Inactive Teammate Overview

The Inactive Teammate tool, available here, compares how a player performs in games with a certain teammate against games without that same teammate. Note the below examples are from the 2020-21 NBA season, but the logic still applies.

Using this tool, DFS players can quickly identify the players most impacted by late-breaking news, or analyze how a player’s performance has changed after a trade or major injury involving a teammate.

When there is breaking news, it creates value, as certain players are in better roles than originally expected. They were priced to play 20 minutes off the bench, and instead a teammate is ruled out and they could get an expanded role.

With and Without can’t tell you exactly how a team’s rotation will change, but it can give you an idea how those rotations have changed previously in similar situations.

Example Scenario: Jamal Murray is out

Jamal Murray has just been ruled out for the Nuggets. The Inactive Teammate data has Michael Porter as the biggest beneficiary, and his game chart would agree.

There is a clear difference between Porter’s 62 games with and 12 games without Jamal Murray. Both Porter’s minutes and DraftKings (DK) points increase significantly.

Porter has huge upside without Murray, topping 45 DK points in 5 out of 12 games, compared to just 1 out of 62 games with Murray.

Regardless of Porter’s projection for a game, he is an interesting play in large tournaments (GPPs) when Murray is out, simply because he has a proven ability to put up the massive scores needed to win in that style of tournament.

We can quantify the impact of Murray being out: in 12 games without Murray, Porter averaged 12.04 more minutes per game (16.35 to 28.39) while also increasing his DraftKings points per minute by 0.37 (0.99 to 1.36).

Here is the data for Jamal Murray’s teammates:

Porter is the biggest beneficiary from Murray being out, but there are other interesting changes. Here is Monte Morris’ chart:

Monte Morris plays significantly more minutes without Jamal Murray (+10.46 per game), but his DraftKings points per minute fall just slightly (-0.06 per minute). The net result is a consistently higher-scoring player.

Morris doesn’t provide the same upside as Porter, but when he plays without Murray, he provides a safe floor, which can make him a strong cash play.

Reviewing the Drummond Trade

Last season the Pistons traded Andre Drummond to Cleveland on February 6th, freeing up minutes for Christian Wood.

The massive increase in Wood’s performance nicely highlights how dramatically one player can impact another.

In 17 games without Drummond, Wood averaged 15.02 more minutes (17.25 to 32.26) and increased his DK points per minute by 0.06 (1.16 to 1.22).

Once Drummond was traded, the statistics from games with both Wood and Drummond provided little value. Continuing to look at those statistic could cause you to undervalue Wood, when really he was a star after Drummond left.

How is the Inactive Teammate Tool different than other on/off court statistics?

Looking at how a player performs without a specific teammate on the court is not the same as how a player performs when that specific teammate doesn’t play at all.

When a player is out the entire game, it alters both the rotations and the usage available for the remaining players. The Inactive Teammate data tries to give you an estimate of those changes.