This is a great question Brenno. A lot of the things you mentioned factor into the equation of a good pick up for the day. It you are a daily moves league with seven pick ups you are generally at a disadvantage if you are not utilizing them. This is another reason why it is a great idea to try and package two for one trades in which you are getting the best player. Freeing up an end of the bench option or two to stream is an easy way to do that. If you are in a weekly moves league you it may be slightly easier because you likely already have an end of bench option or two used for stashing or injury.

Now, in terms of DFS I look at a ton of things involving a teams schedule when deciding on whether or not they are in a good spot or not. Some of which will apply for regular fantasy basketball daily move leagues as well. The first thing I usually look at is is how many times is said team playing this week. After looking at that you could determine which spots are back-to-backs, prime time games and long distance games. What I mean by prime time games is the games that are played on days where there are four or less games (opening night was one). Most season long lineups will not be full on these days and grabbing a player off of the waivers who is playing in multiple prime time games could lead to having an advantage over your opponent in terms of games played. As for back-to-backs and long distance games you need to watch for that presty resty you had mentioned. Older players and players coming off of any injury could be limited or rested to prepare for a more important game a few days later. When I have an inclination or know that this is the case I tend to look at the rest of the team's usage when said player is off of the floor. I want to know who is possibly going to take advantage of the situation. Sometimes it is a player stepping into that role and starting and other times it is a player who takes control of the ball more and takes more shots when said player is off of the court. It is also worth noting when teams are traveling to Utah or Denver. The high altitude and thin air makes is hard on some player's stamina.

After I notice who is playing when and how many games they are playing that week I analyze their strength's of schedule. This helps me break down whether or not someone playing three games with a good matchup outweighs someone with a bad matchup playing four games. Things like DvP, league ranks (rebounds allowed, points allowed, points allowed in the paint and points allowed from three are some examples.

I also look at what Vegas thinks. Targeting games with higher game totals is a way to capitalize. The more points scored the greater the possibility of fantasy numbers being produced. Game totals could be elevated due to poor defensive teams facing off, but it also takes into account the pace at which the game is expected to be played. Now if you take a look at Advanced metrics you'll see the teams who played at the fastest pace last season. If we put that next to the teams who scored the most points in that same season we'll see a lot of similar teams. Those teams we know play fast and score a lot of points effectively. The other teams tend to be young,talented and take a lot of shots, but generally struggle with team effective field goal percentage.

I am leaving out a ton of other ways you to research daily and weekly pickups. One of the wonderful things about fantasy basketball is researching everything you could think of. Going to websites like Hoop Ball and NBA.com to research antidotes and advanced metrics. Sometimes you end up going down a rabbit hole that leads nowhere, but occasionally you stumble across a nugget of information that could be useful. Most people who analyze a sport professionally had a nerdy passion of looking up random stats for fun and just got better at it after practice and repetition. Another location you could find advanced metrics is Basketball-Reference . I hope some of this was able to help in some way and always feel free to jump on forums with a nugget of information you think is worth talking about. This community loves to chat and I am sure would chime in.