With the NBA regular season winding down we will be providing NBA Consensus articles and grading the NBA DFS experts picks for one more week before transitioning over the baseball and grading the MLB DFS experts. It has been a fun year of NBA DFS and there is still time with four grading days left for the experts to cram for their final exams. Everyone is trying to catch FantasyTeamAdvice at the top of the season leaderboard but there is also a tight race to finish in the Top 5 with six experts ranging between a DailyOverlay score of 4.74 and 4.84. It should come down to the wire!
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 20)
Monday consisted of a solid seven-game slate of NBA action. The experts had a rough night with no experts finishing with a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or higher.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks started the week well with an 8th place finish out of 20 experts graded with a DailyOverlay score of 3.79.
A+ – Rudy Gobert, Richaun Holmes, James Harden, Robert Covington, Klay Thompson, Thabo Sefolosha, Nikola Jokic
F – Tim Hardaway Jr., Draymond Green, Mason Plumlee, Kenneth Faried, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Carmelo Anthony, Otto Porter, Lou Williams, Joe Johnson
Top Experts of the Day
#1) FantasyAlarm (Score: 4.36) tops the list with 16 out of 25 selections receiving a grade of “B” or better. Some of their top selections included James Harden, Robert Covington, Thabo Sefolosha, Nikola Jokic, Richaun Holmes and Rudy Gobert.
#2) DailyRoto (Score: 4.28) grabbed second place on the night with 20 out of 36 selections receiving a grade of “B” or better. They were led by selections of players such as James Harden, Klay Thompson, Thabo Sefolosha, Robert Covington and Richaun Holmes.
Top DK Pts/$1000 Expert of the Day
Sportsline (5.92 DKPts/$1000) – Best pick: Thabo Sefolosha (7.82x value)
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Nik Stauskas (DailyRoto, DraftKings Playbook)
Top DK Pts/$1000 Player of the Day
Richaun Holmes (10.39x value) – 12 experts
Tuesday (March 21)
Tuesday night had a larger slate than normal with eight games of NBA action. The experts had another down night with only one out of 19 experts finishing with a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or higher.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks performed very well finishing in 3rd place out of 19 experts graded with a solid DailyOverlay score of 4.03.
A+ – Jimmy Butler, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeMar DeRozan, Hassan Whiteside, Karl-Anthony Towns, Tyler Johnson, Damian Lillard, Rajon Rondo, Austin Rivers
F – James Johnson, Harrison Barnes, Tyler Ulis, Reggie Jackson, Nikola Mirotic, Jordan Clarkson
Top Experts of the Day
#1) DailyOverlay – Value Index (Score: 6.00) tops the list with all five of their selections receiving a grade of “C” or better including an “A+” grade from Spencer Dinwiddie and Karl-Anthony Towns.
#2) Rotowire (Score: 4.63) took home second place on the night with five grades of “B” or better out of their eight selections. The top plays included Damian Lillard, Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Top DK Pts/$1000 Expert of the Day
DailyOverlay – Value Index (5.87 DKPts/$1000) – Best pick: Spencer Dinwiddie (7.76x value)
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – DeMarcus Cousins (RotoGrinders Lineup Builder, FantasyPros)
A+ – Ish Smith (DailyRoto)
Top DK Pts/$1000 Player of the Day
Ish Smith (9.23x value) – DailyRoto
Wednesday (March 22)
Wednesday consisted of another medium-sized slate with eight games. The experts bounced back with six out of 20 experts eclipsing a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or higher.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus picks finished strong again with a 4th place finish out of 20 experts graded with a 5.24 DailyOverlay score.
A+ – Rudy Gobert, Russell Westbrook, John Wall, Dwight Howard, Tim Hardaway Jr, Paul Zipser, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Vucevic, Kristaps Porzingis, Nikola Mirotic, Paul George, Bradley Beal, Enes Kanter
F – Richaun Holmes, Juancho Hernangomez
Top Experts of the Day
#1) FantasyLabs (Score: 6.45) tops the list with 11 “A+” grades out of their 20 selections. Some of their top selections included Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert, John Wall, Bradley Beal and Tim Hardaway Jr.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 5.71) comes in second with five out of seven selections receiving a grade of “B” or better including John Wall, Paul George and Nikola Mirotic.
Top DK Pts/$1000 Expert of the Day
RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (5.71 DKPts/$1000) – Best pick: Nikola Mirotic (10.16x value)
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Ish Smith (DailyRoto, FanSided)
A+ – Joffrey Lauvergne (DailyRoto, FantasyGuruElite)
A+ – Cody Zeller (DailyRoto, DailyFantasyNerd)
A+ – Buddy Hield (Scout Fantasy, FantasyGuruElite)
A+ – Deron Williams (FantasyPros)
Top DK Pts/$1000 Player of the Day
Joffrey Lauvergne (10.75x value) – DailyRoto, FantasyGuruElite
Friday (March 24)
Friday night brought us a solid eight-game slate of NBA action which was another down night for the DFS experts with none of the 20 sets of selections receiving a DailyOverlay score of 5.0 or better.
