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.
Nikola Vucevic, C, Orlando Magic
FanDuel Price: $8,100
Nikola Vucevic has been as steady as they come since returning from injury, averaging just over 40.5 FanDuel points per game in his last eight contests. However, he's set to face the Oklahoma City Thunder and Steven Adams, and Vucevic has always had trouble against Adams.
In their seven career matchups against one another, Vucevic is averaging 15.0 points and 8.0 rebounds with a 47.9% shooting clip over 31.7 minutes per game. They played each other earlier this season, and Vucevic was in foul trouble and was limited to less than 20 minutes.
With the Thunder holding opposing centers to less than a fantasy point per minute this season, don't expect a huge performance from Vucevic tonight.
Klay Thompson, SG, Golden State Warriors
FanDuel Price: $7,000
The absence of Kevin Durant for the Golden State Warriors tonight does a lot to this marquee matchup with the San Antonio Spurs. It gives Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich some flexibility defensively, and that could hurt a guy like Klay Thompson.
There is a chance the Spurs cross-match their backcourt and put Danny Green on Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard on Klay Thompson. If that happens and Thompson is defended by Leonard, it would jeopardize his potential upside in this one.
Leonard is holding players he defends to just 44.6% shooting overall, and if he is glued to Thompson for most of tonight's game, it could be a very tough matchup for Klay to overcome.
Kosta Koufos, C, Sacramento Kings
FanDuel Price: $4,300
Kosta Koufos returned to the Sacramento Kings' starting lineup on Monday and had a very strong game with 28.5 FanDuel points in 30 minutes of action. However, that was against the Memphis Grizzlies, who were without Marc Gasol.
Tonight is going to be much different against the visiting Utah Jazz and Rudy Gobert. Utah's center has been outstanding defensively this season, holding players he defends to just 42.9% shooting and 48.5% shooting within 6 feet of the basket.
So far this season, Gobert's defense has led the Jazz to being one of the best teams against opposing centers in DFS, limiting them to 0.90 FanDuel points per minute. Even if Koufos is still the Kings' starting center tonight, it might be wise to jump off him against one of the league's best defenders.