NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 2/5/16

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

Kyrie Irving, PG, Cleveland Cavaliers

FanDuel Price: $7,000

Kyrie Irving has been playing very well since Tyronn Lue took over the coaching duties, and in four straight games, Irving has put up at least 34 FanDuel points. However, tonight the Celtics are headed into Cleveland, and with them, comes the number-one ranked point guard defense in the NBA.

There are several reasons as to why the Celtics are so good at defending point guards, but one of them might come tonight in their starting shooting guard. Avery Bradley might end up cross-matching onto Irving, which would leave Isaiah Thomas to chase around J.R. Smith or Iman Shumpert. With Bradley potentially guarding Irving all night, Irving’s recent string of good games might come to an end, making him big landmine potential with his price now rising after the recent consistency.

This season, Bradley’s opponents are shooting less than 40 percent from the floor when they shoot outside of five feet from the basket, and when it comes to defending shots at three-point range, Bradley’s opponents are shooting only 35 percent. Even though Boston’s pace of 98.4 possessions per 48 minutes should help most of the Cavs’ value tonight, Boston’s Defensive Rating is also very good this season at 101.3. While Irving has been performing against solid defensive teams recently, he has also been on the road for most of those games, where he averages about four more fantasy points per game than he does at home.

Chandler Parsons, SF, Dallas Mavericks

FanDuel Price: $6,700

Chandler Parsons has become one of the more consistent small forward options recently, but tonight, he faces the toughest small forward defender in the NBA in Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs. In their first meeting this season, the Spurs dominated the Mavs, and Parsons was held to only five points, four rebounds and three turnovers in 28 minutes.

Leonard is holding the player he is defending to 40 percent or worse from shots outside of five feet, so you can do a lot better than Parsons on this healthy slate. Players who are being defended by Leonard this season have almost gotten the Richard Sherman effect. Players being guarded by Leonard are averaging five fewer shots per game from their average attempts, according to NBA Stats.

Nerlens Noel, PF, Philadelphia 76ers

FanDuel Price: $6,800

Usually, the Washington Wizards are a team to target. However, this season -- for FanDuel scoring purposes -- the Wizards have been pretty good defending power forwards. Washington ranks as the ninth best team at defending the four position, so Nerlens Noel, at this price, may not be the best power forward play.

Potentially even bigger than the tough matchup tonight is the presence of Jahlil Okafor, who has played in two consecutive games. Noel put up 36 or more FanDuel points in the two games Okafor was out, but he has dropped off some in his last two games with Okafor back.

According to NBA Wowy, Noel has a Usage Rate of only 17 percent when Okafor is on the court with him and 20.9 percent when he is off. Noel’s shooting percentage also drops from 56.3 percent when Okafor is out to only 48.6 percent when Okafor is on the court. With the tough matchup thrown in, don’t get lulled into thinking that Noel is a safe cash game play tonight on the road for his price on FanDuel.