3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 3/24/16
Finding players you want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid. Here are three players based on their price and matchups that could be landmines for your rosters tonight.
You can find a ton of great information and research on guys you might want to include in your DFS NBA lineups tonight, but what about some 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 each night. After all, it takes only one player to sink a lineup.
With a smaller slate of NBA games on tonight, searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.
Pau Gasol, C, Chicago Bulls
FanDuel Price: $9,400
Pau Gasol has been back for a couple of games for the Bulls since having some swelling and soreness in his knee. However, the problem for the veteran big man tonight is his minutes restriction. Despite playing only 25 minutes over his last two games, Gasol has been pretty good, but his price of $9,400 is very high considering he may still have his minutes limited tonight.
Another factor is the back-to-back. It seems unlikely and counter-productive for the Bulls to increase Gasol’s minutes on the second half of a back-to-back. Chicago already lost Gasol in the playoffs during a crucial time last season against the Cavaliers, and that probably cost them a chance at potentially beating Cleveland in that series after going up 2-1 after Game 3.
The Knicks are middle-of-the-road at defending centers this season, as they rank 16th, giving up an average of just under a fantasy point per minute. Robin Lopez is not a fantastic defender, but he has been very good when defending players close to the basket. The Knicks’ center proved that last night against Gasol by limiting him to 0-of-3 from inside three feet. Lopez is limiting players he defends to shooting less than 50 percent from inside six feet this season, which is 10 percentage points better than those player’s averages. Combined with the minutes restriction and back to back, lay off Gasol tonight.
Bojan Bogdanovic, SF, Brooklyn Nets
FanDuel Price: $5,200
Since releasing Joe Johnson earlier in the season, Bojan Bogdanovic has been playing well for the Nets. However, that was without Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and now, the rookie wing is back and will possibly start to eat into Bogdanovic’s minutes. Hollis-Jefferson was starting before getting hurt, and he made his return two nights ago, playing 15 minutes. Bogdanovic still played 29 minutes against the Hornets in that same game, but now against the Cavaliers tonight, as long as LeBron James isn’t a surprise scratch later in the evening, it might be wise to jump off the Bogdanovic ship before it starts to sink.
Not only could he start to lose minutes as the rookie first-rounder regains his legs, but also playing against James is not necessarily the greatest fantasy outlook. The Cavs rank third-best against the small forward this season, giving up only 0.71 FanDuel points per minute to the position.
On top of that, James is having yet another elite defensive season. Players James defends are shooting only 37.2 percent from the floor and only 31.1 percent from the three-point line. James is also allowing players he is matched up against to shoot 49.3 percent from inside six feet, which is a full 11 percentage points better than those player’s averages.
Steven Adams, C, Oklahoma City Thunder
FanDuel Price: $4,500
The Thunder’s big man rotation is pretty hard to figure out, and Steven Adams is one of the guys who gets his minutes thrown around the most. He could have less than 20 one night and then get 30 or more the next night. It really depends on the matchup and what the Thunder need. However, tonight against the Jazz, Adams is in danger of not only a minutes fluctuation but also foul trouble.
In three games this season against the Jazz, Adams is averaging 4.55 fouls per 36 minutes, which is slightly higher than his season per-36 averages of four fouls. However, the Thunder have not played against the Jazz since the middle of December, and in the last two of those games, Rudy Gobert was out with his knee injury.
Now with Gobert and Derrick Favors back in the lineup, it might be hard for Adams to stay out of foul trouble, or even off the bench in favor of Enes Kanter in a matchup against his old team. Either way, Gobert is limiting players he defends to only 44.7 percent from the floor and only 50.3 percent from inside six feet. This has helped the Jazz rank as the second-best team against centers on the year, giving up only 0.88 FanDuel points per minute to the position. All this combined, Adams’ minutes inconsistency is a little too risky for my taste tonight.
