The RotoWire Blog has been retired.

These archives exist as a way for people to continue to view the content that had been posted on the blog over the years.

Articles will no longer be posted here, but you can view new fantasy articles from our writers on the main site.

NBA Daily Games Review: Trust Tracker

I use the Trust Tracker to publicly track the usefulness – or lack thereof – of the recommendations I made in my most recent Daily Games Cheat Sheet article.

For a more detailed introduction, check out my first and second posts here and here.

Players are measured according to their p/K (points per thousand dollars spent). Depending on their p/K and the approximate number of points needed to win a 50-50 league that night, players are rated as either "helpful", "competitive", or "harmful".

On a normal night with a full slate of games (roughly 10 or more), you will need to score between 240 - 250 points to win a 50-50 league. On those nights, a p/K of 4.8 or higher is helpful, a p/K between 4.0-4.8 will keep a roster competitive, and a p/K below 3.5 is harmful.

Those are our baseline benchmarks, but it is important to adjust my analysis so that it reflects the night in question. While there is always variation from contest to contest, the scores required to win each one on any given night are usually very closely grouped, regardless of entry cost. Last time I wrote the Daily Games Cheat Sheet, Wednesday, November 19, the scores required to win most contests were between 215-225 (90% of the 240-250 range). As such, I will proportionally decrease expectations for this analysis:

  • Scores above 4.3 p/K are helpful
  • Scores between 3.6 and 4.3 p/K keep a roster competitive
  • Scores below 3.2 p/K are harmful

In Wednesday's article, I recommended 13 players for use (technically 14, but Evan Fournier was a late scratch):

  • Nine players (69% of those recommended) recorded p/K values above 4.3.
  • Four players (36%) recorded p/K values above 5.5.
  • One player (8%) recorded a p/K value between 3.6-4.3.
  • Two players (15%) recorded p/K values below 3.2.
  • The best recommendation was JJ Barea, who recorded a p/K of 8.6. He registered the 10th highest p/K in the league Wednesday night.
  • The worst recommendation was Iman Shumpert. Shumpert went 1 for 11 from the field during his 28 minutes in the Knicks' loss to the woeful injury-riddled Timberwolves. His 10 fantasy points corresponded to a 2.6 p/K.

Overall, 77 percent of my recommendations were of competitive value or better, 69 percent were actively helpful, and 15 percent were damaging. This ranks as one of my best nights this season.

Because only four of my 13 recommendations were priced above the per-roster-spot average of $6,250, the team I entered on DraftKings Wednesday featured several high priced options not included in the article.

Season total

Through six articles this season, I have recommended 91 players for use.

  • 55 have been helpful (60%)
  • 66 have been competitive or better (73%)
  • 17 have been harmful (19%)