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 in your DFS NBA lineups, but what about 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. After all, it only takes one player to sink a lineup. Searching for the landmines could mean the difference from winning or losing your contests.
Dwyane Wade, SG, Chicago Bulls
FanDuel Price: $6,900
It's hard to fade a guy like Dwyane Wade, especially in a pace-up game like the one tonight against the Atlanta Hawks. However, tonight is the first half of a back to back for the Chicago Bulls, and if Wade is truly going to play both ends of it, Chicago may be forced to limit his minutes some tonight.
There isn't much precedence for this so far with Wade in a Bulls uniform, but in the last three games where he has played both nights of a back to back, he has averaged 30.3 minutes per game in the first game. The Bulls are also on the road tonight and at home tomorrow. If Wade does play in both, it's a safer bet that he plays more minutes tomorrow for the Chicago crowd.
You also have to take into account Wade's tough matchup with either Thabo Sefolosha or Kent Bazemore. Both are strong defenders, helping the Hawks to hold opposing shooting guards to fewer than 0.8 FanDuel points per minute this season. If Wade gets only around 30 minutes tonight, he may find it hard to reach value.
Ersan Ilyasova, PF, Philadelphia 76ers
FanDuel Price: $5,800
After a torrid stretch where it seemed like he couldn't miss, Ersan Ilyasova has started to cool off, and his minutes have started to fall as well.
Over his last three games, the Philadelphia 76ers' stretch four has played fewer than 30 minutes in each game. Plus, after shooting 47.0% in the month of December, Ilyasova is shooting only 39.3% in 2017.
Plus he has a tougher-than-average matchup tonight against Al-Farouq Aminu. Even though the Portland Trail Blazers aren't a tough matchup overall, Aminu has been holding players he defends to just 38.1% shooting and 30.9% from three-point range. With his shot not falling and his minutes trending downward, it's best to layoff Ilyasova tonight against Aminu.
Darren Collison, PG, Sacramento Kings
FanDuel Price: $4,700
If Ty Lawson misses Friday night's game, then you can ignore this completely. The problem is that we might not know that until after rosters lock tonight.
Lawson was originally ruled probable before sitting out after testing his ankle in pregame warmups on Wednesday, but if he is that close, another two days might be all he needs to get back to splitting point guard minutes with Darren Collison tonight.
This could really hurt Collison's fantasy value. So, make sure you check Lawson's status right before rosters lock. If Lawson comes back tonight, Collison is no longer in play.