NBA – Expert Recap and Grades – Week of February 28th
NBA DFS Picks & Grades
COVID seems to be stabilizing in the NBA. We’re seeing significantly less “health and safety protocol” DNPs so that’s great to be somewhat back in a normal swing of things. RG’s Core Plays are starting to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the competition. A full, five-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 | Fri | Rk | Avg |
| Rotogrinders Core Plays | 10.00 | 1 | 10.00 | 1 | 2.00 | 26 | 5.00 | 15 | 10.00 | 1 | 7.40 |
| Industry Consensus – Cash | 6.20 | 7 | 9.00 | 8 | 5.33 | 9 | 5.42 | 7 | 7.33 | 3 | 6.66 |
| RotoGrinders Lineup Builder | 6.00 | 9 | 8.88 | 10 | 6.13 | 3 | 5.38 | 8 | 5.38 | 10 | 6.35 |
| Awesemo – Cheat Sheet | 6.00 | 9 | 10.00 | 1 | 6.00 | 4 | 5.20 | 12 | 4.48 | 14 | 6.34 |
| DailyFantasyNerd | 6.57 | 5 | 8.50 | 12 | 4.88 | 15 | 5.38 | 8 | 6.29 | 7 | 6.32 |
| DailyRoto – Optimizer | 7.38 | 3 | 9.13 | 7 | 5.50 | 8 | 5.00 | 15 | 4.50 | 13 | 6.30 |
| DailyFantasyInsider | 5.50 | 15 | 10.00 | 1 | 2.00 | 26 | 7.50 | 1 | – | – | 6.25 |
| Sportsline | 5.60 | 14 | 8.00 | 21 | 5.80 | 6 | 5.17 | 13 | 6.60 | 5 | 6.23 |
| FantasyLabs | 5.40 | 16 | 7.89 | 23 | 6.00 | 4 | 4.80 | 19 | 7.00 | 4 | 6.22 |
| DFSArmy – Domination Station | 6.00 | 9 | 7.88 | 24 | 3.88 | 19 | 6.75 | 2 | 6.43 | 6 | 6.19 |
| Awesemo – Building Blocks | 7.50 | 2 | 10.00 | 1 | 2.67 | 25 | 5.25 | 11 | 5.00 | 12 | 6.08 |
| DailyFantasySportsRankings | 6.00 | 9 | 9.44 | 5 | 6.44 | 2 | 5.70 | 4 | 2.56 | 28 | 6.03 |
| Rotogrinders 6-pack | – | – | 8.40 | 14 | 6.50 | 1 | – | – | 2.33 | 29 | 5.74 |
| NumberFire – Daily Helper | 5.63 | 13 | 7.88 | 24 | 5.00 | 12 | 5.67 | 5 | 3.89 | 22 | 5.61 |
| Rotogrinders NBA Grind Down | 4.06 | 24 | 9.00 | 8 | 3.69 | 20 | 5.71 | 3 | 5.44 | 9 | 5.58 |
| DFSArmy – Full Court Press | 4.73 | 21 | 7.86 | 27 | 4.69 | 17 | 5.27 | 10 | 5.22 | 11 | 5.55 |
| Rotoballer | 4.75 | 20 | 7.88 | 24 | 1.71 | 29 | 5.63 | 6 | 7.50 | 2 | 5.49 |
| Rotowire | 4.91 | 18 | 8.64 | 11 | 3.91 | 18 | 4.27 | 24 | 5.55 | 8 | 5.46 |
| NBC Sports Edge | 7.13 | 4 | 8.14 | 17 | 3.38 | 23 | 4.25 | 25 | 4.25 | 18 | 5.43 |
| RotoGrinders Consensus | 4.37 | 22 | 8.40 | 14 | 4.90 | 14 | 4.74 | 21 | 4.40 | 16 | 5.36 |
| DK Playbook – Targets | 5.10 | 17 | 6.90 | 30 | 5.56 | 7 | 4.89 | 18 | 3.78 | 23 | 5.25 |
| RunPureSports | 4.25 | 23 | 8.44 | 13 | 5.16 | 11 | 4.40 | 23 | 3.94 | 21 | 5.24 |
| FantasyAlarm – Playbook | 3.30 | 28 | 8.14 | 17 | 4.97 | 13 | 5.03 | 14 | 4.42 | 15 | 5.17 |
