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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, Thursday, December 11, the scores required to win most contests were between 235-245 (98% of the 240-250 range). As such, I will proportionally decrease expectations for this analysis:

  • Scores above 4.7 p/K are helpful
  • Scores between 3.9 and 4.7 p/K keep a roster competitive
  • Scores below 3.4 p/K are harmful

In Thursday's article, I recommended 9 players for use:

  • Five players (56% of those recommended) recorded p/K values above 4.7.
  • Five players (56%) recorded p/K values among the top three at their position.
  • Three players (33%) recorded a p/K value between 3.9-4.7.
  • One player (11%) recorded p/K values below 3.4.
  • The best recommendation was Jason Thompson, who recorded a p/K of 8.0. He registered the 2nd highest p/K in the league Thursday night. I also recommended Patrick Beverley, whose 7.0 p/K was the 4th highest in the league Thursday.
  • The worst recommendation was Reggie Evans. Despite averaging 32 minutes per night in the two games before Thursday, Evans was unexpectedly demoted, losing most of his workload to Derrick Williams. Williams had averaged fewer than 18 minutes a game in the three previous contests, but played 34 minutes Thursday. Evans totaled only 11 total fantasy points for a p/K value of 2.2.
  • In Thursday's contest, I recommended the best available power forward, the second best point guard, small forward, and center, and the third best small forward. The only position at which I did not recommend a top three player was at shooting guard – the shooting guard I recommended (Anthony Morrow) recorded a "helpful" 5.6 p/K, but three other shooting guards scored even higher.

Overall, 89 percent of my recommendations were of competitive value or better, 56 percent were actively helpful, and 11 percent were damaging.

The team that I entered Thursday on DraftKings was created using only players highlighted in my Thursday article. I tallied 245 points for an overall p/K of 4.9.

Season total

Through 12 articles this season, I have recommended 152 players for use.

  • 88 have been helpful (58%)
  • 114 have been competitive or better (75%)
  • 28 have been harmful (18%)

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