NBA

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

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Feb 2nd, 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 that 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.

Julius Randle, PF, Los Angeles Lakers

FanDuel Price: $6,100
DraftKings Price: $6,400

Julius Randle has been bringing it the last couple of weeks after Byron Scott finally let him back into the starting lineup, and with Larry Nance Jr. shut down until after the All-Star break, many NBA DFS players will be flocking to Randle for value on the short slate tonight.

However, the Lakers are playing host to the Wolves and their frontcourt of Gorgui Dieng and Karl-Anthony Towns. According to NBAWowy, the Wolves average nearly 10 steals per 100 possessions with those two on the floor at the same time, and while both have Defensive Ratings of 103 this season, that number ranks Dieng inside the top 10 in that category among starting power forwards. The Wolves are also ninth best in the league in defending the power forward spot for DFS purposes.

Randle’s value does go up when Nance Jr. isn’t eating into his minutes, but teams have had trouble against the Wolves' big lineup recently. Dieng has a Real Defensive Plus-Minus of 2.49, which ranks him 25th among centers but also 13th among power forwards. With Dieng probably lining up against Randle tonight, the Lakers’ power forward has big landmine potential with his price steadily rising. The Wolves have been pretty bad on defense recently, but for daily fantasy purposes, they are giving up only 198 fantasy points per game to their opponents.

Patrick Beverley, PG, Houston Rockets

FanDuel Price: $4,800
DraftKings Price: $4,500

Patrick Beverley's price is still somewhat depressed because of his recent stint on the sidelines due to injury, but that hasn’t stopped him from putting up big numbers for his sub-$5,000 price tag. Beverley has dropped nearly at least 24 FanDuel points in four of his last five games, but looking deeper into his potential for tonight’s game makes him a guy with landmine potential.

Some players will simply look at his box score and play Beverley tonight, but those four games were against the Wizards, Thunder, Pelicans and Mavericks. Outside of the Pelicans, the other three teams are ranked top 10 in Pace this season. The Heat play at a Pace of 92.3 possessions per 48 minutes, which is slower than every team outside of Utah, and they are the second toughest team against point guards this season outside of the Celtics. With Goran Dragic back in the lineup, their point guard defense should only improve. With Dragic on the floor, the Heat’s Defensive Rating drops from 104.2 to 102.2.

Beverley already has a Usage Rating of only 15.7 percent this season, and with the Rockets' new starting lineup with Corey Brewer and Trevor Ariza playing the forward spots, that number drops to 14.5 percent according to NBAWowy. Don’t let Beverley’s recent performances in the box scores lull you into believing he is a safe play tonight. He could be a victim of just not enough shots to go around tonight against the slow-paced Heat.

Tyson Chandler, C, Phoenix Suns

FanDuel Price: $4,800
DraftKings Price: $4,900

The Suns recently fired head coach Jeff Hornacek, and now they have Earl Watson taking over the reigns for the rest of the season. This is troubling because no one really knows how the rotations are going to pan out and who is going to see their minutes either drastically increase or decrease.

Tyson Chandler could be one of the guys in line for a minutes reduction. The Suns are going nowhere this season, and it might be best for them to play their young guys and see what they have in them. Plus, Chandler has been seeing the floor a lot because of multiple frontcourt injuries to the Suns, but as of now, the Suns’ big men are all healthy, and despite playing 33 minutes against his former team, the Mavericks, two nights ago, Chandler may not reach the value tonight.

Chandler signed a huge deal in the offseason, and the veteran already has a lot of miles on him, so it might be wise for the Suns to limit his minutes for the rest of the season in favor of trying out Alex Len more at center and preserving the 33-year-old big man who has another three years and $39 million left on his contract.

Before Chandler’s revenge game against the Mavericks, he was averaging fewer than 16 FanDuel points in his last three games, and last game was only the second time he had scored in double figures in the entire month of January. Don’t expect another double-double performance tonight against the stingy Raptors defense, which -- outside of their dud last night -- has given up only 88 points per game in their prior four road games.