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.
Andre Drummond, C, Detroit Pistons
FanDuel Price: $8,200
Andre Drummond is in the midst of one of his best seasons as a pro, and tonight he has a chance to help his team to make the playoffs with a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. However, Drummond will have to go up against one of the better young defensive centers in the NBA in Steven Adams. With his price back above the $8,000 threshold, Drummond is more than risky tonight.
This season, Adams has the Thunder ranked fourth-best against centers, giving up fewer than 0.9 FanDuel points per minute to the position. Even further, on the season, Adams’ opponents are shooting only 42.3 percent from the floor, which is a full five percentage points lower than those players' averages. Even further, inside six feet from the basket, Adams is holding players he defends to 54 percent, which is nearly seven percentage points lower than the average for those players.
Drummond has felt the brunt of this in his matchups with Adams. Earlier this season, the Thunder center limited Drummond to 15 points and 7 rebounds for a total of 26.4 FanDuel points. In their last three games against one another, Adams has held Drummond to fewer than 30 FanDuel points on average. Drummond has also picked up four fouls in 32 minutes in each of his last two games against Adams, so all things considered, it might be best to look elsewhere for centers.
Thaddeus Young, PF, Brooklyn Nets
FanDuel Price: $7,400
When you first take a look at Thaddeus Young's game log, outside of three straight games between March 22 and 26, Young has been outstanding. He has scored at least 42 FanDuel points in four of his last seven games, but those three games sandwiched in between those 40 burgers are quite concerning. Young scored 21 FanDuel points or fewer in those three games, and while the Magic are missing a few components for their game tonight against the Nets, Aaron Gordon is not missing, and he has the potential to play some great defense against Young.
Even though the Magic rank 21st against power forwards this season, those numbers are a bit skewed. Gordon was not playing much before Channing Frye got traded. If you look at just the last three weeks, the Magic rank 16th against power forwards.
Gordon is a tough matchup for Young. His size and freakish athleticism gives him an edge on defense, and it has shown this season when he is on the court. Players that Gordon defends are shooting only 43.3 percent from the floor, which is more than two percentage points lower than those players' average shooting percentages.
Plus, Young has struggled against the Magic this season, even with Gordon not playing a large role. In three games against Orlando this season, Young is averaging only 26 FanDuel points per game. Granted, those were earlier in the season when the Nets were a little healthier and had not released Joe Johnson, but Young likely won’t have the same success tonight as he has had in recent games.
Derrick Rose, PG, Chicago Bulls
FanDuel Price: $6,800
Last season when he was coming off of his second major knee surgery, Derrick Rose was almost a lock to be a landmine on the second night of a back-to-back. This season has been somewhat different. Take, for instance, his most recent game on no rest against the Knicks where he dropped 30 points and had just fewer than 40 FanDuel points. While it’s not a lock that he is a landmine strictly because of playing off the back-to-back, that and other factors do make Rose a very risky play tonight.
Of course, if you take away that most recent game against the Knicks, in Rose’s last nine games on no rest dating back to December, he is averaging fewer than 25 FanDuel points per game. Considering his price has now risen to $6,800, you need Rose to gather well above 30 FanDuel points tonight to reach value, and a matchup against the Pacers does not help that.
Indiana ranks as the 10th-best team against point guards on the year, giving up an average of only 0.86 FanDuel points per minute to the position. In the last three weeks, they have been even better, giving up only 0.82 FanDuel points to the position during that stretch. George Hill is far from the defender he once was, but he is still holding players he defends to 43.1 percent from the floor, and in his last game against Rose at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, he limited the Bulls’ point guard to 4-of-16 from the floor and only 25.7 FanDuel points.