3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 11/16/16
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 tonight in your DFS NBA lineups, but what about some 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 each night. After all, it takes only one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.
Marc Gasol, C, Memphis Grizzlies
FanDuel Price: $6,900
Picking centers tonight is tough. You have big-name guys who are questionable heading into this evening while other top centers have really tough matchups. Marc Gasol is one of the latter group of big men tonight as he faces off against the Los Angeles Clippers and stud defender DeAndre Jordan.
Jordan might be in the running for defensive player of the year so far this season. He finished just outside of the top three last season, and he has some good competition, but Jordan has started out this season on another level.
Last year, his defended field goal percentage (field goal percentage of the players he defended) is was 43.4%, and this year it's down to 40.1% shooting. It gets better within six feet from the basket, where Jordan is holding players to 50.9% shooting.
This has helped the Clippers become the top defensive team in the league so far and the best at preventing fantasy points to centers. Los Angeles is allowing a league low 0.79 FanDuel points per minute to opposing centers, and with Gasol still not playing big minutes, it's probably best to lay off him in this very tough matchup.
Kent Bazemore, SF, Atlanta Hawks
FanDuel Price: $4,800
Kent Bazemore seems to have gotten his groove back over the last five games, but tonight he faces a tough task, trying to stop Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Atlanta Hawks are coming off a back to back, Dwight Howard is hurting and there is no one else even remotely qualified to slow down Antetokounmpo in the Hawks' starting five other than Bazemore. Good luck, kid.
Thabo Sefolosha is going to get his turns, as well, but with the sheer effort the 6'5" Bazemore is going to need to slow down the 6'11" Antetokounmpo, he may not have his usual game offensively.
Just look at the game log between these two. In their three meetings last season, Bazemore fouled out in 23 minutes in one game and averaged only 13.6 FanDuel points per game in the three games. To Bazemore's credit though, Antetokounmpo didn't have great games, either, but we don't get fantasy points for playing lock-down defense.
Wesley Matthews, SG, Dallas Mavericks
FanDuel Price: $4,600
I used to believe in the NBA DFS phrase "minutes equal money," but then Wesley Matthews came back from his Achilles injury. Matthews is averaging an abysmal 0.54 FanDuel points per minute this season, and considering he used to be one of the best two-way players in the game, it's hard to watch his talent diminish like this due to an injury.
He still has a lot of game on defense and is holding players he defends to only 41.1% shooting from the floor. However, he will have to go up against a red-hot Avery Bradley tonight, who has also been known to be pretty good on defense.
Bradley's on-ball defensive numbers are down some this season, but since he has been carrying the Boston Celtics' on offense over the last few weeks, that's understandable. Now that Al Horford is close to a return, Bradley can get down to focusing more on defense, making Matthews an even bigger landmine tonight.