| FantasyAlarm – Lineup Generator | 6.38 | 6 | 9.29 | 6 | 3.25 | 24 | 3.43 | 28 | 2.75 | 26 | 5.02 |
| Rotowire – Optimizer | 6.13 | 8 | 7.00 | 29 | 3.50 | 22 | 4.00 | 26 | 4.25 | 18 | 4.98 |
| EliteFantasy | 3.68 | 26 | 8.00 | 21 | 3.56 | 21 | 4.80 | 19 | 4.24 | 20 | 4.86 |
| FantasyPros | 4.00 | 25 | 8.10 | 20 | 5.26 | 10 | 3.65 | 27 | 3.10 | 25 | 4.82 |
| DFSKarma – Game Theory | 4.82 | 19 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4.82 |
| DFSArmy – Cheat Sheet | – | – | 8.13 | 19 | 1.75 | 28 | 5.00 | 15 | 4.33 | 17 | 4.80 |
| NBC Sports Edge – Pivots | 3.67 | 27 | 7.20 | 28 | – | – | – | – | 3.38 | 24 | 4.75 |
| Industry Consensus – GPP | 2.31 | 30 | 8.15 | 16 | 4.87 | 16 | 4.58 | 22 | 2.67 | 27 | 4.52 |
| DK Playbook – Values | 3.25 | 29 | – | – | 1.33 | 30 | – | – | 2.00 | 30 | 2.19 |
Sleepers of the Week
Each week we’ll highlight players that scored an “A+” grade but were selected by only one expert.
Monday
- Mo Bamba (EliteFantasy)
- Donte DiVincenzo (FantasyPros)
- Aleksej Pokusevski (Rotowire)
Tuesday
- LaMarcus Aldridge (DailyRoto Optimizer)
- Kevin Huerter (DFS Alarm Playbook)
- Saddiq Bey (DFS Alarm Playbook)
- Robert Williams (DFS Alarm Playbook)
- Corey Kispert (FantasyPros)
- Otto Porter, Jr (FantasyPros)
- Isaiah Stewart (FantasyPros)
- Raul Neto (Rotowire)
- Jalen Green (NBC Sports Edge Pivots)
Wednesday
- Herbert Jones (FantasyPros)
- Mike Conley (RG Grind Down)
- Bryn Forbes (RunPureSports)
Thursday
- Lonnie Walker IV (DailyFantasySportsRankings)
- Goran Dragic (DFS Alarm Playbook)
- Cade Cunningham (DFS Alarm Playbook)
- Robert Williams (DFS Alarm Playbook)
- Max Strus (FantasyPros)
Friday
- Taurean Prince (FantasyPros)
- JaMychal Green (FantasyPros)
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Rotowire)
- Mitchell Robinson (Rotowire)
- DeMarcus Cousins (Sportsline)
Value Tracker
- FantasyPros – 156
- DFS Alarm Playbook – 71
- RunPureSports – 52
- EliteFantasy – 34
- Rotowire – 22
- DFS Alarm Lineup Generator – 18
- DFS Army Full Court Press – 17
- NBC Sports Edge – 12
- NBC Sports Edge Pivots – 12
- DFS Karma Game Theory – 10
- NumberFire Daily Helper – 10
- DK Playbook Targets – 9
- DailyFantasySportsRankings – 9
- RG Grind Down – 9
- Rotowire Optimizer – 8
- FantasyLabs – 8
- RG Consensus – 8
- DK Playbook Values – 7
- Rotoballer – 6
- DFS Army Cheat Sheet – 4
- DailyRoto Optimizer – 4
- RG 6-Pack – 3
- Sportsline – 3
- DFS Army Domination Station – 2
- Awesemo Cheat Sheet – 1
- RG Lineup Builder – 1
Overall Leaderboard
Our top-3 for the season is below. You can view the full NBA Overall Standings here.
