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.

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.

VEGAS LINES – It honestly all starts here. 200 is the standard for a game in which we can expect fantasy goodness to appear. But, a lot more factors come into play, too. We don’t try to predict blowouts, but red spreads indicate the possibility. I will also add the NBA is changing. Last season, there may have been one game total over 230. This season, we have already seen more than ever. 190 totals are becoming more uncommon than common. We may revisit the magical 200 someday and call it 215. Either way, I am targeting the highest few games on any slate, regardless of the totals. I use this graphic as a guide.

Road Team Home Team Favorite Spread Total Tip-Off New Orleans Pelicans (26-44) at Indiana Pacers (37-33) IND -13 207.5 7:00 PM Chicago Bulls (36-33) at New York Knicks (28-43) CHI -4.5 202 7:30 PM Cleveland Cavaliers (50-20) at Brooklyn Nets (19-51) CLE -8 208 7:30 PM Utah Jazz (34-36) at Oklahoma City Thunder (49-22) OKC -9.5 199.5 8:00 PM Portland Trail Blazers (36-35) at Los Angeles Clippers (43-26) LAC -5 214 10:30 PM

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 under-perform.

Team Offense Opponent Team Total PPG Team +/- Indiana Pacers NO 110.3 101.8 8.5 Los Angeles Clippers POR 109.5 104.6 4.9 Cleveland Cavaliers BKN 108 103.9 4.1 Brooklyn Nets CLE 100 98.3 1.7 Chicago Bulls NY 103.3 101.8 1.5 New York Knicks CHI 98.8 98.5 0.3 Portland Trail Blazers LAC 104.5 104.5 0 Utah Jazz OKC 95 97.8 -2.8 Oklahoma City Thunder UTA 104.5 110.2 -5.7 New Orleans Pelicans IND 97.3 103.2 -6

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 +/- Utah Jazz OKC 93.4 94.8 1.4 Indiana Pacers NO 99.1 100.2 1.1 New Orleans Pelicans IND 99.2 100.2 1 New York Knicks CHI 95.9 96.6 0.7 Portland Trail Blazers LAC 97.9 98 0.1 Los Angeles Clippers POR 98.2 98 -0.2 Cleveland Cavaliers BKN 95.4 94.2 -1.2 Chicago Bulls NY 98.8 96.6 -2.2 Brooklyn Nets CLE 96.9 94.2 -2.7 Oklahoma City Thunder UTA 99.5 94.8 -4.7

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 in the 2nd column. Example, the IND C is, theoretically, in great spot.

Team Defense Opponent TotalFPA vs. PG vs. SG vs. SF vs. PF vs. C Chicago Bulls New York 25 28 15 26 24 25 Brooklyn Nets Cleveland 24 24 24 21 21 24 New Orleans Pelicans Indiana 22 20 26 14 17 29 Portland Trail Blazers L.A. Clippers 17 25 19 4 22 26 Oklahoma City Thunder Utah 11 22 22 10 8 5 New York Knicks Chicago 10 18 16 8 6 18 Indiana Pacers New Orleans 9 9 9 7 9 14 Los Angeles Clippers Portland 8 7 6 11 10 17 Cleveland Cavaliers Brooklyn 3 16 8 3 1 1 Utah Jazz Oklahoma City 2 8 2 2 2 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! – Graphics containing teams we should watch for limited minutes and/or rest days. Maybe hard to see the colors, but yellow is caution, orange is a little more caution, and red is just crazy.

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

If you made it this far and appreciate the tips and snippits of advice you are getting, you might want to see/learn more. For information on joining the VIP Insiders, click HERE! You will gain access to:

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Daily player picks on slates with 5 or more games, only excluding Sundays.

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Bankroll Challenge rolling results since Feb 22, 2016…..

Date Score Money IN Money Out Profit/Loss Adjusted Bankroll Wed – 9a 300 7 2.3 -4.7 124.2 Wed – 9b 321.2 7 12.1 5.1 129.3 Thrus – 10 301.5 8 4 -4 125.3 Fri – 11a 279.1 12 2.5 -9.5 115.8 Fri – 11b 336.6 9 30.2 21.2 137 Fri – 18 162.5 Mon – 21 260.2 13 4.2 -8.8 153.7 Tues – 22 n/a n/a n/a n/a 153.7 Wed – 23a 306 7 4.8 -2.2 151.5 Wed – 23b 277.5 7 2.3 -4.7 146.8 Wed – 23c DK – 335 3 13.4 10.4 157.2

Note I played 3 LUs last night. I had 2 on FD and 1 on DK. I had a couple players I liked and wanted to mix them in. I also wanted to hedge a potential bad LU with another LU…..odds of both going bust are bad. And, I wanted to try DK out again since I haven’t studied the differences in NBA construction much. Turns out I nailed the DK LU with to my knowledge was a really solid score of 335. I believe it was my first #300Club on the site this season (granted, I’ve played about 3 sessions).

However, what I want you to take note of, yet again, is the money returned on FD. These are the small leagues. Had I played a 50/50, I’m not sure I’d have gotten anything back. I didn’t use a ton of late players and I was chased down by the hammer for the most part (at one point I was up $40 on the 306 LU alone). By at least playing these small leagues, BOTH LUs returned something to avoid a complete loss on the night….the exact thing I was trying to hedge against by creating a 2nd LU. Honestly, I think the most impressive thing is how late in the season I’m still able to post positive returns on LUs. Late season is tough in any sport because the new guys have dried up and all that’s left are typically those that were having success and those that love the sport to the point they know what they are doing. Ha…..maybe I know what I’m doing…..

This Morning Briefing article, again, 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.)