Take your game to the next level with advanced daily fantasy basketball strategy.

So you’ve mastered how to build a daily fantasy basketball cash game and tournament lineup, but you’re looking to take your game to another level. I have a few advanced daily fantasy basketball strategy tips that will hone your skills and increase your daily fantasy basketball profits.

Tip #1 - Utilize Vegas Odds

As discussed in previous articles, opportunity is everything. Not all opportunity is equal though. Each day, Las Vegas releases odds on the entire slate of games. By using Vegas odds, we can determine which teams are projected to be in high scoring games, as well as teams that may blow out their opponents, leading to players sitting out the 4th quarter. VegasInsider.com is my favorite source for Las Vegas odds.

Using this information is different depending on which style of contest you are playing though.

In both cash games and tournaments, high-scoring games are great to target. Ideally, your cash game lineups will feature players with high usage rates in high-scoring contests. More on usage rates a little later.

Those types of players are fine for tournaments as well, but in tournaments it’s also fine to target low usage players, players in low-scoring games, and players who fit both criteria. These will be players avoided by the general public, which means when they go off you will be “right” alone. Being right or wrong alone is the name of the game when it comes to daily fantasy basketball tournaments.

Of course, daily fantasy basketball is different from its other counterparts in that it is not advisable to build a lineup completely comprised of high-upside, volatile options. We talked in previous articles about how basketball is a game where opportunistic repetition is key, and you’ll still need a few “chalk” options on your rosters.

Tip #2 - Look for Teams Playing Up in Pace

By using Hollinger’s Pace Factor chart at ESPN.com, you can discern which teams play at the fastest pace in the league. Faster pace means more opportunity,and that generates higher point potential for opposing teams.

Notice I said opposing teams. Of course taking players from fast-paced teams is a good strategy too, but the real value lies in finding slower-paced teams that are playing way up in pace as this means they will see more possessions than they are accustomed to.

Tip #3 - Target High Usage Rates

Usage rate is THE STAT for daily fantasy basketball purposes. We want as much opportunity as we can get our hands on, and usage rate tells the story of how utilized a player is when he is on the court. Usage rates vary from game to game and situation to situation, which is why NBAWowy.com is a must-use site. You can customize the parameters for usage rates. One example would be adjusting usage rates to show how often Russell Westbrook is utilized when Kevin Durant is off the floor.

High usage rate players provide a great deal of stability to cash game teams, and it’s worth taking a few minutes to run the numbers every day.