We are getting to the point in the NBA season where late scratches and rest are common on a nightly basis which makes navigating NBA DFS lineups even more dependent on late breaking news than normal. Despite the volatile nature of late season NBA DFS the industry experts are still providing solid player recommendations. The overall standings continue to have minor changes as all of the experts look to make a move up the standings before the end of the season. FantasyTeamAdvice continues to lead the way with RotoGrinders Lineup Builder currently in second place.
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 also list the top DraftKings Points per $1000 experts for each day and for the season as well as the top DK Pts/$1000 player that was recommended by at least one expert for each day’s slate. 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 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 (March 13)
Monday consisted of a solid eight-game slate of NBA action. The experts had a solid showing with four out of 20 experts finishing with a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or higher.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks started the week strong with a 6th place finish out of 20 experts graded with a very good DailyOverlay score of 4.89.
A+ – Patty Mills, Karl-Anthony Towns, Ivica Zubac, Ricky Rubio, Nikola Vucevic, Elfrid Payton, Dennis Schroder, Pau Gasol, Jamal Murray, Buddy Hield, Jeremy Lamb
F – Kyle Anderson
Top Experts of the Day
#1) DailyOverlay – Value Index (Score: 6.50) tops the list with all four of their selections receiving a grade of “B” or better. Top picks included Patty Mills and Ivica Zubac.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 5.25) grabbed second place on the night with three “A+” grades and no grade below a “C” out of eight players selected. Their top plays included Dennis Schroder, Patty Mills and Ivica Zubac.
Top DK Pts/$1000 Expert of the Day
DailyOverlay – Value Index (6.99 DKPts/$1000) – Best pick: Ivica Zubac (11.09x value)
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Chris Paul (DailyRoto)
A+ – Danny Green (DailyRoto)
A+ – Nemanja Bjelica (DailyRoto)
A+ – Denzel Valentine (FanSided)
A+ – Vince Carter (FantasyPros)
A+ – Patrick Patterson (FantasyPros)
A+ – Jonas Valanciunas (DraftKings Playbook)
Top DK Pts/$1000 Player of the Day
Vince Carter (12.65x value) – FantasyPros
Tuesday (March 14)
Tuesday night consisted of a small five-game slate of NBA action. The experts had another solid showing with four out of 19 experts finishing with a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or higher.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks didn’t fare as well coming in 13th place out of 19 experts graded with a solid DailyOverlay score of 4.11.
A+ – Draymond Green, Jeremy Lin, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Dario Saric, Richaun Holmes, Myles Turner, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Willy Hernangomez
F – Jusuf Nurkic, Maurice Harkless, CJ McCollum, Sean Kilpatrick, Trevor Booker
Top Experts of the Day
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 7.60) tops the list with all five of their selections receiving a grade of “B” or better including picks of Jeremy Lin, Draymond Green and Carmelo Anthony.
#2) Sportsline (Score: 5.38) took home second place on the night with three “A+” grades out of eight players selected. Their top plays included Monta Ellis, Carmelo Anthony and Draymond Green.
Top DK Pts/$1000 Expert of the Day
FantasyTeamAdvice (6.03 DKPts/$1000) – Best pick: Draymond Green (8.05x value)
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Iman Shumpert (DailyRoto)
A+ – Jahlil Okafor (FantasyAlarm)
A+ – TJ McConnell (FanSided)
A+ – Caris LeVert (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Taj Gibson (FantasyPros)
A+ – Dante Cunningham (DailyFantasyNerd)
Top DK Pts/$1000 Player of the Day
Willy Hernangomez (8.77x value) – RotoGrinders Consensus, FanSided, FantasyPros
Wednesday (March 15)
Wednesday consisted of big 10-game slate of NBA action. The experts didn’t do quite as well overall with only two out of 20 experts just barely eclipsing a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or higher.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks finished in the bottom half coming in 12th place out of 20 experts graded with a 3.75 DailyOverlay score.
A+ – Willie Cauley-Stein, Paul George, TJ Warren, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Mike Conley, DeAndre Jordan, Al Horford, Rajon Rondo, Trevor Ariza
F – Kemba Walker, Ivica Zubac, Chris Paul, Buddy Hield, Marvin Williams, Nemanja Bjelica
Top Experts of the Day
#1) Sportsline (Score: 6.13) tops the list for their second straight Top 2 finish with five grades of “B” or better out of eight selections. Key selections included Damian Lillard, Monta Ellis and Gordon Hayward.
#2) RotoGrinders 6-pack (Score: 5.00) comes in second four grades of “B” or better out of six selctions. They were led by selections of TJ Warren, Paul George and Julius Randle.
