3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 11/10/16
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.
D'Angelo Russell, PG, Los Angeles Lakers
FanDuel Price: $6,000
The Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the most improved teams early on this year, and their depth at the two guard spots is a big reason why. However, new coach Luke Walton has started limiting the minutes of his sophomore point guard, D'Angelo Russell.
With Louis Williams, Nick Young and Jordan Clarkson all playing well and demanding minutes, Russell's usage and minutes have started to decline. That is bad news for his DFS outlook. Russell only has three games this season where he has seen more than 28 minutes, and if he continues to see his minutes reduced, he is a landmine candidate for the Lakers.
The Sacramento Kings have actually been pretty good against point guards this season, allowing only 0.77 FanDuel points per minutes. Sacramento is also playing at a snail's pace, posting 92.4 possessions per 48 minutes. There are too many red flags here to feel good about Russell tonight.
Rajon Rondo, PG, Chicago Bulls
FanDuel Price: $5,500
Rajon Rondo has been the odd man out at times this season for the Chicago Bulls, with Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade handling the ball a lot of the time in late-game situations. Rondo's play hasn't been bad, but for fantasy purposes, he has lost almost all of his upside in the Bulls' offense.
So far this season -- despite Rondo ranking 16th in the league in touches per game at 81.1 -- his assist rate has fallen 9 percentage points from his career average, down to 32.8%, and his effective field goal percentage is only 37.3%, easily a career low.
Plus, there is the fact that so far Chicago has been better on both ends of the court when Rondo is on the bench. The Bulls' offensive rating goes up three points when Rondo is sitting, and their opponent's offensive rating falls from 112.7 to 98.5 when Rondo is out.
On top of all this is the fact that Miami is allowing only 0.78 FanDuel points per minute to point guards this season. Rondo is easily a player to avoid tonight.
Nikola Mirotic, PF, Chicago Bulls
FanDuel Price: $4,300
Another member of the Bulls on the avoid list tonight is Nikola Mirotic, who has seen his minutes cut over the last few games due to poor play and the Bulls' desire to get Bobby Portis more run. Portis has played well in limited minutes over the last three games, and if he continues to split the backup power forward duties with Taj Gibson, there won't be much left for Mirotic going forward.
The Bulls third-year forward has been in a bad shooting slump to start the season. He has posted a measly 44.1% effective field goal percentage and is shooting a career-low 26.7% from beyond the arc.
On top of that, all the Bulls' power forwards have tough matchups against the slower paced Miami Heat. Miami is the 11th-best team at defending power forwards so far this season, allowing only 0.82 FanDuel points per minute to the position. With Chicago on the second night of a back-to-back set and with Mirotic losing minutes in the Bulls' frontcourt rotation, it's not a night to take a shot on the power forward. Save the money and roster the upside of Portis instead.
