NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 1/11/17

Mason Plumlee has returned huge value lately, but his recent price increase makes him a player to avoid on Wednesday's NBA DFS slate.

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 only takes one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.

Mason Plumlee, C, Portland Trail Blazers

FanDuel Price: $6,700

Mason Plumlee has been a steal in both DFS and season-long fantasy hoops. He is starting to rack up assists along with his other contributions, which has finally sent his price on FanDuel skyrocketing.

He was a great value pick earlier this year when his salary was cheap, but now that he's approaching $7,000, it's hard to justify playing him against the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's possible that Terry Stotts sits his center if this second game of a back-to-back gets out of hand, but since he's the most important Portland Trail Blazers player behind C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard, that likely won't happen.

Besides his price, the biggest risk behind rostering Plumlee is his matchup against Tristan Thompson, who is holding players he defends to 45.5% shooting from the field and 51.8% from within six feet. With the Cavs holding centers to just 0.91 FanDuel points per minute, it's a night to avoid Plumlee, especially in cash games.

Derrick Rose, PG, New York Knicks

FanDuel Price: $6,600

Oh, Derrick Rose. After going AWOL for the New York Knicks' last game and being benched in two straight fourth quarters before that, it's time to start fading Rose until he starts staying on the court in the final minutes of contests.

His rift with the Knicks or Jeff Hornacek is enough to make him a big landmine on Wednesday, almost as much as he was for those of who rostered him when he went missing.

However, that gives us all the opportunity at leveraging Brandon Jennings. If Rose is truly falling out of favor in New York, it's a great move to fade him tonight and going forward until he proves otherwise.

Victor Oladipo, SG, Oklahoma City Thunder

FanDuel Price: $5,800

Victor Oladipo has played pretty well since returning from his hand injury, but faces the Memphis Grizzlies and Tony Allen tonight.

While the Grizzlies will be selling out to stop Russell Westbrook, they might be resigned to just letting the Oklahoma City Thunder's star going crazy and worrying about not letting anyone else drop 20-plus points on them and that starts with Oladipo.

Allen is holding players he defends to just 40.4% shooting from the field, including 30.9% from deep. If Allen is locking down Oladipo, he is almost surely going to miss hitting value in this pace-down game.