NBA – Expert Recap and Grades – Week of December 20th
NBA DFS Picks & Grades
Hope that you all enjoyed your Christmas festivities over the weekend. The NBA continues to slog through this COVID protocol mess as rosters change on a daily basis. A four-day week is recapped below. Enjoy!
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 expert, but produced an “A+” grade. I also list the top DraftKings Points per $1000 experts for each day. Finally, 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 on all weekdays that feature at least four games 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
| Expert | Mon | Rk | Tues | Rk | Wed | Rk | Thur | Rk | Avg |
| Sportsline | 4.25 | 25 | 8.25 | 2 | 6.60 | 2 | 7.67 | 1 | 6.69 |
| Awesemo – Cheat Sheet | 7.00 | 2 | 7.75 | 6 | 5.08 | 12 | 6.20 | 5 | 6.51 |
| RunPureSports | 5.82 | 8 | 9.06 | 1 | 5.36 | 9 | 4.94 | 19 | 6.30 |
| Awesemo – Building Blocks | 8.33 | 1 | 7.67 | 12 | 2.50 | 30 | 6.50 | 4 | 6.25 |
| FantasyLabs | 5.20 | 14 | 6.78 | 17 | 6.10 | 4 | 6.90 | 2 | 6.25 |
| DFSArmy – Domination Station | 5.88 | 7 | 8.00 | 3 | 4.75 | 17 | 6.13 | 6 | 6.19 |
| DK Playbook – Targets | 4.33 | 24 | 7.44 | 13 | 6.10 | 4 | 6.60 | 3 | 6.12 |
| DFSArmy – Cheat Sheet | 4.56 | 23 | 8.00 | 3 | 5.56 | 7 | 6.00 | 8 | 6.03 |
| DailyRoto – Optimizer | 5.25 | 11 | 7.71 | 7 | 5.29 | 10 | 5.86 | 9 | 6.03 |
| Industry Consensus – Cash | 4.70 | 21 | 7.70 | 11 | 5.56 | 7 | 6.07 | 7 | 6.01 |
| DailyFantasyInsider | 5.00 | 16 | 4.33 | 29 | 10.00 | 1 | 4.00 | 23 | 5.83 |
| Industry Consensus – GPP | 6.27 | 4 | 6.92 | 15 | 4.00 | 21 | 5.75 | 11 | 5.74 |
| Rotoballer | 6.38 | 3 | 5.50 | 26 | 6.50 | 3 | 4.43 | 22 | 5.70 |
| RotoGrinders Consensus | 5.20 | 14 | 7.79 | 5 | 4.42 | 18 | 5.30 | 15 | 5.68 |
| Rotogrinders NBA Grind Down | 5.63 | 9 | 6.00 | 23 | 5.00 | 13 | 5.85 | 10 | 5.62 |
| DailyFantasyNerd | 5.25 | 11 | 7.33 | 14 | 5.00 | 13 | 4.88 | 20 | 5.62 |
| RotoGrinders Lineup Builder | 5.25 | 11 | 7.71 | 7 | 3.57 | 28 | 5.00 | 18 | 5.38 |
| DFSKarma – Game Theory | 6.18 | 5 | 5.60 | 24 | 3.78 | 25 | 5.47 | 12 | 5.26 |
| DFSArmy – Full Court Press | – | – | 6.10 | 22 | 4.90 | 16 | 4.64 | 21 | 5.21 |
| EliteFantasy | 4.71 | 20 | 6.85 | 16 | 3.96 | 23 | 5.31 | 14 | 5.21 |
| Rotowire – Optimizer | 3.38 | 29 | 7.71 | 7 | 4.25 | 20 | 5.25 | 16 | 5.15 |
| NumberFire – Daily Helper | 4.89 | 19 | 5.56 | 25 | 3.89 | 24 | 5.22 | 17 | 4.89 |
| FantasyAlarm – Lineup Generator | 4.63 | 22 | 7.71 | 7 | 3.63 | 27 | 3.40 | 26 | 4.84 |
| NBC Sports Edge | 4.13 | 26 | 6.29 | 20 | 4.00 | 21 | – | – | 4.81 |
| FantasyPros | 3.88 | 27 | 6.75 | 18 | 5.24 | 11 | 3.33 | 27 | 4.80 |
| FantasyAlarm – Playbook | 5.46 | 10 | 5.43 | 27 | 2.87 | 29 | 5.42 | 13 | 4.80 |
