3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 11/22/16
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.
Robin Lopez, C, Chicago Bulls
FanDuel Price: $4,900
Firstly, Robin Lopez has been playing really well lately. He has posted double-doubles in four of the Bulls' last five games, but tonight he gets to square off against a stacked Denver Nuggets frontcourt, which could end up slowing down Lopez enough to make him a landmine.
While none of the Nuggets' big men are exceptional individual defenders, as a collective unit, the Nuggets are holding centers to only 0.86 FanDuel points per minute, which ranks them fourth-best in the NBA right now.
Denver also owns the league's third-best defensive rebounding rate, grabbing 79.7% of the defensive rebounds up for grabs. Both of these teams are great on the offensive glass, but Lopez's upside comes from hitting open jumpers and grabbing a bunch of rebounds. If one of the links in the chain is broken, he may fall short of value on the road against a better rebounding team.
Kyle O'Quinn, C, New York Knicks
FanDuel Price: $3,500
Another cheap play at center who appears to be a strong value but isn't is Kyle O'Quinn. Joakim Noah is doubtful after missing Sunday's game and foul trouble for O'Quinn led him to landmine status against Dwight Howard. Now he is going to have to battle with Mason Plumlee, an entirely different but still challenging matchup on both ends.
Plumlee is holding players he defends to an insane 47.3% shooting from within six feet and 48.7% shooting from within 10 feet this season. We don't usually think of Plumlee as a strong rim protector, but the stats say he is exactly that so far. Plumlee isn't going to get the offensive touches that Howard got on Sunday, but O'Quinn could still get into foul trouble. He is averaging 5.7 fouls per 36 minutes this year, and it's really not worth the risk.
Guillermo Hernangomez ended up playing 29 minutes on Sunday, and there is a chance the Knicks go small and play Kristaps Porzingis at center some. Plus, there was a report this morning claiming Hernangomez could see some extended run tonight. That doesn't leave too many minutes for O'Quinn even if he starts and stays out of foul trouble.
Ed Davis, PF, Portland Trail Blazers
FanDuel Price: $3,800
Ed Davis has a lot of talent, but trying to predict the Portland Trail Blazers frontcourt rotations has been impossible this season. Even with the injury to Al-Farouq Aminu, the Blazers have employed a deep frontcourt rotation, so if Davis draws another start, it's like rolling dice trying to predict who will get the most minutes.
Meyers Leonard has been playing well at both power forward and center while Noah Vonleh plays most of his minutes at power forward. What's even more mind boggling is Davis has played only 26% of his minutes at power forward this season.
On top of the platoon frontcourt in Portland, Davis' matchup tonight against Kristaps Porzingis is not the easiest. Not only does Davis have to guard Porzingis if he draws another start, Porzingis has been really good on the defensive end so far this year. He is holding players he defends to only 43.8% shooting from the floor and 45.7% shooting from within six feet.
