Fantasy Basketball Advice: Play Against the Weak Defense
Dec 17, 2009 Blog
When setting your daily fantasy basketball roster or playing daily fantasy cash games, one of the most important factors that should influence your roster selection is the quality of the opposing defense. What may look like a difficult roster decision between two equally talented players often turns into a easy call once opposition is considered.
The Bottom 5 defenses (ratings in parentheses) in the NBA through Week 8 are :
- Toronto (116.3)
- Memphis (111.7)
- Philadelphia (11.4)
- Phoenix (110.7)
- Sacramento (110.6)
The Top 5 defenses (ratings in parentheses) in the NBA through Week 8 are:
- Boston (99.4)
- LA Lakers (99.8)
- Charlotte (100.0)
- Dallas (102.6)
- Cleveland (103.2)
While you must always start your superstars against any of the Top 5 defenses, it can usually be a safe move to bench your average players and find better options playing weaker defenses. When playing the Bottom 5 defenses, even some of those questionable players on your roster can become must starts. It’s all about the competition.
If you want to tweak the system even more, you should combine the defensive ratings of the opposition with the pace factors of the opposition. For example, while Philadelphia has the third worst defense in the league, they are the fourth slowest paced team in the NBA. Depending on the pace of the team of your selected fantasy player, Philly might not be the best opponent because even though the defense is weak, the number of opportunities they provide your fantasy player to score against them is small.
Ultimately, the balance of pace and defensive rating falls into a sweet spot like Golden State, who have the 6th worst defense and play at the fastest pace in the NBA. Not only are they easy to score against, they provide you with plenty of opportunity to do so.
The use of opposition defensive rating and pace can lead to some great fantasy starts.
Tags: Advice, fantasy basketball, Strategy