| Rotowire | 4.91 | 18 | 4.36 | 28 | 5.86 | 6 | 3.60 | 25 | 4.68 |
| DailyFantasySportsRankings | 5.00 | 16 | 6.63 | 19 | 3.75 | 26 | 3.00 | 28 | 4.60 |
| NBC Sports Edge – Pivots | 3.00 | 30 | 6.29 | 20 | 4.29 | 19 | – | – | 4.53 |
| DK Playbook – Values | 3.75 | 28 | – | – | 5.00 | 13 | – | – | 4.38 |
| Rotogrinders Core Plays | 6.00 | 6 | 1.00 | 30 | 0.00 | 31 | 4.00 | 23 | 2.75 |
Sleepers of the Week
Each week we’ll highlight players that scored an “A+” grade but were selected by only one expert.
Monday
- Jakob Poeltl (RG Grind Down)
- Danny Green (RunPureSports)
Tuesday
- Dwight Powell (DailyRoto Optimizer)
- Sterling Brown (DFS Alarm Lineup Generator)
- Chris Duarte (FantasyPros)
- Taj Gibson (FantasyPros)
- Isaiah Stewart (NumberFire Daily Helper)
Wednesday
- Hassani Gravett (FantasyPros)
- Serge Ibaka (FantasyPros)
- Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (FantasyPros)
- Darius Bazley (FantasyPros)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Rotowire)
Thursday
- Naz Reid (DFS Army Cheat Sheet)
- Seddiq Bey (EliteFantasy)
- Malik Beasley (FantasyLabs)
- Trey Lyles (FantasyLabs)
- Jeremy Lamb (FantasyPros)
- Cameron Johnson (Rotoballer)
- Nemanja Bjelica (Rotowire Optimizer)
- Onyeka Okongwu (RunPureSports)
Value Tracker
- FantasyPros – 91
- DFS Alarm Playbook – 32
- RunPureSports – 25
- DFS Army Full Court Press – 14
- EliteFantasy – 14
- Rotowire – 10
- DFS Alarm Lineup Generator – 9
- NBC Sports Edge Pivots – 8
- DK Playbook Values – 5
- DK Playbook Targets – 4
- NBC Sports Edge – 4
- DailyFantasySportsRankings – 4
- Rotowire Optimizer – 4
- FantasyLabs – 4
- RG Grind Down – 3
- RG Consensus – 3
- DFS Karma Game Theory – 3
- NumberFire Daily Helper – 3
- DailyRoto Optimizer – 3
- Rotoballer – 3
- Sportsline – 2
- Awesemo Cheat Sheet – 1
- DFS Army Domination Station – 1
- RG Lineup Builder – 1
- RG 6-Pack – 1
- DFS Army Cheat Sheet – 1
Overall Leaderboard
Our top-3 for the season is below. You can view the full NBA Overall Standings here.
#1) DailyFantasyInsider (Score: 6.36)
#2) Sportsline (Score: 6.11)
#3) RG Core Plays (Score: 5.87)
The Daily Overlay Industry Consensus Cash Plays (Score: 5.60) stayed in 6th place. The Consensus GPP Plays (Score: 4.87) moved up a sp0t to 24th place.
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.
Below are the tables showing the actual data collected so far this season. Results are using a DraftKings Double-Up for Cash and single entry tournament for GPP. The Count column shows the number of times a player was selected by the experts for a given day. The salary columns show the average ownership percentages for all players that were recommended by the given number of experts for the salary range provided.
