NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 2/13/18

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Feb 13th, 2018
Coming off a solid performance, Buddy Hield finds himself in a tough situation against the Dallas Mavericks. Who else should you avoid in Tuesday's DFS 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 takes only one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference between winning and losing your contests. Which players should we avoid tonight?

Buddy Hield, SG, Sacramento Kings

FanDuel Price: $5,200

Buddy Hield is coming off a nice game, which included scoring 16 points in just 19 minutes on Sunday. With the Sacramento Kings' heavy guard depth, though, his playing time has been going down lately. He has still produced well in those games, but it might be tougher for him to reach value tonight against the Dallas Mavericks.

In Hield's last game against the Mavs earlier this month, he scored just 20.6 FanDuel points, which could be because of a strong Mavs defense against shooting guards. Dallas is holding shooting guards to 0.78 FanDuel points per minute, and with Wesley Matthews coming in rested, it could be a slow night for HIeld.

Ersan Ilyasova, PF, Atlanta Hawks

FanDuel Price: $4,600

Ersan Ilyasova is also coming off a nice game Sunday where he dropped 19 points against the Detroit Pistons, but his matchup Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks is far worse from a fantasy standpoint.

The Bucks are holding power forwards to 0.83 FanDuel points per minute, which is tops in the league according to our DvP Matchup Chart. If Giannis Antetokounmpo spends time guarding Ilyasova, he won't have an easy night ahead of him. Antetokounmpo is holding players he defends to just 41.0% shooting and 29.9% shooting outside of 15 feet.

Tristan Thompson, C, Cleveland Cavaliers

FanDuel Price: $4,500

Tristan Thompson is going to get a lot of playing time for the Cleveland Cavaliers until Kevin Love is back from injury, but tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder, he has a tougher pathway to value despite a lower price tag.

The Thunder are limiting centers to the seventh-fewest FanDuel points per minute. Thompson's individual matchup against Steven Adams is not great, either. Adams is holding players he defends to just 46.1% shooting this season, so while Thompson isn't a complete fade, he is someone to be worried about Tuesday despite his likelihood for significant minutes.



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.