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.

My first thought when looking over tonight’s slate was that we have a lot of players with really impressive Projected Plus/Minus’s tonight, especially considering it’s only a six-game slate. Additionally, there are some decent over/under’s that will make for nice targets.

Let’s take these two variables that, on their own are generally positively correlated with success, and see how they fare when paired together.

Trend: Projected Plus/Minus of +5.0 or Greater & a Projected Game Total of at Least 210.

Step 1: Projections > Proj Minutes > Set to “25 to 46.3”

I always set a projected minutes floor. Always.

Without a floor, your population is going to be skewed by players who might only be seeing a few minutes of playing time per game.

Personally I use 25 as my floor, but I know others prefer to use 20. Play around with it and see where you’re finding the best results.

Step 2: Vegas Filters > Total > Set to “210 to 233”

I chose 210 as the floor due to research I had done setting up previous trends. I’ve found it to be a good break-point in terms of keeping a sample size large enough to be relevant and also still showing a positive correlation with average Plus/Minus.

Step 3: Projections > Proj +/- > Set to “6 to 24.89”

The selection of six as my floor was slightly arbitrary, but not entirely so.

I played around with quite a few different values before determining that a floor of 6.0 was offering me the best mix of sample size, average Plus/Minus, and Consistency. In these spots, I try to watch my sample size when adjusting values. If I notice it fall off a cliff by adjusting a value, I’ve probably gone too far.

Now let’s check out the final results and tonight’s matches.

Seeing the high Plus/Minus and Consistency ratings really help validate what my thinking was going into this trend.

Projected Plus/Minus has proven to me time and again that it’s a solid predictor of future success and I generally try to work it into my Trends if possible. And I think we all know that targeting a high game total is generally a profitable one.

The matches for tonight are a pretty diverse group. We’ve got a representative from every price range, from a budget option in Bogut all the way up to the top tier in Steph (if he plays).

As always, feel free to play around with the filters and see what different combinations you can come up with in our Trends tool for tonight’s games!