Industry Consensus Picks
The Industry Consensus finished their week strong yet again coming in 5th place out of 20 experts graded with a 3.41 DailyOverlay score.
A+ – James Harden, Anthony Davis, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Sergio Rodriguez, Amir Johnson
F – Marquese Chriss, Robin Lopez, Tyler Ulis, Ish Smith, Thabo Sefolosha, Bradley Beal, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tobias Harris, Ivica Zubac, Quincy Acy, Paul Zipser
Top Experts of the Day
#1 tie) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 3.88) finished in a tie for the top spot finishing in the Top 2 twice this week. They had four grades of “B” or better out of eight selections including “A+” grades from Anthony Davis and Sergio Rodriguez.
#1 tie) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 3.88) tied for second place making it a clean sweep for lineup optimizers also with four grades of “B” or better including “A+” grades from Amir Johnson and Anthony Davis.
Top DK Pts/$1000 Expert of the Day
FantasyTeamAdvice (5.89 DKPts/$1000) – Best pick: Devin Booker (13.99x value)
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Steph Curry (DailyRoto, Sportsline)
A+ – Buddy Hield (FantasyAlarm)
Top DK Pts/$1000 Player of the Day
Devin Booker (13.99x value) – RotoGrinders NBA Grind Down, FantasyTeamAdvice, FantasyGuruElite
Overall Leaderboard
We are now through Week 22 of the NBA season. You can view the full NBA Overall Standings here.
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 5.09) remains in the top spot despite a big decrease in their overall DailyOverlay score.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 4.95) holds onto second place with two Top 2 finishes this week.
#3) FantasyLabs (Score: 4.84) moves up one spot into fourth place with one week to go thanks to a 1st place finish on Wednesday.
#4) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 4.82) moves up another spot in the overall standings with three Top 5 finishes this week.
#5) DraftKings Playbook (Score: 4.80) jumps into fifth place and will look to make another move with one week to go.
The Daily Overlay Industry Consensus picks (Score: 4.60) are finishing strong moving up two spots into 10th place out of 23 experts ranked in the overall standings through 22 weeks of action with a very strong week including a Top 8 finish all four days.
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) (5.253x value)
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (5.226x value) – NEW
#3) DailyFantasyNerd (5.208x value)
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% | 58.50% | 81.70% |
| 14 | 36.35% | 61.68% | 45.27% | |
| 13 | 49.46% | 48.89% | 48.02% | 75.30% |
| 12 | 40.32% | 41.86% | 42.78% | 29.70% |
| 11 | 35.34% | 36.96% | 44.23% | 46.41% |
| 10 | 27.71% | 30.77% | 34.30% | 54.79% |
| 9 | 22.34% | 26.51% | 25.12% | 34.72% |
| 8 | 19.45% | 18.94% | 21.47% | 32.70% |
| 7 | 13.67% | 18.97% | 19.12% | 26.07% |
| 6 | 14.95% | 13.51% | 15.55% | 23.05% |
| 5 | 10.66% | 11.65% | 10.57% | 19.21% |
| 4 | 9.02% | 8.23% | 9.27% | 14.06% |
| 3 | 5.21% | 6.56% | 6.44% | 9.50% |
| 2 | 2.50% | 4.49% | 3.91% | 5.07% |
| 1 | 3.00% | 3.29% | 2.58% | 2.55% |
GPP
| Count | $9k+ | $7k – $9k | $5k – $7k | $3k – $5k |
| 15 | 47.60% | 36.30% | 51.00% | 59.60% |
| 14 | 27.95% | 39.10% | 27.23% | |
| 13 | 34.89% | 34.56% | 34.65% | 50.20% |
| 12 | 31.41% | 31.36% | 27.50% | 23.00% |
| 11 | 26.83% | 26.52% | 29.98% | 31.96% |
| 10 | 21.38% | 22.27% | 25.99% | 33.11% |
| 9 | 19.93% | 21.32% | 20.54% | 24.49% |
| 8 | 18.06% | 17.89% | 18.51% | 23.55% |
| 7 | 13.82% | 16.65% | 16.89% | 18.63% |
| 6 | 14.32% | 12.96% | 14.02% | 16.11% |
| 5 | 11.41% | 11.95% | 11.10% | 14.29% |
| 4 | 10.49% | 9.30% | 9.44% | 11.22% |
| 3 | 7.70% | 8.29% | 7.65% | 8.14% |
| 2 | 4.59% | 5.78% | 5.68% | 5.01% |
| 1 | 5.24% | 4.77% | 4.34% | 2.74% |
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.
