How important is pace factor?
By now you should already about how important pace factor can be when filling out your team’s roster. Players from the league’s more hectic-paced teams–Suns, Warriors, Pacers and Nuggets–often provide better production than players from the league’s slower-paced teams–Spurs, Pistons and Blazers–simply because their teams have more possessions per game.
But how much of a difference are we talking about? Is this over-analysis or really something fantasy owners should concern themselves with?
First, it’s absolutely a mistake to consider only pace factor. While the Supersonics have the sixth highest pace factor in the NBA (you need ESPN insider for this link), they also own the leagues second-worst offensive efficiency ranking, cancelling out any advantage they would have.
Now, let’s look at the extremes. Denver leads the NBA with 102.6 possessions per game, while Detroit is last with 90.5 possessions per game. If each team has a player logging 30 minutes per game, then the Denver player would be involved in about 7.5 more possessions per game (64.1 to 56.6), a pretty substantial difference.
So yes, there is something to this pace factor thing. At the same time, there are only a handful of teams (the Nuggets, Suns, Warriors and the Lakers) that boast both an above average pace factor as well as an acceptable offensive efficiency rating. Just something to keep in mind next time you make a transaction.
Tags: Denver Nuggets, fantasy basketball, Golden State Warriors, pace factor, Phoenix Suns
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