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.
Carmelo Anthony, SF, New York Knicks
FanDuel Price: $8,700
This time of year is really tough on daily fantasy basketball players. Keeping up with the news is one of the hardest parts, but a piece of news that came down on Thursday is particularly important when it comes to Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks are well out of the playoff race in the East and have been for some time. Head coach, Kurt Rambis finally came out yesterday and said that he is going to start resting or limiting the minutes of some of his veterans in order to get a look at some of his younger players. Translated: Anthony is about to see his minutes reduced.
Anthony ranks 15th in the league in minutes per game this season at 35.5, and while he has been on a nice hot streak over his last five games, averaging over 38 FanDuel points in those last five games, if he sees his minutes drop below 30 tonight, he is a landmine waiting to happen.
There is also the possibility that he could be rested altogether, so keep an eye on the news wire heading into game time tonight to make sure. However, at $8,700, you would need well over 40 FanDuel points tonight for Anthony to reach value, and that may not happen if his minutes are cut significantly.
On the season, Anthony is averaging 1.07 FanDuel points per minute, but with tanking season in full effect, don’t expect the Knicks to wear Anthony out in a meaningless game. But against such a bad Nets defense, Anthony could put up useful numbers if his minutes aren't cut too drastically just yet. That really sums up the difficulty of late-season DFS.
DeMar DeRozan, SG, Toronto Raptors
FanDuel Price: $8,000
DeMar DeRozan, on the other hand, is not playing in a meaningless game. The Raptors are only 2.5 games back of the Cavaliers for the Eastern Conference's 1 seed, and with the Cavs showing very little interest in fighting them off for that 1 seed, tonight’s game against the banged up Grizzlies is important. However, with Kyle Lowry playing through injury, that limits DeRozan’s upside just a bit, and what’s more concerning for the Raptors’ guard is his matchup with the Grindfather, Tony Allen.
Even though Allen is a little banged up, he still has the ability to shut down players he is defending. On the year, he has the Grizzlies ranked fifth-best in the league against shooting guards, giving up an average of only 0.71 FanDuel points per minute to the position. While Allen has lost a step since his prime, players he defends are still only shooting 42.6 percent from the floor and 31.5 percent from the three-point line.
Even further, DeRozan has had trouble against Allen in their most recent matchups. In their first meeting this season, Allen held DeRozan to only 6 points on 2-of-11 from the floor. Even if you date back to the 2011-12 season, DeRozan is averaging just 20.1 FanDuel points in his last seven meetings against Allen.
Andrew Wiggins, SF, Minnesota Timberwolves
FanDuel Price: $6,600
Andrew Wiggins was forced from the Wolves’ most recent game on Wednesday after getting hit in the chin. He sat out practice on Thursday but is fully expected to play on Friday night against the Jazz. This is a big game for the Jazz as they try and secure a playoff spot, but for Wiggins, even if you ignore his injury tonight, he has a bad matchup against Utah.
The Jazz rank ninth in the league in Defensive Rating at 101.7, but at home, they jump to third-best in the league to a Defensive Rating of 97.5, behind only the Spurs and Celtics at their respective home courts. What could be even more dangerous for Wiggins tonight is his matchup against Gordon Hayward, who may be one of the league’s most underrated defenders.
The Jazz rank as the second-best team against small forwards this season, giving up only 0.69 FanDuel points per minute to the position. Even though Hayward’s defensive tracking numbers this season aren’t as good as in years past, his Real Defensive Plus Minus last season of 1.19 ranked him 11th among all small forwards. Now that he doesn’t have to carry a huge offensive load like earlier in the season with Utah’s injuries, he will be able to focus in on slowing down the Wolves' number-one wing player.
Wiggins struggled just a few nights ago against Hayward with only 19.8 FanDuel points. In fact, in their six career matchups, Wiggins is shooting less than 40 percent from the floor against Hayward and the Jazz, and he is averaging fewer than 25 FanDuel points per game.