NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 2/4/16

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Feb 4th, 2016
Finding players you want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid. Here are three players based on their price and matchups who could be landmines for your rosters tonight.

You can find a ton of great information and research on guys you might want to include in your DFS NBA lineups tonight, but what about some 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 each night. After all, it takes only one player to sink a lineup.

With a smaller slate of NBA games on tonight, searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.

C.J. McCollum, SG, Portland Trail Blazers

FanDuel Price: $7,600
DraftKings Price: $7,000

The young Blazers shooting guard is coming off one of his best games of the year, where he scored nearly 50 FanDuel points in a nice performance against the Bucks. However, now the Blazers welcome in the Raptors, a much better defensive team overall in terms of defending shooting guards. Milwaukee ranks 24th in the league in defense against shooting guards, while DeMar DeRozan and the Raptors come in as the 11th toughest team when it comes to defending the two.

C.J. McCollum's recent performance will surely have people rushing to play him tonight on Thursday’s short slate, but DeRozan’s size, quickness and defensive ability will give McCollum some trouble this evening. McCollum already tends to put up better fantasy games on the road compared to at home, where he is averaging four fewer fantasy points per game at the Moda Center. DeRozan is currently on pace to set a career high in his individual Defensive Rating this season at 106, and according to NBA Stats, players that DeRozan is defending this season have a field goal percentage of only 43.7 percent. Don’t expect another 50 fantasy point effort from McCollum tonight.

Robin Lopez, C, New York Knicks

FanDuel Price: $5,200
DraftKings Price: $5,100

Depending on the Knicks’ opponents or the particular in-game matchups they face on a night-to-night basis, Robin Lopez's minutes are pretty hard to predict. However, tonight against the Pistons and Andre Drummond, Lopez will have to be on the court a lot. He got a ton of run in the Knicks’ last game against the Celtics. However, the Celtics rank as one of the poorest teams defending centers in the NBA, whereas the Pistons tend to trend as one of the better for FanDuel scoring purposes.

Even with Drummond and the Pistons coming off the back-to-back, Lopez might be in danger of falling into foul trouble tonight defending Drummond. He had five fouls playing against Drummond in their first meeting back towards the beginning of the year, and while he put up a nice fantasy day in that game, Lopez had six blocks in that contest, a very unsustainable number for tonight. In their previous three matchups, Lopez is averaging only nine points and seven rebounds per game against Drummond. Even with a few blocks and/or steals thrown in tonight, that is not going to be enough to reach value with a price tag that has steadily been rising.

Al-Farouq Aminu, SF, Portland Trail Blazers

FanDuel Price: $5,200
DraftKings Price: $5,200

Tonight, in the hammer game on the slate this evening, the Raptors and Blazers hook up in what should be a pretty good game. However, while Al-Farouq Aminu has once again been putting forth some nice consistency over the last three games, he has also done it in three pretty easy matchups. For instance, Aminu put up over 50 FanDuel points combined in his two games against the Hornets and Bucks recently, but those two teams rank 22nd and 25th, respectfully, against small forwards, compared to the Raptors who rank as the 6th toughest team against small forwards in the NBA.

While not having DeMarre Carroll hurts those numbers a bit, it likely won’t matter for Aminu tonight, who is prone to being a landmine even in good matchups. In his last four games against two of the top small forward defenses in the league, (two against Utah and two against Cleveland) Aminu is averaging fewer than eight points, five rebounds and two assists per game. While the Raptors might not give him as much trouble as those two teams, if Aminu’s shots aren’t falling tonight, it is going to be very hard to him to pay off his salary at most sites.