3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 11/30/16
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 tonight in your DFS NBA lineups, 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. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.
Avery Bradley, SG, Boston Celtics
FanDuel Price: $6,600
Avery Bradley has been a huge boon for fantasy owners so far this season, knocking down threes and posting a career-high 17.9 points per game. However, his stats have been inflated some due to the absences of Jae Crowder and Al Horford, and both of those guys are back and playing a full complement of minutes.
With those two back, Bradley falls to third or fourth, at best, in the offensive pecking order. On top of that, he has a tough matchup against basically his twin of three years younger, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The matchup between these two should be great because they are so similar. Both are great defenders, and both can shoot the rock. However, Caldwell-Pope has actually gotten the better of Bradley on multiple occasions. Plus, Caldwell-Pope is holding players he defends to just 42.1% shooting from the floor and 29.9% shooting from deep. This has led to the Pistons only allowing 0.75 FanDuel points per minute to shooting guards. With a healthy Boston Celtics roster tonight, Bradley doesn't have the upside to justify his price tag.
Harrison Barnes, SF, Dallas Mavericks
FanDuel Price: $6,100
Harrison Barnes has been proving his doubters wrong all season with his explosive and diverse offense, but he faces one of his toughest matchups of the season tonight. The Dallas Mavericks are playing the San Antonio Spurs, and Barnes will have to deal with Kawhi Leonard on both ends of the court.
Barnes isn't a bad defender, but he is going to have to put forth max effort on both ends of the court tonight if Dallas wants to have a chance at winning this game. However, not only is he going to have to slow down Leonard for that to happen, he is going to have to beat him on offense, as well.
While Leonard hasn't shown his insane defensive upside just yet this season, he and the Spurs are still limiting small forwards to only 0.72 FanDuel points per minute. Barnes might have a tough time reaching that 35 or 40 FanDuel-point threshold against Leonard, especially when the Vegas sportsbooks have the over/under for this game at just 189 points.
Jusuf Nurkic, C, Denver Nuggets
FanDuel Price: $4,600
Jusuf Nurkic has won some DFS players a lot of money this season when he is on, but he might have lost others just as much cash. The Denver Nuggets' crowded frontcourt has really hurt his upside, and he is starting to lose minutes to Nikola Jokic.
Nurkic is averaging a meager 17.6 minutes per game over his last three contests, while Jokic is at 27.6 minutes per night in those same three games. With Kenneth Faried getting about 25 minutes per game, there just aren't enough minutes to go around right now to make Nurkic a viable fantasy option, especially against Hassan Whiteside.
The Miami Heat have allowed the second-most FanDuel points to opposing centers this season, but Whiteside has put out huge individual defensive numbers. He is holding players he defends to just 43.5% shooting overall and a stout 47.6% shooting inside six feet. With Nurkic's minutes trending in the wrong direction, it's not the night to take a chance on him in tournaments.
