NBA Lineup Optimizer

Daily fantasy basketball is one of the more hectic fantasy sports out there. Injury and starting lineup news tends to throw a wrench into the lineup making process, which is why our NBA optimizer is ever updating to the current news and generating optimal lineups. The projections are constantly being updated to real-world news, and it goes alongside all the features and tools you need to build winning lineups. Click on the projection models to give a unique spin on projections, or upload your own. Feel free to edit minutes and projections, as well as changing exposure to perfect those lineups being created. Whether you are looking to build a few lineups or 50, the optimizer is here to help you study up and create strong NBA daily fantasy lineups.

Breaking Down The NBA Lineup Optimizer

The NBA optimizer has a lot of bells and whistles that need some explaining. Starting with the drop downs, you have the site, slates, and projection tabs to play with. This will get you to the site you need, and then what slate you want to generate lineups. The projection drop down is going to give you the projection sets to choose from. Now the projections tab is going to show you each set of projections across each set so you can compare. The games tab is where you can exclude and like whole teams, alongside checking out Vegas data to indicate the top fantasy games to target.

Now once you get into the player tab, you can see all the data you need right here. You have the position and salary that are site specific, alongside the exposure you have set. The value and points per one thousand is going to indicate if you are getting a good deal on that player for what his projected outcome can be. You will also be able to see the opponent defensive data that shows how many fantasy points allowed per game they are allowing to that position, and then the overall defense vs position.

Minutes and usage rate is extremely important in DFS where you need to find players who are involved in the offense more and also play higher minutes. Under the performance area you can see how well players are performing and there, floor ceiling, and consistency rating. The projection models are going to be models that move player projections up or down based on the model you have selected. If you select Vegas Total model, it will put an emphasis on players who are in high projected total games, and those players who are not will see a slight drop in fantasy point projections.

When looking through players you can lock them in or exclude them to make sure that they don’t show up in your lineups. The locked players will always show up in your lineups and the rest of the lineup will still be optimized around them. If you are looking to only get a player in half of your lineups, use the exposure feature and change to 50%. Once you have generated lineups, you can make swaps within them still as long as your salary allows it. Save lineups for future use or download them to a csv to make it easier to upload to the contest of your choice.

Updating NBA Projections

We can’t stress enough staying on top of real-world NBA news, as it is key to having success in NBA DFS. Now our projections are ever updating, and we make sure we are bringing you the most updated projections throughout the day and night. The NBA injury reporting has been quite spotty, and it creates issues in our fantasy world. These news breaks can happen right as the slate locks, which is easily one of the most frustrating aspects of NBA DFS. Our optimizer is going to be updating based on this news and creating the best projections for fantasy points and minutes.

Now the minutes and projection fields are totally editable, as you can bump up minutes based on your own personal projections which will also change the projections. Taking the fantasy points per minute it will multiple based on the minutes you have changed to. You can also just change the fantasy projection. If you are looking to upload a mass amount of projections, the upload projections bar will give you a csv to drop projections into. You can save these projections and generate lineups.

Using The NBA Optimizer For Cash Games

For those playing cash games, you are going to want to create a lineup with safer players that have a high floor. Build around players who play a high amount of minutes and have a decent usage rate. Minutes equal fantasy production. The consistency rating is going to show you how often they are hitting that projection for the night as it will give you some comfort for a player hitting at an 80% rate over a player hitting at a 30% rate. You will also need to check on the floor of a player as that showcases the bare minimum average they have hit over the last ten games. These are the two key factors you want to look for. We have a cash game projection that focuses less on a player’s ceiling and their overall fantasy production.

The consistency model will help point out those players that are hitting at a consistent rate. You can also use the usage and Vegas total models to help you key into those players that are highly involved in the offense and also on teams projected for a big offensive night. In cash games you are not too worried about ownership, as you just want to make the safest lineup possible. You are also likely just running one or two lineups, rather than a tournament where you might be diversifying a bit. Check out the target score when you generate your lineups as you want to shoot for a specific score each night.

Using The NBA Optimizer For GPPs

With tournaments having a higher cut line score and also only paying out 20-30% of the field, you are going to need to factor in ownership and higher ceilings. For tournament lineups you can take a bit more risk, where a player has a high ceiling, but not the safest player due to consistency or things such as foul trouble. There is a GPP projection drop down where this is geared to show more of a ceiling projection. Not all players will get a bump, however, as if they they don’t have a high ceiling the projection will be a bit lower. You can also use the ceiling projection model to give you a narrowed down look at players with the highest ceiling for the given night.

Ownership is another aspect of winning tournaments, as you are trying to beat out the entire field, unlike cash games where you are trying to beat out just 50%. You can find lower ownership players in lower total or blowout games, as the public drifts towards higher total games. You can also look for players in average to below average matchups as once again the public will drift towards players in the best matchups possible. There will also be players with lesser minutes that still have big potential, but are a bit more risky because the minutes are on the lower side. Taking chalk value can still be used in tournament lineups, because there is such thing as good chalk. However if there is some risky chalk and the field is going to be heavy on him, you can fade and have a leg up if he drops a dud on them.

FAQ

What Are Projection Models?

The projection models in the optimizer are going to affect each player’s projections based on the models selected. For example the usage rate model will bump up projections for players with higher usage rates, and lower projections for players with lower usage rates.

What Sites Does NBA Optimizer Support?

The NBA Lineup Optimizer supports DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo contests. These sites offer the most contests for NBA, and are considered the most popular. You can export and upload lineups to any of these three sites for the contests that they offer.

What Is Game Theory?

Game theory within the NBA optimizer is going to show how fantasy viable a game is going to be for that team. Higher totals and closer spreads will result in a better game theory compared to games that have lower totals or larger spreads.

Why Is A Player Listed At Different Positions?

You might notice on player is listed as point guard on one site and shooting guard at another. We are simply following the positions that are given to us based on sites, as they are the ones who decide what the positions are.

Can I Save Generated Lineups?

If you have generated lineups and want to come back to them later, you can save them for future use. They will stay saved until the next day’s slate resets, where those lineups will not be useful anymore to play.

How Often Do Projections Update?

Keeping projections updated in NBA is very important, as injuries will cause drastic changes in projections. Projections are updated throughout the day, and frequently closer to lineup lock where more news comes piling in. Projections continue to update throughout after lock as well.

Can I Upload Generated Lineups To Contests?

Yes, once you have generated some lineups you can upload them via a CSV to the site you are playing on. There will be an upload button on the site you are on to upload the lineups you have generated with the optimizer.

What Is FPPM?

FPPM stands for fantasy points per minute. It is simply calculating fantasy points and dividing them by minutes to show you how many fantasy points a player is getting per minute on the court. This will show you how efficient players are for scoring fantasy points.