NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 2/6/19

Dale Redman  —  @DTRedman Feb 6th, 2019
Tomas Satoransky could be in for a long night against the NBA's best defense. Who else are we staying away from in DFS on Wednesday?

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?

Tomas Satoransky, PG, Washington Wizards

FanDuel Price: $6,700

One of the more disappointing players to roster in DFS lately has been Tomas Satoransky. The Washington Wizards' guard has seen his offensive responsibility take a hit in the last two weeks as he has posted more than 11 points just once on his previous five games. The point guard has seen his usage rate dip, too, down to 13.6% since January 25. The diminished duties in the offense have led to some frustrating fantasy nights.

Satoranksy has three games with 25.6 or fewer FanDuel points in the stretch, including two below 22 points in the last four games. Facing the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, Satoransky will be in a tight spot once again.

The Bucks own the league’s best defensive rating (103.4) and rank in the top-three of rebound percentage (51.7%) and field goal percentage allowed (42.9%). Opponents are scoring the seventh-fewest points per game against Milwaukee and hold point guards to a bottom-10 fantasy production rate this season.

Even on a seven-game slate, there are plenty of red flags to leave Satoransky out of your lineup tonight.

Dwight Powell, PF, Dallas Mavericks

FanDuel Price: $5,500

Following the trade of DeAndre Jordan from the Dallas Mavericks, more minutes opened up in the middle for Dwight Powell. The fourth-year big man has logged over 24 minutes in each of his last two games, a significant jump from his year-long average of 16.6 minutes per game. Despite the extra court time, Powell didn’t do much to justify a big salary bump -- he cost $3,700 the last time out.

Powell averaged 9.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks for 20.3 FanDuel points in the pair of games -- solid production but not close to the 27.5 FanDuel points he would need on Wednesday to reach optimal value. He's scored that many fantasy points just five times this season and only once in the last two months. Tuesday’s battle with the Charlotte Hornets won’t be an easy path to points, either.

The game carries the lowest over/under of the day (215.5) while Powell will square off with Cody Zeller and Bismack Biyombo, two of the better rim protectors in the league. Opponents shoot 6.6 percentage points fewer than expected from 10’ or closer to the rim against Zeller and 6.7 points fewer against Biyombo when within 6'.

Mikal Bridges, SF, Phoenix Suns

FanDuel Price: $5,400

Mikal Bridges may seem to be in a favorable spot with Devin Booker likely out with an injury on Wednesday. However, with a tough matchup in store against the Utah Jazz, it is best to stay away from the Phoenix Suns' rookie tonight.

Bridges is facing a Jazz team allowing the fifth-fewest points per game (106.1) while owning a top-five defensive rating (105.5). Phoenix comes into the night with the lowest implied point total of the seven-game slate (103.0), leaving points few and far between for Bridges.

While he provides substantial contributions across the board, Bridges’ best fantasy nights come when he scores double-digits points, which he has done only three times in his last nine games. In 2019, Bridges has scored more than 20 FanDuel points in less than half of his games played (8-of-17), even as he's routinely played over 28 minutes a night (12 times). The Jazz have held down the fantasy production of opposing small forwards, too, limiting them to 0.83 FanDuel points per minute, the third-fewest on tonight’s slate and eighth-fewest overall.


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.