Top DK Pts/$1000 Expert of the Day
RotoGrinders 6-pack (5.65 DKPts/$1000) – Best pick: TJ Warren (7.29x value)
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Skal Labissiere (DailyRoto)
A+ – Damian Lillard (Sportsline)
A+ – Gordon Hayward (Sportsline)
A+ – Denzel Valentine (FanSided)
A+ – Kosta Koufos (Rotoballer)
Top DK Pts/$1000 Player of the Day
Skal Labissiere (13.58x value) – DailyRoto
Friday (March 17)
Friday night brought us a solid eight-game slate of NBA action which was only a so-so night for the DFS experts with three out of 19 receiving a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or better.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus finished in the middle of the pack coming in 10th place out of 19 experts graded with a 3.62 DailyOverlay score.
A+ – Nikola Mirotic, James Harden, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis, John Wall, Jae Crowder, Nikola Vucevic
F – Devin Booker, Clint Capela, Ryan Anderson, Harrison Barnes
Top Experts of the Day
#1) Rotoballer (Score: 6.43) led the way with four “A+” grades out of seven selections including John Wall, Jimmy Butler, Nikola Mirotic and Nikola Vucevic.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 5.60) takes second place for their second Top 2 finish this week with three grades of “A” or better out of five selections. Top picks included James Harden, Nikola Mirotic and Montrezl Harrell.
Top DK Pts/$1000 Expert of the Day
FantasyTeamAdvice (6.85 DKPts/$1000) – Best pick: Nikola Mirotic (8.66x value)
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Sergio Rodriguez (FantasyPros)
A+ – Solomon Hill (FantasyPros)
A+ – Robin Lopez (FantasyPros)
A+ – Quincy Acy (FantasyGuruElite)
Top DK Pts/$1000 Player of the Day
Solomon Hill (16.88x value) – FantasyPros
Overall Leaderboard
We are now through Week 21 of the NBA season. You can view the full NBA Overall Standings here.
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 5.21) remains in the top spot with two Top 2 finishes this week.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 5.02) moves up one spot into second place with a strong week that included three Top 4 finishes.
#3) DailyOverlay – Value Index (Score: 4.97) drops down one spot into third place overall. Despite three Top 7 finishes this week there was also one last place finish on Friday that dropped them in the overall standings.
#4) FantasyLabs (Score: 4.89) remains in fourth place with two Top 10 finishes but their overall score dropped them closer to fifth place.
#5) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 4.85) moves up into the Top 5 overall with two Top 6 finishes to close out the week.
The Daily Overlay Industry Consensus picks (Score: 4.62) hold steady in 12th place out of 23 experts ranked in the overall standings through 21 weeks of action.
Top DK Points/$1000 Leaders
Combining the total DraftKings points for every player selected this season divided by the total salary of every player selected to get each experts DK Pts/$1000.
#1) FantasyWired (now PokerNewsSports) (5.289x value)
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (5.239x value) – NEW
#3 tie) DailyFantasyNerd and DailyOverlay – Value Index (5.224x value) – NEW
Let’s see which experts can make the grade next 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.
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 |
| 15 | 63.10% | 60.20% | 81.70% | |
| 14 | 36.35% | 63.95% | 45.27% | |
| 13 | 49.46% | 48.89% | 48.02% | 75.30% |
| 12 | 41.92% | 44.84% | 42.78% | 29.70% |
| 11 | 35.34% | 36.88% | 44.05% | 43.52% |
| 10 | 27.06% | 29.70% | 34.75% | 54.79% |
| 9 | 21.99% | 27.64% | 25.12% | 32.96% |
| 8 | 19.42% | 19.26% | 21.77% | 32.70% |
| 7 | 13.89% | 19.10% | 19.73% | 26.06% |
| 6 | 15.25% | 13.74% | 15.48% | 22.89% |
| 5 | 10.61% | 11.66% | 10.72% | 19.79% |
| 4 | 9.02% | 8.32% | 9.31% | 13.97% |
| 3 | 5.24% | 6.71% | 6.51% | 9.53% |
| 2 | 2.54% | 4.54% | 3.93% | 4.95% |
| 1 | 3.21% | 3.34% | 2.61% | 2.57% |
GPP
| Count | $9k+ | $7k – $9k | $5k – $7k | $3k – $5k |
| 15 | 47.60% | 36.30% | 59.60% | |
| 14 | 27.95% | 44.20% | 27.23% | |
| 13 | 34.89% | 34.56% | 34.65% | 50.20% |
| 12 | 32.44% | 32.91% | 27.50% | 23.00% |
| 11 | 26.83% | 26.61% | 29.76% | 30.33% |
| 10 | 21.03% | 21.88% | 26.09% | 33.11% |
| 9 | 19.62% | 22.38% | 20.54% | 23.85% |
| 8 | 18.09% | 18.22% | 18.72% | 23.55% |
| 7 | 14.04% | 16.65% | 17.23% | 18.72% |
| 6 | 14.61% | 13.06% | 14.08% | 16.13% |
| 5 | 11.38% | 11.94% | 11.18% | 14.46% |
| 4 | 10.49% | 9.32% | 9.44% | 11.22% |
| 3 | 7.71% | 8.41% | 7.67% | 8.16% |
| 2 | 4.64% | 5.83% | 5.68% | 4.95% |
| 1 | 5.29% | 4.81% | 4.36% | 2.75% |
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.
