Interesting weekend. I plan to update some of the Bankroll Challenge soon to prove to you guys that proper bankroll management can endure cold streaks just fine. Just need to find the space.

Fall in, soldiers!! This process isn’t intended to take long. It’s a skim, if you will. You are starting your research by quickly glancing over the day’s slate and gathering your early intel. Our goal is to give you a head start on today’s action. Keith and I will be back later with picks and analysis for the slate for our VIP Insiders, as well as provide answers to questions as much as possible in the VIP Slack channels. (As posted yesterday, there won’t be a full write-up today being a small slate)

Daily Fantasy Players are priced by many factors. Some of the key factors are the teams’ seasonal averages in points scored and the pace at which they play. We can assume if a team is expected to score more points than they usually do, players from that team are in a better than usual spot to succeed. We can also assume if a team is expected to play at a faster pace than usual, their players are in a better than usual spot to succeed. Let’s take a quick look and see if there aren’t any of these spots on today’s slate.

POINTED UP! – The teams with green numbers for +/- PPG (Points Per Game) are expected to outperform their seasonal scoring averages per Vegas. Teams with red are expected to underperform.

Team Offense Opponent Team Total PPG Total +/- Los Angeles Clippers PHO 113.5 104.8 8.7 Milwaukee Bucks LAL 106.8 98.4 8.3 Atlanta Hawks GS 108.3 102.7 5.6 Minnesota Timberwolves BOS 106 100.4 5.6 Cleveland Cavaliers DET 108.3 102.9 5.3 Boston Celtics MIN 110.5 105.5 5 Los Angeles Lakers MIL 98.8 96.8 2 Miami Heat IND 97.5 96.7 0.8 Toronto Raptors NY 102 101.9 0.1 Golden State Warriors ATL 115.3 115.3 0 Indiana Pacers MIA 101.5 102.5 -1 New York Knicks TOR 98 99.2 -1.2 Detroit Pistons CLE 98.8 101.5 -2.8 Phoenix Suns LAC 96.5 100.5 -4

Quite a few teams pointed up today….

PACED UP! – Similar to being pointed up, the teams in green should be playing faster than normal while the teams in red should be playing slower. More possessions might mean more opportunity to score points.

Team Offense Opponent Pace Proj. Pace Pace +/- Atlanta Hawks GS 99.3 103.6 4.3 Minnesota Timberwolves BOS 96.9 100.1 3.2 Los Angeles Clippers PHO 98.3 100.6 2.3 Miami Heat IND 95 96.5 1.5 Golden State Warriors ATL 102.3 103.6 1.3 Milwaukee Bucks LAL 96.4 96.7 0.3 Phoenix Suns LAC 100.3 100.6 0.3 Cleveland Cavaliers DET 95.2 95 -0.2 Boston Celtics MIN 101.2 100.1 -1.1 Los Angeles Lakers MIL 98.3 96.7 -1.6 Toronto Raptors NY 95.8 93.8 -2 New York Knicks TOR 96 93.8 -2.2 Detroit Pistons CLE 97.8 95 -2.8 Indiana Pacers MIA 99.5 96.5 -3

TOTAL FANTASY POINTS ALLOWED & DvP RANKINGS – This graphic provides a quick glance at how strong or weak a defensive team plays overall, as well as against a specific position. We are looking for green numbers and trying to avoid red numbers, and we are looking to roster a player from the OPPONENT’s team. Example, MIL PG in great spot.

Team Defense Opponent TotalFPA vs. PG vs. SG vs. SF vs. PF vs. C Los Angeles Lakers MIL 30 30 28 26 21 28 Phoenix Suns LAC 25 29 29 30 12 6 Milwaukee Bucks LAL 22 8 25 24 24 16 Atlanta Hawks GSW 17 6 21 15 17 24 Golden State Warriors ATL 15 19 7 17 15 17 Minnesota Timberwolves BOS 14 23 17 13 9 10 Boston Celtics MIN 12 1 10 19 26 23 New York Knicks TOR 11 17 11 10 8 14 Indiana Pacers MIA 10 7 20 5 13 15 Detroit Pistons CLE 9 13 12 4 14 12 Los Angeles Clippers PHX 7 4 9 11 7 20 Toronto Raptors NY 5 3 13 3 5 18 Miami Heat IND 4 2 3 18 2 8 Cleveland Cavaliers DET 3 18 6 6 3 2

Another easy thing to watch is exhaustion control. Many coaches will rest players on the 2nd half of consecutive games. Basketball can take it’s toll and coaches need to keep their players fresh when they can. Players playing back to back games become prime targets for rest or limited minutes, obviously hurting their fantasy production and value to us. We further watch for situations like 3 games in 4 nights or the dreaded 4 games in 5 nights. We also watch traveling teams with particular interest.

BACK 2 BACKS! – Graphic containing teams we should watch for limited minutes and/or rest days.

Team B2B 2of3 3of4 4of5 Atlanta Yes Yes Boston Yes Yes Yes Brooklyn Charlotte Chicago Cleveland Yes Dallas Denver Detroit Yes Yes Yes Golden State Yes Yes Houston Indiana Yes Yes Yes L.A. Clippers Yes L.A. Lakers Yes Yes Yes Memphis Miami Yes Yes Milwaukee Yes Yes Minnesota Yes Yes New Orleans New York Yes Yes Oklahoma City Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Yes Yes Yes Portland Sacramento San Antonio Toronto Yes Yes Yes Utah Washington

I am taking injury news out of this for now, as I haven’t found an easy way to pull only the relevant news. Way too time-consuming for something that changes through the day so often, and too time-consuming for a first glance type of article.

Again, this is not the end-all be-all when it comes to analyzing a slate. This is a first glance to identify targets we may want to dive deeper into. You may, in fact, choose a player in a poor DvP matchup due to other indicators, especially on a short slate night. Don’t overthink this stuff. The concept is to put your players in the best spots to be successful and roll them out. Keith and I will be back later to provide the VIP Insiders with more in-depth player analysis and specific picks for tonight. And, of course, the cheatsheets! (Remembering, of course, cheatsheets come out on slates 5 games and larger.)

One thing I want you guys to know, since there have been questions. I am the writer, Keith is the player picker. You are getting Keith’s picks and analysis…….not mine (outside of the occasional opinion). I am an NBA noob but have a heavy research mind, am a quick learner, and like to write for you. Keith is a talker and, frankly, doesn’t like writing novels, especially in situations where things change rapidly and undo all the work. He will put out strategy articles, but he is more focused on researching the best player picks for you. With the time this consumes, he needed a little help in getting his thoughts put on paper and communicated to you more effectively. Enter me. We don’t want there being any confusion as to where the picks and analysis is coming from. It’s his mind…..my writing.

Head to the Mess Hall, soldiers. Dismissed!