NBA Daily Grind Down: Monday 2/25
The RotoGrinders NBA Grind Down article is going to give you an in-depth analysis on every game each night (3 games minimum). This article will give you defense vs. position rankings and make notes on where you can exploit these matchups.
Tonight is a rare Monday in that we only have 4 games on the schedule, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still plenty of good matchups. Some of the worst defenses in the league play tonight so check out which players you need to target tonight.
NOTES:
1) Defense vs. Position rankings are how well a team defends against a certain position. The ranking is for the team that it is listed under, NOT the opponent.
2) Rankings are as follows: 30 is the worst defense against a position, 1 is the best.
3) Last 10 Game Data is collected at the start of each week. It will be updated each Sunday for the upcoming week.
Washington @ Toronto – 7:00 pm EST
| Washington D-Rank | Last 10 | Season | Toronto D-Rank | Last 10 | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Guard | 16 | 14 | Point Guard | 3 | 5 |
| Shooting Guard | 26 | 8 | Shooting Guard | 11 | 19 |
| Small Forward | 4 | 20 | Small Forward | 10 | 3 |
| Power Forward | 10 | 18 | Power Forward | 24 | 22 |
| Center | 9 | 23 | Center | 2 | 14 |
- As you can see from Washington’s defensive rankings, their defense has been in flux all season. They haven’t been particularly good or bad against any single position throughout the season. These type of numbers don’t tend to help us out, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still find value. Kyle Lowry has been playing well and draws a good matchup against John Wall who takes too many risks defensively. I would also recommend Jonas Valanciunas who is cheap on all sites across the board and should be good for 20 fantasy points.
- Toronto on the other hand has been very consistent defensively. They are good at defending PG’s and SF’s and tend to give up big games against PF’s and SG’s. The guy to keep your eye on for the Wizards is Nene Hilario. He was on a tear there for a while and then has struggled in his last 4 games. This is good for us because he is cheaper than usual and has a fantastic matchup. The thing to like most about Nene is that he is finally getting 30+ minutes consistently.
Atlanta @ Detroit – 7:30 pm EST
| Atlanta D-Rank | Last 10 | Season | Detroit D-Rank | Last 10 | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Guard | 22 | 27 | Point Guard | 12 | 11 |
| Shooting Guard | 15 | 13 | Shooting Guard | 5 | 22 |
| Small Forward | 8 | 17 | Small Forward | 29 | 16 |
| Power Forward | 16 | 12 | Power Forward | 20 | 14 |
| Center | 17 | 7 | Center | 21 | 27 |
- Atlanta has been an average defensive team at best this season and seem to be giving up more points lately. They have struggled against opposing Center’s recently, but I like Al Horford defense. I would target the guards on the Pistons tonight. Jose Calderon has a great matchup against the 27th ranked team against PG’s and I expect Rodney Stuckey to finally have a good game filling in for Brandon Knight.
- Detroit’s defense is bad against all positions except for SG, and wait Brandon Knight looks like he will be out again so you can throw that good ranking out. It would seem that all of the Hawks have pretty good matchups tonight, but I would give a slight edge to the bigs as Detroit has really struggled against big men and are still without Andre Drummond. Either take both Josh Smith and Al Horford or take the cheaper of the two.
L.A.Lakers @ Denver – 9:00 pm EST
| L.A.Lakers D-Rank | Last 10 | Season | Denver D-Rank | Last 10 | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Guard | 21 | 29 | Point Guard | 30 | 22 |
| Shooting Guard | 19 | 20 | Shooting Guard | 18 | 15 |
| Small Forward | 13 | 24 | Small Forward | 28 | 25 |
| Power Forward | 19 | 17 | Power Forward | 2 | 13 |
| Center | 28 | 22 | Center | 25 | 29 |
- The Lakers don’t have one ranking in the red and only have one ranking in the top half of the league. Not only that, but they are playing the Nuggets who can score with the best of them. I love Ty Lawson matchup as the Lakers are ranked 29th against PG’s. I also like the matchups of Andre Iguodala and Kenneth Faried. Gallinari still looks a bit hobbled, so take the safe route and stay away from him.
- Like I said above, the Nuggets love to score the ball which hurts their defensive rankings. The only position that they are really good at defending is PF. Kobe Bryant has a tough matchup against Iguodala, but I still think he will play well. The real matchup to like in this one is Dwight Howard. He should dominate Koufos and McGee and have a big night both on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
Boston @ Utah – 9:00 pm EST
| Boston D-Rank | Last 10 | Season | Utah D-Rank | Last 10 | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Guard | 15 | 6 | Point Guard | 18 | 21 |
| Shooting Guard | 2 | 6 | Shooting Guard | 23 | 12 |
| Small Forward | 25 | 11 | Small Forward | 2 | 10 |
| Power Forward | 17 | 20 | Power Forward | 29 | 26 |
| Center | 7 | 12 | Center | 1 | 6 |
- Boston has been pretty good at defending PG’s and SG’s which doesn’t matter too much because Tinsley and Foye are never really great plays anyway. Boston has also been good defending opposing Center’s recently. I still like Al Jefferson in this one though because he is at home and gets most of his buckets shooting jumpers and that famous little push shot that no one can block. Target him and don’t worry about the rest of the Jazz, Millsap is just too pricey for the amount of minutes he gets on a nightly basis.
- The Jazz are trying to make things easy on us. They are really bad against PG’s, SG’s, and PF’s and really good against the other two positions. That leaves us with the choice of Avery Bradley, Cortney Lee, Brandon Bass, and Jeff Green. Lee’s inconsistency worries me and Bass just isn’t producing lately. Therefore, I like both Avery Bradley and Jeff Green in this one. Although if Green’s price is still high, there are better options available tonight.