Let me start by saying that I am NOT an NBA guy. I enjoy it, I dabble in it, but I am very far from an expert. That said, a couple of weeks ago I got curious to see how the bottom teams against the spread one year fared ATS the next season. (My theory, loosely based on the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy, was that there might be some correction the following season for the 4 or 5 teams with the worst ATS records.)
What I found was largely inconclusive, with one exception - the worst team ATS. Going back 10 seasons, the worst team ATS in a given NBA has lost 53.64% of its games ATS the following season. That may not seem like a lot, but the sample size is a fairly substantial 820 games. Also using -105 lines, 7 of the 10 seasons were profitable. Here is the season-by-season breakdown:
Win Percentage Fade Percentage 2006-07 50 50 2007-08 48.10 51.9 2008-09 39.00 61 2009-10 43.20 56.8 2010-11 45.10 54.9 2011-12 44.60 55.4 2012-13 38.30 61.7 2013-14 57.80 42.2 2014-15 50.60 49.4 2015-16 46.90 53.1 Average 46.36 53.64
Last year, Houston was at the bottom of the NBA against the spread. At this point I don't plan on fading Houston every game, by I will try to track this on a regular basis in his thread.
Best of luck to all this season!