Cash
| Count | $9k+ | $7k – $9k | $5k – $7k | $3k – $5k |
| 25 | 59.4% | N/A | N/A | 62.9% |
| 24 | N/A | N/A | 85.2% | N/A |
| 23 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 22 | 73.2% | N/A | 89.1% | 68.1% |
| 21 | 84.0% | N/A | 87.4% | N/A |
| 20 | 59.1% | 74.7% | 91.3% | 65.1% |
| 19 | 64.6% | 71.4% | 67.7% | 79.8% |
| 18 | 71.3% | 59.1% | 64.4% | 71.6% |
| 17 | 81.2% | 70.7% | 66.7% | 66.3% |
| 16 | 37.4% | 51.6% | 44.4% | 63.9% |
| 15 | 44.5% | 53.1% | 53.2% | 55.0% |
| 14 | 49.0% | 43.4% | 48.6% | 58.8% |
| 13 | 32.7% | 48.6% | 51.8% | 49.7% |
| 12 | 29.0% | 33.9% | 43.0% | 53.7% |
| 11 | 22.9% | 17.9% | 28.5% | 27.6% |
| 10 | 31.0% | 26.9% | 35.2% | 30.9% |
| 9 | 17.0% | 20.9% | 26.9% | 27.3% |
| 8 | 17.9% | 14.3% | 32.0% | 32.5% |
| 7 | 16.0% | 15.4% | 17.2% | 20.9% |
| 6 | 9.8% | 16.4% | 14.2% | 16.4% |
| 5 | 5.1% | 9.0% | 11.8% | 11.6% |
| 4 | 5.9% | 6.3% | 7.2% | 10.8% |
| 3 | 4.2% | 6.3% | 7.2% | 8.3% |
| 2 | 2.1% | 3.9% | 3.8% | 5.1% |
| 1 | 2.0% | 3.1% | 2.7% | 1.8% |
GPP
| Count | $9k+ | $7k – $9k | $5k – $7k | $3k – $5k |
| 25 | 49.0% | N/A | N/A | 34.8% |
| 24 | N/A | N/A | 64.5% | N/A |
| 23 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 22 | 43.0% | N/A | 68.0% | 50.1% |
| 21 | 54.4% | N/A | 67.5% | N/A |
| 20 | 30.8% | 55.1% | 64.1% | 43.0% |
| 19 | 46.7% | 48.2% | 41.2% | 50.9% |
| 18 | 34.5% | 41.1% | 39.3% | 46.6% |
| 17 | 49.6% | 39.8% | 43.1% | 45.6% |
| 16 | 26.6% | 32.0% | 29.6% | 40.1% |
| 15 | 28.2% | 38.1% | 31.9% | 42.2% |
| 14 | 32.1% | 32.5% | 36.8% | 35.4% |
| 13 | 22.2% | 30.4% | 36.0% | 32.6% |
| 12 | 21.9% | 22.5% | 28.1% | 32.8% |
| 11 | 20.3% | 22.2% | 21.4% | 24.4% |
| 10 | 21.7% | 20.5% | 22.3% | 22.8% |
| 9 | 17.1% | 14.9% | 20.2% | 21.2% |
| 8 | 15.0% | 14.3% | 25.2% | 23.9% |
| 7 | 13.3% | 14.1% | 17.4% | 15.6% |
| 6 | 10.6% | 15.5% | 14.0% | 11.7% |
| 5 | 7.9% | 10.1% | 13.8% | 10.8% |
| 4 | 7.3% | 8.4% | 9.5% | 10.0% |
| 3 | 6.5% | 7.9% | 8.8% | 8.1% |
| 2 | 4.2% | 5.2% | 6.1% | 5.3% |
| 1 | 3.4% | 4.4% | 4.8% | 2.3% |
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 Weighted Consensus article.
