3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 4/5/16

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 larger slate of NBA games on tonight, searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, SF, Milwaukee Bucks

FanDuel Price: $9,600

The Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, has been having a stellar second half, but tonight he is going up against the King himself, LeBron James. Even though Antetokounmpo has scored at least 53 FanDuel points in his last two games, and even though his price is back below $10,000, as long as James plays in this one, it might be wise to lay off Antetokounmpo tonight.

James has the Cavaliers ranked fifth-best against small forwards this season, giving up only 0.72 FanDuel points per minute to the position. If you look at Antetokounmpo’s last two opponents that he dominated, they both rank in the bottom half of the league against small forwards, with the Bulls being the worse of the two teams, ranking 25th in FanDuel points allowed to the position.

We have mentioned it a lot when we talk about players going up against James, but as long as he is not rested tonight, Antetokounmpo faces an uphill battle. Players James defends are shooting just 37.6 percent from the floor and 31.8 percent from beyond the arc. Even further, Antetokounmpo has struggled against James in the past. While he has shot the ball well against James this season, from a fantasy standpoint, you need at least 45 points from Antetokounmpo to reach value tonight, and that may be hard against James and the Cavs.

In his last five games against James over the last two seasons, Antetokounmpo is averaging only 35.8 FanDuel points per game. Even though he has dropped at least 40 FanDuel points in two meetings this season against James, it might be a good idea to pay up another $1,000 salary dollars for Kevin Durant -- or even James himself tonight. In those same previous five meetings, James has averaged just over 49 FanDuel points against Antetokounmpo.

Gordon Hayward, SF, Utah Jazz

FanDuel Price: $7000

Another small forward with a tough matchup tonight is Gordon Hayward. Hayward was a member of the landmines article the last time he faced off against the Spurs and Kawhi Leonard, and he ended the game with only 11 points in 35 minutes, and just 15.4 FanDuel points. Tonight might be more of the same against the Spurs for Hayward, who has struggled mightily against Leonard in their previous matchups.

The Spurs rank as the best small forward defense in the NBA this season, giving up only 0.65 FanDuel points per minute to the position, and Leonard is once again the main reason. He is making a case for his second straight Defensive Player of the Year award, as players he is defending are shooting just 39.1 percent from the floor and 33.9 percent from beyond the arc.

In his last five meetings against Leonard and the Spurs, Hayward is averaging just over 20 FanDuel points per game. If you haven’t heard by now, it might be a good idea to avoid Hayward and pretty much anyone on the Jazz tonight against San Antonio.

Luol Deng, PF, Miami Heat

FanDuel Price: $6,300

The Heat and Pistons square off tonight on national television, and the Pistons are fighting for their first playoff berth since 2009. The Heat, on the other hand, are trying to hang onto home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, so this game is very important to both clubs, which could mean the defenses could be out in full force tonight.

The Pistons come into this against Miami as a good defensive team against both forward spots. They rank 3rd against small forwards and 13th against power forwards this season, and while Luol Deng has been spending more time at power forward lately, he still is looking like a landmine either way. He has scored at least 36 FanDuel points in three of his last five games, so he looks attractive at this price. However, those three games were against the Blazers, Magic and Lakers, three of the bottom 10 teams against the power forward position this season.

Deng might not be so fortunate against the Pistons tonight. We have him projected for 12.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and just under 24 FanDuel points, which would not be anywhere close to the output you would need to make Deng a profitable player to roster tonight.