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.

All of the heavy hitters are coming out to play tonight – We’ve got Russ and KD with a cake matchup against the Suns, Boogie and LeBron will face off against each other in a game featuring the highest over/under of the evening, and AD will once again entice us with his upside.

If we want to squeeze one or two of these players into our lineup, we need to identify value at the lower tiers. When I’m looking for bargain players, the two key components I start with are playing time and usage rate. Knowing that these two components generally correlate into fantasy success, let’s build our Trend based upon them.

Trend: Players projected for 30+ minutes and a usage rate of at least 25% priced at $6,000 or lower

Step 1: Trends > Player Filters > Salary > “2000 to 6000”

 

Step 2: Projections > Projected Minutes > “30 to 46.3”

 

Now, we could stop here and likely have a solid group of players to choose from – as the Plus/Minus of +2.98 in the upper-right hand corner indicates. But let’s continue on and include the projected usage rate to see if we can really expose some value.

Step 3: Projections > Projected Usage > “25 to 32.1”

 

Okay, we’ve now included all of the factors we need, so on to the results!

 

Whoa! A Plus/Minus of +6.17 and a Consistency Rating of 70.9%. So not only are these players out-producing their price point, they’re doing so at a ridiculously consistent clip. Now that we know this Trend has proven to be an indicator of past success, which players can we target tonight that fit these parameters?

 

Unsurprisingly, we have three players that have been underpriced lately considering their recent production.

Playing around with the usage rate and/or minute projections will likely broaden your matches, so feel free to dive in and see what other values you can uncover while utilizing the Trends tool!