Last week we introduced a new set of picks to the NBA expert’s list with our very own DailyOverlay – Value Index, which performed very well the first week. The Value Index was able to follow up on a good first week with an even better second week including finishing with the top DailyOverlay score on both Wednesday and Friday this week. With two weeks of picks and grades compiled, the Value Index has vaulted into first place in the overall standings. We’ll see if they can remain on top as the season progresses.
In this article, I will give a brief recap of each day we gathered and graded the experts, including how the Industry Consensus picks performed, highlighting which experts were at the top for the day and which players were only called out by one or two experts, but produced an “A+” grade. I will also review the overall standings and highlight the top experts so far this season. You can view the full NBA Overall Standings here.
As a reminder, we are currently gathering selections and publishing the NBA Industry Consensus articles each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday during the NBA season, so be sure to check back about an hour or so before the first game tips off to get a look at the industry expert’s consensus picks for the day.
On to the grades!
Week in Review
Monday (January 23)
Monday consisted of a large nine-game slate of NBA action. The experts didn’t perform too well with no expert finishing with a DailyOverlay score over 5.0.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks finished in the top half coming in 7th place finish out of 18 experts graded with a DailyOverlay score of 3.35.
A+ – James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins, LeBron James, Dion Waiters, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, Matthew Dellavedova
F – Nicolas Batum, George Hill, Joe Ingles, Marreese Speights, Draymond Green, Jeff Teague, Kristaps Porzingis, Enes Kanter, Tobias Harris, Sam Dekker
Top Experts of the Day
#1) Scout Fantasy (Score: 4.10) tops the list with 10 players receiving a grade of “B” or better out of 20 selections including picks of Ty Lawson, James Harden, Terrence Jones and DeMarcus Cousins.
#2) FantasyAlarm (Score: 3.74) grabbed second place on the night with 11 selections receiving a grade of “B” or better out of 23 picks. They were led by their selections of Russell Westbrook, Dion Waiters and LeBron James.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Jabari Parker (DailyRoto)
A+ – Terrence Jones (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Greg Monroe (FantasyPros)
Tuesday (January 24)
Tuesday featured a solid six games of NBA action. The experts performed much better with 12 out of 19 experts finishing with a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or better.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks finished in the bottom half 12th place out of 19 experts graded but had a strong DailyOverlay score of 5.20.
A+ – Markieff Morris, Tyson Chandler, Norman Powell, Dwyane Wade, Bradley Beal, Terrence Ross, Isaiah Thomas, John Wall, Andrew Wiggins, Alec Burks, Patty Mills, Nikola Jokic, Dario Saric, Jameer Nelson, Gorgui Dieng
F – Otto Porter, Joe Ingles
Top Experts of the Day
#1) RotoGrinders 6-pack (Score: 7.50) tops the list with four out of six selections receiving an “A+” grade including picks of Tyson Chandler, Bradley Beal, Robert Covington and Isaiah Thomas.
#2) DraftKings Playbook (Score: 6.38) takes second place with four picks receiving an “A+” grade out of their eight selections. Key selections included Isaiah Thomas, Dwyane Wade, Alec Burks and Markieff Morris.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Danny Green (Sportsline)
A+ – PJ Tucker (FanSided)
A+ – Darrell Arthur (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Sergio Rodriguez (FantasyPros)
A+ – Alex Len (FantasyPros)
Wednesday (January 25)
Wednesday night featured a big slate with 10 games of NBA action. The experts had a sensational night with 19 out of 20 experts recording a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or better.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus had an excellent night finishing in 7th place out of 20 experts graded coming in with a high 6.74 DailyOverlay score.
A+ – Too many to name them all with 22 players on the Consensus list receiving an “A+” grade
F – Hassan Whiteside, Anthony Davis, James Johnson, Zaza Pachulia
Top Experts of the Day
#1 tied) DailyOverlay – Value Index (Score: 8.60) tied for the top spot on a strong night with four out of five selections bringing home “A+” grades. Key selections included Goran Dragic, Wayne Ellington, Brook Lopez and Enes Kanter.
