NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 3/8/19

Dale Redman  —  @DTRedman Mar 8th, 2019
Avery Bradley has been playing well, but a daunting matchup with the Jazz could make him bust on Friday. Who else are we avoiding in NBA DFS 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?

Paul Millsap, PF, Denver Nuggets

FanDuel Price: $6,700

Boosted by a hot run of 40-plus FanDuel points games around the All-Star break, Paul Millsap is a bit overpriced on Friday. The Denver Nuggets forward’s cost is pushing $7,000 despite Millsap dropping 26 or fewer FanDuel points in two of his last four games.

In his last game out, he racked up 33.1 FanDuel points against the Los Angeles Lakers but needed over 40 minutes to do so. That comes out to 0.83 FanDuel points per minute. At that rate, Millsap would score just 26.8 FanDuel points on Friday against the Golden State Warriors, if he played a more reasonable 32.3 minutes per game, his average over the last eight games.

That lowly efficiency came against the Lakers, who have the 28th-ranked defense over the last 10 games. Friday night’s competition is a little tighter in the Dubs, and Millsap can attest to that. In two previous meetings this season, Millsap collected an average of 22.2 FanDuel points versus Golden State -- not that unusual for the Warriors as they hold opposing power forwards to the sixth-fewest FanDuel points per minute this season.

Avery Bradley, SG, Memphis Grizzlies

FanDuel Price: $6,100

Over the last week-plus, Avery Bradley has picked up his offensive game for the Memphis Grizzlies, scoring at least 14 points in the previous five games played as he took an average of 15.4 shots per game. Bradley was boosted by the absence of Mike Conley -- who saw limited or no action in two contests but will play Friday. The Grizzlies also faced some of the softest defenses in the NBA during the stretch, allowing Bradley to average nearly 35 FanDuel points per game since February 25. Despite this hot stretch, Bradley could see it all come to a screeching halt against the Utah Jazz on Friday.

Utah owns a top-three defensive rating in the league (105.6) and have given up 105 or fewer points in three of their last five games even as they played some of the most efficient offenses in the NBA. The matchup leaves Memphis with a lowly 102.0 implied, the lowest of the nine-game slate. The Jazz defense has been stifling opposing shooting guards all year too, allowing just 0.78 FanDuel points per minute to the position by far the lowest rate in the NBA. Back on January 16, when he was with the Los Angeles Clippers, Bradley managed just 18.1 FanDuel points in his only meeting with Utah this season.

Cedi Osman, SG, Cleveland Cavaliers

FanDuel Price: $5,800

Just like with Memphis, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cedi Osman are locked into a matchup where points will be at a premium on Friday. The Cavs-Heat contest comes in with a low 213.5 over/under while Cleveland carries the second-lowest implied point total of the day (102.75), thanks to an expected molasses-slow pace. The Cavs rank 28th while the Heat are 27th in pace over their last 10 games. Miami also ranks second in the NBA as they stifle opponents to a 44.4% field goal percentage. That is all bad news for Osman as he has had a hard time scoring over the last few games.

The Cavs’ forward is averaging fewer than 10 points a game in March as he sees a reduced role with Kevin Love back in full health. The lack of scoring has taken its toll in DFS too, as in two of his last three games Osman has failed to break 19 FanDuel points. With the Heat surrendering below-average fantasy points to opposing small forwards, don’t expect a bounce back from Osman tonight.


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.