#1) RG Core Plays (Score: 6.29)
#2) DailyFantasyInsider (Score: 6.16)
#3) Awesemo Building Blocks (Score: 6.10)
The Daily Overlay Industry Consensus Cash Plays (Score: 5.75) moved up a spot to 6th place. The Consensus GPP Plays (Score: 4.92) stayed in 23rd 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 |
| 26 | 83.0% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 25 | 59.4% | N/A | N/A | 76.2% |
| 24 | N/A | 84.70% | 85.2% | 82.60% |
| 23 | 55.9% | 74.30% | N/A | N/A |
| 22 | 75.2% | N/A | 89.6% | 78.0% |
| 21 | 58.2% | N/A | 88.0% | 86.25% |
| 20 | 72.2% | 75.8% | 86.4% | 67.1% |
| 19 | 70.5% | 74.4% | 67.7% | 84.3% |
| 18 | 61.0% | 59.1% | 67.1% | 64.2% |
| 17 | 53.8% | 60.9% | 64.8% | 66.8% |
| 16 | 53.5% | 54.6% | 46.8% | 60.3% |
| 15 | 46.1% | 58.1% | 53.2% | 52.5% |
| 14 | 47.8% | 40.9% | 48.6% | 57.5% |
| 13 | 34.9% | 48.6% | 56.8% | 47.1% |
| 12 | 29.5% | 36.5% | 40.8% | 49.8% |
| 11 | 23.8% | 24.9% | 37.1% | 30.3% |
| 10 | 23.9% | 30.5% | 30.3% | 36.4% |
| 9 | 17.4% | 23.3% | 24.4% | 26.6% |
| 8 | 17.1% | 15.6% | 30.6% | 33.5% |
| 7 | 16.8% | 14.9% | 18.0% | 21.2% |
| 6 | 8.9% | 13.1% | 14.9% | 14.5% |
| 5 | 6.1% | 9.8% | 13.9% | 10.8% |
| 4 | 6.0% | 6.2% | 8.5% | 11.1% |
| 3 | 3.7% | 6.0% | 8.0% | 7.8% |
| 2 | 2.6% | 3.6% | 3.9% | 4.4% |
| 1 | 1.6% | 2.6% | 2.6% | 2.0% |
GPP
| Count | $9k+ | $7k – $9k | $5k – $7k | $3k – $5k |
| 26 | 55.5% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 25 | 49.0% | N/A | N/A | 45.3% |
| 24 | N/A | 54.00% | 64.5% | 54.20% |
| 23 | 45.7% | 43.30% | N/A | N/A |
| 22 | 45.3% | N/A | 66.7% | 54.4% |
| 21 | 44.3% | N/A | 66.4% | 50.35% |
| 20 | 39.2% | 52.1% | 61.9% | 46.7% |
| 19 | 42.0% | 43.7% | 39.4% | 54.5% |
| 18 | 39.9% | 41.1% | 38.2% | 40.3% |
| 17 | 33.8% | 34.5% | 35.1% | 42.5% |
| 16 | 32.4% | 34.4% | 30.6% | 38.9% |
| 15 | 29.8% | 36.0% | 31.9% | 36.6% |
| 14 | 29.8% | 31.0% | 34.6% | 34.7% |
| 13 | 26.6% | 30.9% | 38.5% | 33.4% |
| 12 | 21.1% | 24.0% | 28.4% | 31.8% |
| 11 | 20.8% | 18.9% | 26.8% | 24.5% |
| 10 | 20.1% | 20.7% | 22.2% | 24.8% |
| 9 | 16.8% | 17.2% | 19.8% | 20.5% |
| 8 | 14.2% | 15.5% | 23.9% | 25.2% |
| 7 | 13.7% | 14.4% | 17.0% | 15.9% |
| 6 | 9.9% | 13.5% | 14.1% | 12.8% |
| 5 | 8.8% | 10.9% | 13.8% | 10.0% |
| 4 | 8.3% | 8.6% | 10.5% | 9.7% |
| 3 | 6.5% | 8.1% | 9.5% | 7.9% |
| 2 | 4.6% | 5.2% | 6.4% | 5.0% |
| 1 | 3.2% | 4.3% | 4.7% | 2.6% |
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.
