Using RotoGrinders Tools in NBA DFS

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As I am a proud contributor at RotoGrinders, I felt that I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention our tools in one lesson. NBA is a sport where the edge is almost quantifiable based on the amount of research you put in. That’s why sharp players tend to like NBA the most out of the daily fantasy sports. It’s (relatively) predictable. We offer plenty of tools, both on the free side and the premium side, and these can certainly help you be more profitable in daily fantasy basketball.

I will start off by discussing some of the free tools.

NBA News Feed: RotoGrinders has a news feed set up for you to access late-breaking injury and lineup news right at your fingertips. This feed includes the Twitter accounts for every NBA beat writer and more. This is an imperative stop for your NBA DFS research, and it should be something you look at every day in the hour leading up until roster lock.

Vegas Odds and Lines: As I discussed way back in the first lesson, utilizing Vegas odds is one of the easiest ways to get a handle on daily fantasy basketball. Looking at the point spreads and over/unders will allow you to math out which teams are projected to score the most points on a given night and which games are going to be played at the fastest (and slowest!) paces. You will want to gear your roster selection toward players on teams that are projected to score more points.

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Market Watch: This tool will let you know which players have seen recent increases or decreases in price across the various daily fantasy sites. You may be able to catch an underpriced stud, an overpriced player that’s been on a hot streak, or simply catch a pricing error with this tool. It is simple to use and only takes five or ten minutes to glance over each week.

Player Stats and Advanced Player Stats: You don’t have to navigate to NBA.com or ESPN.com to get all your statistical data. You can get that for free on RotoGrinders, too! One page will break down your traditional stats like points, rebounds, and assists, while the advanced page will go a little further. The advanced page tells you just how valuable a player is to his team by breaking down his percentage of the team’s points, rebounds, assists, etc… It will also give you an offensive rating, defensive rating, and player efficiency rating for each player.

Editor’s Note: This is one of the many valuable DFS lessons that can be found over at RotoAcademy. Click here to browse through all of our free/premium offerings and improve as a daily fantasy sports player!

Defense vs. Position: This is my favorite tool out of all the free tools offered on RotoGrinders. It breaks down each team’s defense and how they fare against opposing players at each position. The results are broken down over recent games and for the season as a whole. This will allow you to see which teams are weak at defending each spot on the floor, and you can then use that to target opposing players in good matchups. This tool should quickly become one of your best friends.

Back-to-Back: This was a tool that we added during the 2014 regular season based upon feedback from users. NBA teams will often rest players or play them limited minutes when they are on a back-to-back game set or a three-games-in-four days set (looking at you, Greg Popovich). This chart gives users a handy reference to see how many games teams have played in recent days. It’s a good tool to use in a tiebreaking scenario as you set your daily fantasy rosters.

That covers most of the useful free tools that are offered at RotoGrinders. Of course, there are a variety of rock solid premium tools that can be purchased every year. These include the following:

Expert Picks and Analysis: Each day, a top RotoGrinders contributor will post expert picks and analysis for all the major sites. The larger sites have a separate article for “cash game” plays and “tournament” plays. These articles feature explanations for why we like individual players on a specific day and provide top-notch insight into the thought processes of some of the top players in daily fantasy basketball. This is the foundation of RotoGrinders incentives.

Expert Consensus Rankings: This is a tool that a lot of players like to use when they have to set lineups in a pinch. Several of the top NBA contributors on RotoGrinders will rank their top five plays at each position every day. These rankings are then aggregated and averaged to show the best plays across the board at each position on a per-dollar basis. This tool can also be used to make sure you aren’t missing an obvious play that the experts are touting.

Daily Matchup Charts: This page consolidates individual player statistics, defense vs. position metrics, and other factors to highlight the best plays of the day. It then compares those statistical measures to the player price on FanDuel or DraftKings to come up with a weighted “dollars per fantasy point” projection. The lower the dollars per fantasy point, the better the play. This is a handy sheet that I like to use to make sure I haven’t overlooked a prime play on a given day.

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Daily Cheat Sheet: This tool was also added during the 2014 NBA season as a result of user feedback. It consolidates players into four categories of usefulness that include “top play,” “upside play,” “punt play,” and “contrarian play.” The upside and contrarian plays are good for tournaments, while the top plays and punt plays can be used in any format.

There you have it: ten tools to help improve your daily fantasy NBA game, all located in one convenient place. We’ll hope to see you checking these tools out at RotoGrinders as you fill out your daily lineups! Good luck!

About the Author

stlcardinals84
Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84)

Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84) is a longtime RotoGrinders contributor and show host. He’s appeared in numerous Live Finals, has logged countless 6-figure wins in a host of different sports (including 5 in PGA), and is a former DFS Writer of the Year Nominee by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. You can find Justin’s ‘Covering The Bases’ series on weekends during the MLB season. He is also a main contributor of sports betting picks at our sister site, ScoresAndOdds, and is a co-host on the RotoGrinders Game Night show on SiriusXM. Follow Justin on Twitter – @stlcardinals84