NBA

3 Daily Fantasy Basketball Players to Avoid on 11/18/16

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Nov 18th, 2016
Paul Millsap has been struggling some this season, and that may continue on Friday against the Charlotte Hornets.

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.

Paul Millsap, PF, Atlanta Hawks

FanDuel Price: $7,400

Paul Millsap was once the DFS cash game darling. You could plug him in at any time and feel great about his floor. However, a few things are working against him tonight. His matchup against Marvin Williams and the Charlotte Hornets is not the easiest, as the Hornets have become one of the better defensive teams in the league. He also dropped nearly 40 FanDuel points in Atlanta's game on Wednesday, but that was without Dwight Howard.

Howard looks like he'll be back tonight after a one-game absence, and so far when Howard is off the court this season, Millsap owns a 28.9% usage rate and is averaging 1.13 FanDuel points per minute according to RotoGrinders' CourtIQ. When Howard is on the court, Millsap's usage drops to 25.2%, and he is averaging 0.90 FanDuel points per minute.

It may take a while for these two new teammates to gel, but tonight against the Hornets, it might be even tougher for Millsap to once again reach that 40-point threshold. Charlotte is allowing only 0.77 FanDuel points per minute to opposing power forwards, and Williams is helping that a lot. He is holding players he defends to only 41.1% shooting from the floor and 33.3% shooting from outside 15 feet.

That's a bigger problem when Millsap is attempting only 25 percent of his shots from inside three feet from the basket so far this year. That's easily a career low, and considering for his career he takes about 41.4 percent of his shots within three feet, Millsap needs to start getting to the rim more before he is once again that high-floor DFS option in any matchup.

Rudy Gay, SF, Sacramento Kings

FanDuel Price: $7,300

Rudy Gay is in a pricing tier on FanDuel all by himself tonight. He is the only small forward priced in the $7,000 range, and he is more than $1,000 either above or below the next closest small forwards in price. This makes him an intriguing and yet tricky target tonight. His last two games could not have been more different. He went for a season-high 50.3 FanDuel points and then followed it up with a 19.1-point effort, his worst of the year.

However, those looking to be contrarian or for a bounce-back might be disappointed tonight, as Gay squares off against the league's best defensive team, the Los Angeles Clippers. Not only are the Clippers allowing only 96.7 points per 100 possessions, Luc Mbah a Moute might be the most underrated defender in the NBA right now.

He is holding players he defends to only 33.9% shooting from the floor and only 20.0% shooting from deep. This has helped the Clippers allow a league-low 0.68 FanDuel points per minute to opposing small forwards. Coming off a dud against San Antonio, Gay might be a landmine for a second game in a row.

D'Angelo Russell, PG, Los Angeles Lakers

FanDuel Price: $6,200

D'Angelo Russell is coming off his best fantasy game of the season against the Brooklyn Nets, but tonight he faces a much tougher opponent in the San Antonio Spurs. While Tony Parker is not a great defender, the Spurs will probably cross match and put Danny Green on Russell tonight, spelling bad news for point chasers across the country.

The Spurs are allowing only 0.80 FanDuel points per minute to opposing point guards this season, and overall, the Spurs' defense is going to want to key in on Russell. Stopping Julius Randle is going to be another problem for the Spurs, but if they can take Russell out of the game, the young point guard might play fewer than 30 minutes, too.

There is also the problem with pace. The Lakers are running at a pace of 100.4 possessions per 48 minutes this season, which is fourth-fastest in the NBA. The Spurs are on the opposite of the spectrum at a pace of 93.4, the fourth-slowest in the league. If this turns into a half-court game, Russell is probably not worth rostering -- even at home.