#1 tied) DFSOnDemand (Score: 8.60) tied for first on the night, also with four out of five selections receiving an “A+” grade. They were led by picks of Russell Westbrook, Norman Powell, DeMarcus Cousins and Marc Gasol.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Thabo Sefolosha (DailyRoto)
A+ – Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (RotoGrinders NBA Grind Down)
A+ – Guillermo Hernandez (FantasyAlarm)
A+ – Dirk Nowitzki (FantasyTeamAdvice)
A+ – Seth Curry (FanSided)
A+ – Iman Shumpert (FanSided)
A+ – Kent Bazemore (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Gerald Henderson (FantasyPros)
Friday (January 27)
Friday night consisted of another big 10-game slate of NBA action. The experts couldn’t match Wednesday’s success as only two experts finished the night with a DailyOverlay score over 5.0.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks had their worst ranking of the week coming in 14th out of 19 experts graded with a DailyOverlay score of 3.47.
A+ – LeBron James, Marc Gasol, DeMarcus Cousins, James Harden, Goran Dragic, CJ Miles, Damian Lillard, Joel Embiid, Jae Crowder
F –Greg Monroe, Paul Millsap, Dennis Schroder, Jeff Green, Garrett Temple, Jimmy Butler, Serge Ibaka, Ersan Ilyasova
Top Experts of the Day
#1) DailyOverlay – Value Index (Score: 6.80) takes home their second top finish in a row with three “A+” grades out of five selections. Top picks included Goran Dragic, DeMarcus Cousins and Joel Embiid.
#2) FantasyLabs (Score: 5.35) comes in second place with 18 of their 23 selections receiving a grade of “B” or better. Key picks included Goran Dragic, Wayne Ellington, LeBron James, CJ Miles, Jae Crowder and Marc Gasol.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Brandon Jennings (FantasyPros)
A+ – Gerald Henderson (FantasyPros)
A+ – Sean Kilpatrick (FantasyPros)
A+ – Patrick Patterson (FantasyPros)
Overall Leaderboard
We are now through Week 14 of the NBA season. You can view the full NBA Overall Standings here.
#1) DailyOverlay – Value Index (Score: 5.59) put together another strong week including finishing first on both Wednesday and Friday this week to put them at the top of the overall leaderboard.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 5.21) drops one spot in the standings with the emergence of the DailyOverlay – Value Index despite finishing in the Top 8 three times this week.
#3) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 4.96) had two Top 3 finishes this week to remain firmly in the Top 5 for the season.
#4) DraftKings Playbook (Score: 4.86) remains in fourth place overall by leaping ahead of the RotoGrinders NBA Grind Down thanks to a second place finish on Tuesday.
#5) RotoGrinders NBA Grind Down (Score: 4.85) drop down into fifth place for the season with a down week that included only one day finishing in the Top 10 this week.
The Daily Overlay Industry Consensus picks (Score: 4.56) drops one spot on the leaderboard this week down to 14th place out of 22 experts ranked in the overall standings through 14 weeks of action.
Let’s see which experts can make the grade this week!
Ownership Percentage Tracking
A part of daily fantasy sports strategy is understanding ownership percentages and being able to predict ownership percentages prior to entering contests especially for GPP tournaments where you might want to be contrarian by selecting lower owned players or fading highly owned players depending on the payout structure and size of the contest.
We utilize the Industry Consensus list to help predict ownership percentages by tracking the actual ownership percentages for each player that shows up on the Consensus list and averaging the ownership percentage for the number of times a player was selected by our list of experts.
Below is the current table showing the data through the first week of the season. Results are using a DraftKings Double-Up for Cash and large field tournaments for GPP. The Count column shows the number of times a player was selected by the experts for a given day. The Cash % column shows the average ownership percentage of those players in a Cash game. The GPP % column shows the average ownership percentage of those players in a GPP tournament. The Total column shows the number of occurrences that a player was selected that many times.
| Count | Cash% | GPP% | Total |
| 15 | 61.65% | 41.95% | 2 |
| 14 | 40.82% | 31.58% | 5 |
| 13 | 51.49% | 36.73% | 23 |
| 12 | 46.00% | 33.96% | 22 |
| 11 | 40.48% | 28.90% | 42 |
| 10 | 32.82% | 24.29% | 70 |
| 9 | 24.04% | 20.50% | 99 |
| 8 | 22.15% | 19.45% | 129 |
| 7 | 19.59% | 16.72% | 169 |
| 6 | 16.11% | 14.47% | 257 |
| 5 | 13.18% | 12.32% | 327 |
| 4 | 10.46% | 10.15% | 385 |
| 3 | 7.43% | 8.12% | 569 |
| 2 | 4.57% | 5.41% | 778 |
| 1 | 2.88% | 3.47% | 1391 |
We continue to track this over the course of the season as we provide projected ownership percentages for players on each slate in our NBA Consensus and Weighted Consensus articles.
