3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 10/26/17
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.
Jayson Tatum, PF, Boston Celtics
FanDuel Price: $7,200
Yesterday's landmines article was all about which small forwards to fade on the big Wednesday slate. Now we're shifting to power forwards for today's slate! The main landmine power forward has to be Jayson Tatum. The Boston Celtics' rookie has been fantastic over the last two games, racking up 30.6 and 44.8 FanDuel points.
However, this has forced his price to skyrocket up to $7,200 against the Milwaukee Bucks. As we saw in these two team's first meeting last week, going against Giannis Antetokounmpo is not going to be easy. Tatum collected only 22.8 FanDuel points in that one, and while his FanDuel price was just $3,500 in that game, it's more than doubled since.
So far this season, the Bucks and Antetokuonmpo have held opposing power forwards to just 0.82 FanDuel points per minute. Considering Tatum's ownership might still be high on the short slate and coming off a huge performance of 40-plus FanDuel points, it's best to avoid him against the Greek Freak and the Bucks' defense.
Al Farouq Aminu, PF, Portland Trail Blazers
FanDuel Price: $5,200
With FanDuel's new scoring system that rewards three points for blocks and steals, guys like Al-Farouq Aminu are going to be more popular. However, Aminu's matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers' frontcourt is far from appealing.
So far this season, the Clippers have allowed opposing power forwards just 0.78 FanDuel points per minute. Combined with the new-found depth the Portland Trail Blazers have in their own frontcourt, Aminu has seen his minutes dip some over the last two games.
There is also the issue of having to defend and score against Blake Griffin. In their last four head-to-head regular season meetings, Aminu has shot just 11-for-40 from the floor (27.5%) while averaging just 19.6 FanDuel points on the old scoring system.
Zach Randolph, PF, Sacramento Kings
FanDuel Price: $4,500
Zach Randolph is also being plagued by a deep Sacramento Kings frontcourt, which has made his playing time and usage rate very inconsistent. Against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, he played just 15 minutes and shot 0-for-5 from the floor after two straight games of at least 20 minutes and 13 shot attempts.
With Willie Cauley-Stein, Kosta Koufos, and Skal Labissiere all demanding minutes, that doesn't leave a lot of room for Randolph, especially against the talented New Orleans Pelicans big men.
Even though Anthony Davis is questionable as of Wednesday night, the veteran does not matchup well with Davis or Dante Cunningham very well. With the Pelicans allowing just 0.94 FanDuel points per minute to power forwards, it's best to avoid Randolph.
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Jordan Sharp is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jordan Sharp also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username TEHSHARP. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
