3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 11/9/16
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.
James Harden, SG, Houston Rockets
FanDuel Price: $11,100
Leave out for a second that James Harden is priced over $11,000 and he is still questionable in DFS due to one of the tougher matchups of any studs on the NBA DFS slate tonight. The Houston Rockets are heading west to face off against the San Antonio Spurs, and Harden is going to have to deal with a strong defense focused almost completely on slowing him down.
Rostering Harden on FanDuel is also made tougher by his turnovers. His double-digit assists help, but Harden is averaging over six turnovers per game, and as a team, the Rockets are last in the league at 17.3 turnovers per 100 possessions.
Harden could lose five or six points for turnovers tonight, and on top of a tough matchup, that makes him a player to avoid. The Spurs are allowing only 0.82 FanDuel points per minute to point guards this season, and that may be made worse if Kawhi Leonard is the main defender on Harden tonight.
Danny Green is making his return to the court tonight, too. That gives the Spurs another capable defender to throw at Harden. San Antonio might choose to cross match tonight to ensure Leonard spends most of his time on Harden and force guys like Trevor Ariza and Eric Gordon to beat them. If that happens, it could be a long night for Harden owners.
C.J. McCollum, SG, Portland Trail Blazers
FanDuel Price: $7,100
Another high-priced shooting guard potentially due for a letdown is C.J. McCollum, who is coming off two huge games. McCollum was a member of the landmines last Friday in a 17-FanDuel-point effort, and after two straight great games, his ownership and matchup make him a big landmine on Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Clippers have the league's best defensive rating to start the year at 91.7 points per 100 possessions. If they have truly made a commitment to the defensive end, the Clippers become a dangerous opponent for the Portland Trail Blazers and McCollum. Los Angeles is allowing only 0.61 FanDuel points per minute to shooting guards this season, and their perimeter defense is a big reason.
J.J. Redick is holding players he defends to only 31.8% shooting from beyond the arc, and the Clippers as a team are holding their opponents to a league-best 44.2% effective field goal percentage. Jump off McCollum tonight.
Serge Ibaka, PF, Orlando Magic
FanDuel Price: $5,400
Serge Ibaka has been a thorn in the side of fantasy owners so far this season. After putting up big numbers in the preseason, Ibaka has been pedestrian and at times benched down the stretch by Frank Vogel. Even in good matchups, he has underperformed, and tonight is a bad matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Gorgui Dieng has been a monster in Tom Thibodeau's system. He has yet to make a consistent impact on offense, but Dieng has seemingly made a mark on their interior defense for fantasy purposes. The Timberwolves are allowing only 0.81 FanDuel points per minute to power forwards this season, and even after playing last night, they will make it tough on the Orlando Magic's interior players.
Another factor hurting Ibaka is that his share of touches on offense don't seem to be impacted too much since coming to the Magic. Ibaka has a 20.1% usage rate, which is only slightly higher than his previous career high of 19.8%. Along with his posting a current career-low 50.6% effective field goal percentage, it's not the time to roster Ibaka.
