We truly believe here at FantasyLabs that we have the most unique tools and data available to DFS users. However, we also realize that those tools and data are only as awesome and helpful as our ability to effectively communicate how to use everything. As such, we will continually listen to feedback of what you need and try our best to teach our subscribers how to use all of the cool things we have to offer.
With this in mind, we’ve begun a “Trend of the Day” series. Every weekday we’ll walk our subscribers through an important trend for that day’s slate of games.
Tonight, we have a huge 14-game slate. We had six teams play last night and four of those teams will also be in action tonight. The other 24 teams will be playing in their first game since the All-Star Break and coming in with at least eight days rest. With that, is it worth focusing on the players coming off of an extended rest period rather than those playing in a B2B? Luckily for us, we can use the Trends tool to quickly compare those two situations.
Trend: Players with five or more days of rest vs. Players on back to back
First, let’s take a look at the players who have not played since prior to the All-Star Break.
Step 1: Trends > Time Filters > Days Between Games > Set to “8 to 11”
Referencing the top right-hand corner of the photo above, we can see that this gives us a Plus/Minus of +1.26. Next, we will take a look at the players who are playing one day of rest between games, signifying that they are playing in the second game of a back-to-back.
Step 2: Time Filters > Days Between Games > Set to “1 to 1”
This shows that players playing in the second of back-to-back games have a Plus/Minus of +0.24, which is -1.02 points less than those players coming off of the extended period of rest.
The four teams who are playing in their second game in two days are the San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, and Chicago Bulls. If we wanted to, we could quickly see how those specific teams have performed in this situation.
Step 2: Team Filters > Team > Select to San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, Chicago Bulls > Sort by “Selected”
I showed off my crazy Microsoft Paint skills to visualize what was meant by “sort by selected.” Now we can see how each of the four teams playing in a back-to-back have performed when in that situation, which brings our Plus/Minus down from +0.24 to -0.15, a 0.39 point swing.
Unsurprisingly, players with more rest are performing better than those with less rest. I think there may be merit to focusing your cash lineups on some of the teams coming off of the long rest, barring any value plays popping up from the teams on back-to-backs. I won’t weigh this too heavily into any of my GPP decision making.
There we have it. Hopefully you guys use this information to build some solid lineups tonight. Enjoy the Trends tool and let us know what interesting trends you find while utilizing the tool.
