3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 3/9/16

Finding players you want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid. Here are three players based on their price and matchups that could be landmines for your rosters tonight.

You can find a ton of great information and research on guys you might want to include in your DFS NBA lineups tonight, 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.

With a big slate of NBA games on tonight, searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests. 

DeMarcus Cousins, C, Sacramento Kings

FanDuel Price: $11,100

When you look for stars to put in your FanDuel lineups for Wednesday night, the top of the list will feature DeMarcus Cousins, and his insanely high price tag of $11,100. Cousins would take up 18.5 percent of your entire salary cap tonight, and even though center is a somewhat scarce position even on this big slate, Cousins comes into this one with huge landmine potential, and I’m not just talking about his salary.

If you look at Cousins’ price history, his price is, coincidentally, the highest it’s been since he faced off against the Cavs a month ago, when he put up a huge landmine game. Daily fantasy sports are a lot like the stock market in that you want to buy low and sell high. After putting up a huge game in his most recent contest against the Pelicans, who rank as one of the worst teams against centers, Cousins is a sell-high candidate for me this evening against a much better defense.

The Cavaliers rank as the number one team against centers this season, giving up only 0.86 FanDuel points per minute to the position. At his current price, Cousins would need well over 50 FanDuel points to pay off his salary, and against the Cavs, that is wishful thinking at best. The combination of Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson did a number on Cousins in their first meeting of the season a little more than a month ago, where Cousins finished with only 28.1 FanDuel points, and the Kings got blown out.

Klay Thompson, SG, Golden State Warriors

FanDuel Price: $7,100

A buried storyline with the Warriors this season has been Klay Thompson, who has rightfully been overshadowed by the amazing season Stephen Curry is having. But Thompson has been pretty good this season, too. Even though he is in danger of having a career-worst year from beyond the arc at 40.2 percent, Thompson is currently shooting a career-best 55.8 percent Effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%), which comes from his career-best 52 percent shooting from inside the arc. However, tonight, Thompson faces one of the tougher young defenders in the NBA in Rodney Hood, and he has the potential to blow up your fantasy lineups this evening.

The Jazz rank as the third-best shooting guard defense in the NBA, giving up only 0.7 FanDuel points per minute to the position, and even though Hood’s Defended Field Goal Percentage (DFG%) isn’t great overall, the one area he has been very good at this season is limiting players from the three-point line. Hood’s DFG% for three pointers this season is 34.3 percent, and even though Thompson is taking more two-pointers this year with a lot of success, Thompson still takes nearly half of his shots from the three-point line.

Thompson and Hood have only played one another twice this season and in their careers. Thompson has shot well in his two games against Hood, but the Jazz have limited Thompson to contributing only as a scorer in those games. That is dangerous for daily fantasy purposes because, for Thompson’s price, you are going to need some counting stats to reach value with the Warriors’ guard tonight.

In two games against the Jazz this season, Thompson has scored an average of only 28 FanDuel points against Hood, which is simply not enough. We have Thompson projected for just under 30 FanDuel points tonight, so it may be wise to lay off of him in a tough matchup.

Khris Middleton, SG, Milwaukee Bucks

FanDuel Price: $7,800

Speaking of shooting guards with tough matchups tonight, Khris Middleton falls into that category this evening when the Bucks welcome in the Miami Heat to town. Dwyane Wade is far from the defender he once was, but he is still holding his opponents down this year with a DFG% of 43 percent, which is 1.4 percent lower than the average of the players he has defended. Now with Wade coming into Milwaukee tonight, and with Middleton's price still very high over the last five games, you can do better at the shooting guard position.

In his last game against Wade and the Heat, Middleton scored only 9 points on 2-of-13 shooting. He had 4 turnovers, and it all totaled up to only 17.4 FanDuel points. With Middleton playing very well recently, there is always the possibility that players will get lulled into a sense of security with him.

However, over their last three matchups against one another dating back to last season, Middleton has shot only 15-of-50 from the field against Wade, which adds up to an eFG% of 34 percent. Middleton has had a pretty good game against Wade once this season, but we have him projected for 32.08 FanDuel points tonight, which -- for his salary -- is not enough.