NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 2/26/19

Dale Redman  —  @DTRedman Feb 26th, 2019
Serge Ibaka is playing a reduced role and faces a tough Celtics defense on Tuesday. Who else makes our 'do not play' list for tonight's NBA 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?

Serge Ibaka, PF, Toronto Raptors

FanDuel Price: $7,000

Serge Ibaka’s role in Toronto appears to be changing. After serving as the primary starting center for the Raptors over the first two-thirds of the season, Ibaka came off the bench on Sunday for the first time in 30 games. Marc Gasol got the start over Ibaka with the duo splitting up the minutes in the middle nearly in half. While that means Ibaka still saw significant playing time, it is a markedly reduced role for the big man and makes his $7,000 price tag hard to justify on Tuesday, especially with Gasol costing $1,300 less.

On Sunday, Ibaka finished with just 18.0 FanDuel points in his 23.8 minutes played as he posted 14 points and 5 rebounds. In the nine games he has played fewer than 24 minutes, Ibaka has broken the 30-FanDuel point barrier just once. Tuesday, with possible reduced minutes versus a tough Boston Celtics defense, the outlook is not much better.

Boston owns a top-five defensive rating in the NBA and gives up just 1.07 FanDuel points per minute to opposing centers, the fifth-lowest rate in the league and stingiest of the six teams on Tuesday’s three-game slate.

Steven Adams, C, Oklahoma City Thunder

FanDuel Price: $6,600

With last Friday’s double-overtime thriller against the Utah Jazz the exception -- where he dropped 47.5 FanDuel points -- Steven Adams has been a bust in DFS over the last few weeks.

The Oklahoma City Thunder center has failed to collect more than 28.2 FanDuel points in six of his last seven games as he has averaged just 9.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 23.3 FanDuel points in the six duds. Not only has his usage rate taken a hit -- from 16.9% to 12.6% -- since February 5, but Adams' rebound percentage is down too -- from 14.9% to 9.5% -- while playing the exact same number of minutes per game -- 34.0. The reduced production is not likely to surge back on Tuesday either as the Thunder face the Denver Nuggets.

Denver is the league’s best rebounding team, posting a 53.0% rebound percentage and limiting opponents to just 41.8 boards per game. Naturally, opposing centers -- against Nikola Jokic and Mason Plumlee -- have struggled in fantasy, racking up only 1.11 FanDuel points per minute, a bottom-10 rate in the association.

Emmanuel Mudiay, PG, New York Knicks

FanDuel Price: $5,500

In Emmanuel Mudiay’s two games played since returning from a shoulder injury, he has been on the court for an average of 22.5 minutes per game and just 19 minutes last time out. The contests were the first games Mudiay played since the New York Knicks acquired Dennis Smith and it appears Mudiay is headed for an exclusively secondary role in the New York backcourt.

While he was able to produce some scoring punch off the bench -- 34 points in the two games -- Mudiay did so at a ridiculous rate. He went 14-for-26 from the floor (53.8%) and 5-for-9 from three (55.0%). In his first 39 games played, Mudiay shot just 30.8% from deep and 45.3% overall, meaning he is unlikely to keep scoring at a high rate. Facing an underrated Orlando Magic defense on Tuesday won’t help either.

The Magic rank in the top-10 of the NBA as they limit opponents to 45.4% shooting and 106.8 points per game. Point guards struggle against them too, posting 0.90 FanDuel points per minute, a bottom-11 rate in the league this year.


Dale Redman is not a FanDuel employee. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.