NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 12/15/16

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Dec 15th, 2016
Check out which NBA players should be excluded from your DFS lineups for Thursday's contests.

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 in your DFS NBA lineups, but what about 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. After all, it only takes one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.

Pau Gasol, C, San Antonio Spurs

FanDuel Price: $6,000

There is very little about Pau Gasol's price that makes him a landmine, but other factors, including his matchup and the assumed return of LaMarcus Aldridge make him a player to avoid.

The night after dropping 47.6 FanDuel points, Gasol and company have to face Tyson Chandler, who is still a formidable defensive center. Plus, Aldridge's potential return after a rest day puts a damper on Gasol's usage. According to NBA Wowy, Gasol's usage rate is 25.6% when Aldridge is off the court, but drops to 19.4% when the two players are both on the court.

Also, there's always a chance Gasol gets rested on the second night of a back-to-back, so keep an eye on San Antonio Spurs news. Even if he plays, Chandler is holding players he defends to just 44.4% shooting from the floor and 53.5% shooting from within six feet. Beware of chasing points with Gasol.

Kenneth Faried, PF, Denver Nuggets

FanDuel Price: $4,700

It's only fitting that two of the most unpredictable frontcourts in the NBA are facing one another on Thursday. While the Portland Trail Blazers frontcourt rotation is impossible to figure out, the Denver Nuggets might be starting to consolidate theirs.

Kenneth Faried saw that in the Nuggets' last game, where he only played eight minutes. With Wilson Chandler earning minutes at power forward and Nikola Jokic finally starting to see more court time, Faried and Jusuf Nurkic are the ones losing out.

Even though the Blazers' own one of the league's worst defensive ratings (112.3 points allowed per 100 possessions), it's doubtful Faried sees more than 15 or 20 minutes of burn, making him a huge landmine. Pay the extra money for Jokic on FanDuel.

Jerian Grant, PG, Chicago Bulls

FanDuel Price: $3,500

A lot of Chicago Bulls fans, including myself, were excited Jerian Grant was included in the Derrick Rose trade. But so far over limited action, Grant has yet to live up to the hype.

This is especially true in DFS. He got another start for the injured Rajon Rondo on Tuesday, but played only 19 minutes. Isaiah Canaan ended up with 27 minutes and we might see a similar split in the point guard rotation if Rondo is out again.

However, there is the possibility Rondo plays, even further limiting Grant's playing time. Against a team like the Milwaukee Bucks, who are allowing only 0.81 FanDuel points per minute to point guards, whomever starts for the Bulls at point guard tonight is a landmine.