NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 12/22/17

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Dec 22nd, 2017
A head-to-head matchup with Giannis Antetokounmpo makes Michael Kidd-Gilchrist a risky play in DFS on Friday night.

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 takes only one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference between winning and losing your contests.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, SF, Charlotte Hornets

FanDuel Price: $5,000

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist took a couple of hard falls two nights ago that forced him to exit and later return to the game. Hopefully he has recovered, because he has one of the toughest assignments of the night on Friday, trying to stop Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Not only will Kidd-Gilchrist likely have to spend a lot of his energy checking Antetkounmpo, MKG could also see Antetokounmpo guarding him on the other end. So far this season Antetokounmpo is limiting players he defends to 41.9% shooting overall, and 34.3% shooting outside of 15 feet.

This has led the Milwaukee Bucks to hold opposing small forwards to just 0.76 FanDuel points per minute. Our projections only have Kidd-Gilchrist pegged for 23.5 FanDuel points, which is not enough upside to warrant the risk Friday.

Jordan Bell, PF, Golden State Warriors

FanDuel Price: $4,500

With the news that Draymond Green will be able to play on Friday, Jordan Bell likely takes a big hit in playing time. Bell has averaged 24.5 minutes per over the last four games that Green has missed, but before that Bell had exceeded 20 minutes just once.

If Green comes back and plays 30-plus minutes in a game that isn't a blowout, Bell's potential to reach value is much lower. For that reason, our models project Bell for just 15.4 FanDuel points tonight.

Mario Hezonja, SF, Orlando Magic

FanDuel Price: $4,400

Mario Hezonja has put up some impressive numbers in recent games, but he has also put up a pair of duds, and Friday might bring more of the bad against the New Orleans Pelicans.

If Hezonja plays mostly power forward tonight, a position he has played for the majority of his minutes this season, he will likely be going head-to-head with Anthony Davis.

Davis is holding players he defends to just 40.7% shooting overall, and 32.5% shooting from beyond the arc this season. If you add in the potential for foul trouble if Hezonja has to guard Davis too, the Magic swingman is a good fade tonight.


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.