NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 10/17/18

Dale Redman  —  @DTRedman Oct 17th, 2018
With Jimmy Butler still in Minnesota to start the season, Andrew Wiggins is a player we are avoiding in DFS. Who else are we passing up on Wednesday's 11-game 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 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?

Kyle Anderson, SF, Memphis Grizzlies

FanDuel Price: $7,200

Former San Antonio Spurs small forward Kyle Anderson signed a lucrative offer from the Memphis Grizzlies this offseason and is expected to play a significant role on his new team. On opening night, though, his role is unclear. The versatile defensive specialist may come off the bench to start the season as the Grizzlies mix-and-match their rotations and lineups, making it hard to trust Anderson's workload in the season opener. Our models project only 27.0 minutes for Anderson on Wednesday.

The Pacers-Grizzlies game on Wednesday is expected to have the fewest amount of points of the slate with Memphis scoring just over 100.25 -- the second-lowest implied total. With Indiana and Memphis finishing 2017-18 in the bottom-10 in pace of play and Anderson averaging 7.9 points in over 26 minutes per game last season, points will be hard to come by for the forward. Spending over $7,000 on someone projected to drop fewer than 10 points is hard to justify on such a packed slate.

Andrew Wiggins, SF, Minnesota Timberwolves

FanDuel Price: $6,800

The Minnesota Timberwolves are a mess. They struggled offensively this preseason, shooting just 40.8% from the floor (fourth-lowest in the NBA). All the canceled practices and drama surrounding Jimmy Butler and his trade demands aren't helping things, as the team seems to be incredibly dysfunctional at this point. With all that's swirling around in Minnesota, it's fair to rule out any T-Wolf in DFS until we see how everything unfolds, especially with Butler remaining with the team and expected to start on Wednesday. In particular, the presence of JB in Minny has wrapped an anchor around Andrew Wiggins' fantasy value.

When Butler was off the court last season, Wiggins averaged 0.86 FanDuel points per minute with a 25.5% usage rate. Playing alongside Butler, that number fell to 0.77 points per minute and a 21.8% usage rate. Add in facing a tough defensive team like the Spurs on Wednesday, where Wiggins averaged just 28.0 FanDuel points per game last season, and it's hard to justify spending nearly $7,000 on the third wheel in an offense projected for the sixth-lowest total of the day (104.25).

Josh Jackson, PF, Phoenix Suns

FanDuel Price: $5,700

Josh Jackson ended the 2018-18 season hot, scoring at least 31 FanDuel points in 11 of 12 games. The hope would be his growth would carry over to his sophomore season, and it still may. However, on Wednesday, the Phoenix Suns swingman is expected to come off the bench, a role that didn't work well for him in DFS last season. Jackson averaged just 20.3 FanDuel points per game off the bench.

With Isaiah Canaan starting at the point and Trevor Ariza at small forward, the versatile Jackson will have to battle T.J. Warren, Mikal Bridges, Dragan Bender, Jamal Crawford, and Troy Daniels for minutes off the bench. While the second-year player should emerge as the team's sixth-man, his struggles shooting (35.3% this preseason and 41.7% last year) may hinder his chances early on. Starting the year against a Dallas Mavericks squad in the season opener that ran at the fifth-slowest pace, the volume may not be there, making it best to pass up Jackson when building your lineup on Wednesday.

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.