Starting 5: Analyzing Touches – Saturday, January 17th
The Starting 5 Series will provide Grinders a quick look at the day’s top positional plays, analyzed through the lens of our Daily Research Tools.
Today we’ll take a closer look at the NBA Advanced Statistics and analyze Touches per game. It’s tough to be relevant in fantasy if you don’t have the ball in your hand, so we will take a look at some of the guys that handle the ball the most at each position.
As we near the halfway point of the season, we have plenty of data to support the rankings. However, it’s always important to remember that you can’t blindly use a player just because the team he’s facing is weak against his position. Use the other tools available at RotoGrinders, such as DvP, to make sure you’re rostering a player that makes meaningful contributions to his team, and is thus in a good position to actually take advantage of the strong matchup.
POINT GUARD
Michael Carter-Williams – As you can see, MCW is trouncing the league in touches per game, easily besting everyone. Most of this production has come with Tony Wroten available, but Wroten is out for tonight’s game. That means it’s a near certainty that MCW will eclipse his season average, and be the player that touches the ball the most in this contest. He needs the volume, as you can see he does less per touch than some of the top guys like CP3, but sheer volume allows him to be a consistent force in fantasy.
SHOOTING GUARD
James Harden – Harden is the clear #1 when it comes to SGs when looking at touches per game, coming in a full nine touches per game over Kobe Bryant. Harden gets so many touches, he actually out-touches Patrick Beverley, the Rockets starting PG! He bests every PG in FPTS/Touch as well (PGs typically have less FPTS/Touch as they handle the ball the most). This is all a part of why Harden is so effective, and is usually the top FPT scorer every night at the SG position. He is basically the Point/Shooting guard for the Rockets, handling the ball nearly every time up the court and taking plenty of shots and driving to the hoop.
SMALL FORWARD
Nicolas Batum – Batum is a player who is a much better real life NBA player than he is a fantasy player. He touches the ball the third-most out of any SF in the game, trailing just LBJ and Green this season (Durant will soon jump ahead of him as well), but his FPT/touch is one of the lowest at the position. Batum is just not a player I target much when making my rosters, and this is one of the reasons why. He is just not involved enough in the Portland scheme to be fantasy relevant most nights, and has very limited upside on a daily basis for GPPs due to his inability to turn the high number of touches into FPTS. He is in here to show you that not all guys that touch the ball a ton are elite fantasy plays, so make sure to look carefully at all of the information rather than focusing on one statistic.
POWER FORWARD
Blake Griffin – I was not expecting Blake to lead all forwards in touches per minute when I looked at this. This makes Blake a great GPP target to me, as he is one of the most heavily involved PFs in the game as he brings the ball up the court quite a few times per game. If he manages to do just a little more than usual with his high number of touches on a given night, he could be in line for a monster night. A road game against the Kings could be a spot for Blake to do just that.
CENTER
Marc Gasol – Gasol easily out touches every other center in the game, as he is an elite passer for a big man. Racking up 71.1 touches per game, Gasol is the most heavily involved center on the board tonight, and should see a small uptick in touches as Mike Conley is doubtful to play. We saw last night how Gasol exploded for 50+ FPTS, and he could easily do that tonight with the extra touches he should see if Conley sits out.