3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 11/3/16
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 tonight in your DFS NBA lineups, 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. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.
Isaiah Thomas, PG, Boston Celtics
FanDuel Price: $8,000
There's commonly held belief in the DFS community that Kyrie Irving is an exceptionally poor defender, but the Cleveland Cavaliers have done a great job at slowing down point guards. With all of the injuries to the Boston Celtics, Isaiah Thomas is going to be a popular play tonight, and he could blow up in the wrong way in a game that has a double-digit spread and blowout potential written all over it.
Leaving out the potential blowout for the Cavs with the Celtics coming off a game Wednesday, Cleveland is only allowing 0.67 FanDuel points per minute to point guards this year. Last season, they gave up only 0.88 points per minute to point guards and Irving actually had something to do with that.
Even though his numbers are down a bit to start the season, last year Irving was actually an above average defender. According to NBA Stats' player tracking, players Irving defended averaged only 43.1% shooting from the floor last season and 35.3% shooting from beyond 15 feet. Irving isn't going to make an all-defensive team any time soon, but he is not as bad on defense as most make him out to be.
Thomas has posted some nice games against Irving and the Cavs in the playoffs, but in the regular season, he is averaging only 27.6 FanDuel points per game in his three regular season games against Cleveland as Celtic.
Jeff Teague, PG, Indiana Pacers
FanDuel Price: $6,200
Jeff Teague's return to his native Indianapolis hasn't been going great so far, and on Thursday the Indiana Pacers' guard has another really tough battle with Matthew Dellavedova. The newest Buck is doing exactly what they paid him to do, slow down the opposing team's point guard.
So far this young season, players Dellavedova defends are averaging only 32.4% shooting from the floor and a mere 14.3% shooting from three-point range. So far through four games, the Bucks are allowing only 0.81 FanDuel points per minute to point guards.
Teague got to the line 13 times in the Pacers' opener, but he has attempted two free throws in the three games since and is posting an ugly 23.0% effective field goal percentage this year.
Tyler Zeller, C, Boston Celtics
FanDuel Price: $3,800
Another Celtic who could be higher owned and have a large chance of busting is Tyler Zeller. With Al Horford already ruled out for tonight, Zeller will likely enter the starting lineup versus Cleveland. However, Cleveland has also been pretty good against centers, and it makes more sense to spend a bit more money for a lot more upside tonight.
The Cavs are only allowing 0.89 FanDuel points per minute to centers. With Zeller's rate of 5.4 fouls per 36 minutes this season, he could easily find himself playing less than 25 minutes.
Even with a smaller Thursday slate, there are a lot of value centers. Tristan Thompson might be the better play, and he is only $500 more than Zeller, while Zaza Pachulia is only $100 more and might be a great tournament play. Against a tough defense and in a game that could be a blowout, Zeller's upside isn't that high against Cleveland.
