NBA

3 Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 1/16/19

Dale Redman  —  @DTRedman Jan 16th, 2019
Marc Gasol has been off his game in 2019 and has a challenging matchup with the Bucks on Wednesday. Who else are we leaving out of our DFS lineups tonight?

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?

Marc Gasol, C, Memphis Grizzlies

FanDuel Price: $7,400

Last time out for Marc Gasol, the Memphis Grizzlies' center dropped just five points, his second-lowest total this season. He tweaked his elbow, forcing him to play fewer than 25 minutes and take only five shots. Gasol also committed a season-high seven turnovers as he posted a season-low 15.4 FanDuel points. While we can chalk this bad performance up to injury, the big man has been in a lousy funk lately.

Including Monday, Gasol has scored 7 or fewer points in three of his last five games, while collecting 30.2 or fewer FanDuel points in over half (four) of the seven games he has played in 2019. Even with a 52.3 FanDuel point explosion under his belt, Gasol is averaging just 31.1 FanDuel points in the last two weeks. Facing the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday further cements his place on our 'do not play' list.

The Bucks are one of the premier defenses in the NBA, holding opponents to a league-low 43.1% shooting from the field. They also own a top-three defensive rating (103.9) and rebound percentage (52.0%). Like most centers, Gasol is bound to struggle against Milwaukee as the Bucks hold the position to a league-low 1.02 FanDuel points per minute.

Spencer Dinwiddie, PG, Brooklyn Nets

FanDuel Price: $5,400

For nearly three weeks, Spencer Dinwiddie has been mired in a scoring slump. Before December 28, the Brooklyn Nets' guard scored in the single digits in only 2 of 36 games. Since then, he has pulled off the feat in four of nine contests. In those last nine games, Dinwiddie is averaging just 10.9 points per game while shooting 35.9% from the floor. The lack of offensive production has plummeted his fantasy value as he has surpassed 23.3 FanDuel points just once during the stretch. He is averaging 19.1 FanDuel points, which would provide a dismal 3.5 FanDuel points per $1,000 of salary on Wednesday.

While on the surface, the matchup against the Houston Rockets looks like one Dinwiddie can get right in, for DFS purposes it will be a challenge. Houston allows the third-fewest FanDuel points per minute (0.85) to opposing point guards, with opponents shooting 32.7% from three in their last 10 games -- a bottom-five rate in the NBA.

Stuck in a slump, seeing declining minutes (25.0 per game over the last eight), and facing the Rockets, Dinwiddie is a definite avoid in DFS on Wednesday.

Gordon Hayward, SF, Boston Celtics

FanDuel Price: $5,100

Gordon Hayward is not the same player he used to be. Before signing with the Boston Celtics, the forward was averaging 20.3 points per game for the Utah Jazz from 2014 to 2017. This season, though, Hayward has been a bust. He is averaging just 10.9 points per game primarily off the bench for the Celtics. Over the last week-plus, his performance has gotten even worse and especially in DFS.

Since January 7, Hayward has averaged just 8.6 points in 23.7 minutes per game. He has collected 19 or fewer FanDuel points in four of his last five games, averaging a dismal 16.5 FanDuel points per night. Even with the Celtics short-handed on Monday -- no Kyrie Irving or Marcus Smart -- Hayward saw the floor for just 25 minutes, going 1-for-6 from the floor. With the duo back in action on Wednesday against the Eastern Conference-leading Toronto Raptors, minutes and fantasy points may be hard to come by for Hayward.

The Raptors hold small forwards to a below average 0.84 FanDuel points per minute rate. Overall, the Raps have been playing better D lately, holding three of their last four opponents to 105 or fewer points while posting a top-four defensive rating (102.7).

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.