NBA Tool Analysis: Offense vs. Defense
Hello Grinders!
We are back for another edition of the NBA Tool Analysis series. Today we are going to take a look at the Offense vs. Defense tool. This is one of the tools that only shows the matchups for that specific day of games, but I’ll preview how you can use it on a daily basis. It can be a great resource for finding which games to target multiple players in and which games to avoid entirely.
For this article, I’ll be highlighting the Offense vs. Defense Basic and Pace/Scoring tabs. The legend below shows how the fantasy points per game stat is calculated.
Targeting teams going up against the Lakers has been very profitable so far this season. As we can see from the chart below, tonight is no different. The Mavs have one of the best offenses in the league and they should only get better with the recent addition of Rajon Rondo.
The other elite offensive matchup of the night goes to the Trail Blazers. They rank nearly five fantasy points higher than the third-ranked team of the night. Portland is also expected to have the highest rebounding total of the night, so targeting their bigs isn’t a bad idea either. Looking at projections for peripheral stats like rebounds and assists is a good way to know which matchups to target.
We can also use this tool to see what teams have the worst fantasy matchups of the night. Indiana and Memphis are known as slow paced, solid defensive teams, so targeting players going against them should be a fairly rare occurrence. This tool is showing us, however, that for tonight’s slate there are three teams that have even tougher fantasy matchups than the Pistons and Rockets. Sometimes perception vs. reality can cost you if you don’t do your due diligence with your research.
The Pace/Scoring tab can also be very useful in uncovering optimal matchups.
To no surprise, the Mavericks are again the top-rated team on the night. However, the Spurs have now jumped up to the number two matchup on the night in terms of pace, while the Trail Blazers have dropped out of the top six matchups on the night. It’s odd to see that the Cavs are top three on this list, given that both paces are low. This is certainly a matchup that will need some more attention in my research.
My main use of this tool is to find games that I want to target, and then I’ll use a tool like the DvP Cheat Sheet or the Advanced Player Stats tool to find individual players that I want to get into my lineups for that night.
Hopefully this information will help you in your quest to build a profitable lineup. Have a great weekend and check back next week as I highlight another free RG research tool.
As always feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on twitter, @Socky21.