Kuzma, PF, Los Angeles Lakers

FanDuel Price: $5,700

Over Kyle Kuzma’s last four games, the Los Angeles Lakers' forward has been a bust in DFS. Kuzma has posted four consecutive outings of fewer than 20 FanDuel points while averaging 12.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists on 38.0% shooting from the field in that stretch. That includes a miserable 18.8% clip on 4.0 three-point attempts per game. A far cry from the 21.5 points per game he averaged with LeBron James out of the lineup for most of January.

With James back in action on Tuesday, Kuzma won’t have the luxury of volume touches, either. The second-year forward averaged 18.1 shot attempts with LeBron out of the lineup but just 14.6 per game over the first 34 games of the season, with Bron starting alongside him.

Also hurting Kuzma’s chances on Tuesday is a less than favorable matchup with the Indiana Pacers. Even without Victor Oladipo the last six games, the Pacers remain an above-average defense in the NBA. They have given up 107 or fewer points in five of those six games for an average of 107.8 per night sans their star guard. They have also held their last two opponents -- the Miami Heat and New Orleans Pelicans -- to just 42.9% shooting form the field and 26.5% from three.

Jordan Clarkson, SG, Cleveland Cavaliers

FanDuel Price: $5,400

While Jordan Clarkson could see increased minutes with Rodney Hood now out of town, his past performances against the Boston Celtics should be enough to play it safe and leave the Cleveland Cavaliers' guard out of your lineups on Tuesday.

In the two games Clarkson has faced the Celtics this season, he has posted 16.2 and 15.5 FanDuel points as he has averaged 15.0 real-world points and virtually nothing else. He collected just 1 rebound and 1 assist total in the two games. One of those outings came only two weeks ago, back on January 23rd, and is one of the seven games (out of his last 11) in which he posted 22 or fewer FanDuel points.

The Celtics’ defense isn't singling out Clarkson, either, as they have held all opposing shooting guards to 0.82 FanDuel points per minute, the fifth-lowest rate in the league this season.


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.