NBA

Daily Fantasy NBA Adjusted Matchups and Pace for 4/15/21

Brandon Gdula  —  @gdula13 Apr 15th, 2021

Matchups matter in daily fantasy NBA, and it can be hard to keep everything -- pace, defensive rating, individual matchups -- tidy, so I wanted to fix that by dumping all the data into one place for ease of use.

So every day, I'll be posting some information on each game for the NBA main slate.

That'll include things like opponent-adjusted offensive and defensive ratings for each team. I'll also look at opponent-adjusted paces based on the team-level as well.

And to go a step further, I'll provide defense-versus-position (DvP) values based on FanDuel points per minute allowed to each position. The way that'll work is to adjust on the individual level. This means looking at each player's total fantasy points per minute mark to figure out an expected output in a game and comparing it to what actually happened. Holding a superstar and a role player to the same FanDuel-point-per-minute mark isn't quite the same. These values will adjust for expectation.

These values initially included last season's data but now show only stats from the 2020-21 season.

Adjusted Offensive Rating and Opponent Defensive Rating

This table shows each team's spread and implied total (plus the over/under for their game). It also includes opponent-adjusted offensive rating and the adjusted defensive rating for each team's opponent, including league-wide ranks for each.

Teams are sorted by implied team total.

Team Opp Over/
Under 		Spread Implied
Total 		Adj.
Offensive
Rating 		Rank Opp Adj.
Defensive
Rating 		Rank
PHX SAC 231.5 -13.0 122.25 118.9 7 123.7 30
MIL ATL 229.0 -4.5 116.75 120.2 5 113.3 18
GS CLE 224.0 -8.5 116.25 106.8 21 113.5 20
ATL MIL 229.0 4.5 112.25 115.9 9 109.0 8
SAC PHX 231.5 13.0 109.25 112.8 12 106.5 5
BOS LAL 212.0 -6.0 109.0 115.1 11 100.3 1
CLE GS 224.0 8.5 107.75 98.2 29 108.9 7
LAL BOS 212.0 6.0 103.0 107.0 20 112.0 12

Adjusted Pace and Expected Pace, Offensive Rating, and Points

This table shows each team's adjusted pace and adjusted opponent pace to find expected pace. Expected offensive rating combines each team's adjusted offensive rating and the opponent's adjusted defensive rating. Combining expected pace and expected offensive rating gives us expected points.

This table is sorted by matchup in terms of fastest average pace.

Team Opp Adj.
Pace 		Rank Opp
Adj.
Pace 		Rank Expected
Pace 		Expected
Offensive
Rating 		Expected
Points
GS CLE 102.5 3 98.1 19 100.3 110.1 110.5
CLE GS 98.1 19 102.5 3 100.3 103.5 103.8
MIL ATL 102.1 5 98.1 20 100.1 116.8 116.9
ATL MIL 98.1 20 102.1 5 100.1 112.5 112.6
PHX SAC 97.3 27 101.4 7 99.4 121.3 120.5
SAC PHX 101.4 7 97.3 27 99.4 109.7 108.9
BOS LAL 97.7 25 97.8 22 97.8 107.7 105.3
LAL BOS 97.8 22 97.7 25 97.8 109.5 107.0

Player-Level Adjusted FanDuel Points per Minute by Position

This table is presented to be viewed from an offensive perspective (i.e. the defensive marks reflect the offense's opponent).

The matchups shown are their opponent's defensive FanDuel-point-per-minute mark adjusted for individual opponents faced. League-wide ranks are in parenthesis. Because outliers are the primary matchups worth targeting and avoiding, green cells indicate top-five easiest matchups for the offense, and red indicate bottom-five.

Teams are sorted alphabetically for ease of use.

Offense Defense PG SG SF PF C
ATL MIL 0.98 (21) 0.86 (12) 0.89 (24) 0.96 (19) 1.09 (12)
BOS LAL 0.98 (19) 0.84 (7) 0.81 (4) 0.89 (6) 1.03 (4)
CLE GS 0.95 (9) 0.86 (9) 0.87 (14) 1.00 (26) 1.20 (27)
GS CLE 0.96 (13) 0.87 (19) 0.88 (20) 0.95 (17) 1.14 (19)
LAL BOS 0.93 (6) 0.84 (5) 0.87 (15) 0.87 (3) 1.12 (15)
MIL ATL 0.97 (18) 0.87 (14) 0.87 (17) 0.93 (12) 1.08 (8)
PHX SAC 0.99 (23) 0.92 (27) 0.89 (25) 1.00 (27) 1.14 (21)
SAC PHX 0.88 (1) 0.77 (1) 0.79 (3) 0.90 (7) 1.08 (10)