NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 12/15/17

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Dec 15th, 2017
Myles Turner has been a bright spot for the Indiana Pacers, but a matchup with Andre Drummond kills Turner's appeal for NBA DFS Friday. Which other players should we look to avoid?

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.

Myles Turner, C, Indiana Pacers

FanDuel Price: $7,900

At only 21 years old, Myles Turner's upside is seemingly limitless at times, but there have been some struggles along the way for the Indiana Pacers' young big man.

Tonight, the Pacers are welcoming in the Detroit Pistons to Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and Indiana's nemesis, Andre Drummond, is set to make this a rough night for Turner. In their nine career games against one another, Turner is averaging just 9.9 points and 5.1 rebounds over 25.2 minutes per game against Drummond.

Drummond and Turner have already played twice this season, and Turner scored fewer than 10 points in both meetings. So far this year, the Pistons are holding opposing centers to the fifth-fewest fantasy points per minute, according to our DvP Matchup Chart. All of this makes Turner extremely risky at a price tag close to $8,000.

Eric Gordon, SG, Houston Rockets

FanDuel Price: $5,100

Ever since Chris Paul's return for the Houston Rockets, Eric Gordon has seen his fantasy production take a slight hit. Gordon is still scoring well, but his other stats have taken a dive. In five December games, Gordon is averaging just 1.6 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game.

With FanDuel's new scoring this season, a lack of blocks and steals combined with not a lot of assists and rebounds really hurts the overall upside of a player. For instance, in games where Paul has been out this season, Gordon averaged 3.2 assists. In the other 11 games, Gordon has just 12 total assists.

Not only has Gordon's production gone down, but his matchup against the San Antonio Spurs is not great. San Antonio is holding shooting guards to just 0.77 FanDuel points per minute, making Gordon an easy player to avoid.

Rodney Hood, SG, Utah Jazz

FanDuel Price: $4,700

Rodney Hood returned to the court on Wednesday and was productive for the Utah Jazz with 15 points on 5-for-12 shooting over 25 minutes against the Chicago Bulls.

Hood is likely going to be brought along slowly from his absence, and while he was out, the shooting guard landscape changed in Utah. Both Donovan Mitchell and Alec Burks are playing well and demanding minutes, which is not great for Hood's overall upside.

Plus, the matchup against the Boston Celtics could not be harder. The C's are holding opposing shooting guards to just 0.69 FanDuel points per minute, which makes all of those Jazz guards risky on Friday.


Jordan Sharp is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jordan Sharp also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username TEHSHARP. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.