NBA Big Events: Big Money Wednesday Recap
The NBA is back in full swing after a brutal four day all-star break, and while some of the all-star events were entertaining, it was hard for me to stay interested for too long. The dreaded days without either the NBA or NHL were long and painful, but now it’s time to get back to the grind and win some cash. At least the next long DFS layoff doesn’t come until mid-July.
Things have been going well for our members in the first two days post ASB, especially for the Panda (Naapstermaan). After taking down a seat in the PBC on Tuesday, he came out and won the DraftStreet Weekly $50K last night. Msidla was also a big winner on DS, taking down the $109 DSBBC qualifier with Chop just a few points behind. CPF501 dominated the DraftKings landscape by winning two Golden Tickets last night, with gary8700 taking down the third. In addition to the tournament breakdowns, there will be a section at the end of the article that covers the night’s top scorers/biggest busts around the NBA. Last night featured a 11-game schedule, which isn’t huge for a Wednesday but it leaves me with plenty to pick from. All RotoGrinders members who finished in the top-10 of a major tournament will have their names bolded.
DraftStreet DSBBC Qualifier #25 – $109
Congratulations to msidla (15th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard, 21st overall) on taking down the $109 Q with quite a few entries breathing down his neck as the late games were coming to a close. Big games from Joe and Wesley Johnson really helped to set him apart from the other entries with Harden/George, as both were at or under 4% owned. Chop (19th overall) finished just two points behind in third, thanks to some great under the radar picks of Jarrett Jack and Andray Blatche, who both were right around 3x value. Tslats (66th overall) finished seventh on the heels of Kemba Walker 50+ FP game, followed by dinkpiece (3rd on the NBA Grinder leaderboard, 5th overall) in eighth place and my personal favorite of the NBA GrindersLive hosts Al_Smizzle (9th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard, 15th overall) in tenth. You are a fool if you don’t tune into the 5:30 EST shows; even if you can’t pay close attention the whole show, it’s great to have on in the background while working on lineups.
DraftStreet Weekly $50K
Naapstermaan (33rd overall) took down the Weekly $50K with an absurd 320 point total, and would have won the DSBBC qualifier with room to spare had he entered this lineup. Kemba Walker, Paul George and James Harden were solid anchors, but under-owned gems like Elton Brand and Marcin Gortat put him over the top. Santino712 (726th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard), who was smart enough to take a flier on Danny Green (6.4K, 29.25 FP’s) on the back end of a B2B, finished 2nd, followed by badnewsvick (2634th on the Monthly leaderboard) in third. He got 41 points out of Joe Johnson (7.2K) and also played Danny Green, which gave him a huge leg up since they were both under-owned. LawnStar (4409th overall) finished 4th, followed by a tie for 5th between deebarizo (1184th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) and superk444 (1186th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard). RussARMNY (171st on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) makes his weekly appearance near the top of this leaderboard with a 7th place finish.
FanDuel $120K Super Slam
Congratulations to millican13 (1634th overall) on a very big win in the Super Slam, where he topped 385 points and was the only member of the tournament to cross the 380 mark. His lineup looks like a masterpiece in hindsight, and he did especially well with his high priced studs (Love, Harden, George). Aceking719 (425th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished 2nd, which had a lot to do with him being apart of the 5.4% of the field playing Elton Brand at $4000, who delivered in a big way with 36.7 FP’s. Next among the RG users was kccheifsfan73 (30th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard, 38th overall) in 8th place, with superbowlhomeboy (aka joshjacks8, 87th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) rounding things out in 10th.
DraftKings $27 Showcase Qualifier
It was a big night on DraftKings for CPF501 (48th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard), as he secured both of his possible two entries into the Showcase in just one night.. In the $27 qualifier, he had a nine point edge on 2nd place, and led himself to a huge night with Melo, Harden, Marshall and a big game from unheralded P.J. Tucker. Naapstermaan kept his heater going on DK, finishing 4th in this one with nearly 130 combined FP’s between Kevin Love and Kemba Walker. Poohdini (74th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished with entries in 5th and 10th place, with last week’s Golden Ticket winner stephenk32 finishing in 6th. CPF501 also ended up with a 7th place finish, followed by a tie for 8th place between superbowlhomeboy and monds6 (46th overall, 65th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard).
DraftKings $109 Showcase Qualifier
Golden Ticket No. 2 of 2 for CPF501 in this one, except this lineup was a few players different then his 1st place entry in the $27. PrimeTime420 (7th overall, 8th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished 3rd, with drolson22 (80th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) right behind him in 4th. This top-ten was basically full of Grinders, with CHITOWN-FRENZE (591st on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finishing 5th, metsfan828 (11th ranked NBA and overall Grinder) in 6th, and bubbleboy (aka PatJZ80, 37th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in 8th place. Metsfan828 and CPF501 had multiple top ten entries, rounding things out in 9th and 10th place.
DraftKings $270 Showcase Qualifier
A big shoutout to gary8700 (932nd overall) for securing a Showcase entry in a very tough field, and he really began to fly up the leaderboard around midnight (EST) with basically his entire lineup consisting of late-game players. PrimeTime420 was just a few points from taking down another Showcase Q, but he had to settle for a 2nd place finish in this one. Illinsquad (513th overall) finished 3rd, followed by dinkpiece in 4th place and Nate91 (194th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in 5th.
Studs & Duds of Wednesday Night
As you can see from the tournament breakdowns above, there are always a few players that make or break tournament teams on a nightly basis. We dealt with a some late breaking injuries (including a “rest” day for Tim Duncan) in addition to the trade deadline madness, so it was a night where you really had to stay on your toes, especially on late-swap sites. Let’s take a look at the difference makers in last night’s games…
Studs
Kevin Love – He’s just an absolute beast and can’t really be contained by anyone, so those who rolled him out last night (in a “below average” match-up) were pleased with the end result. Love had posted a double-double at halftime and didn’t take his foot off the pedal after the break, finishing with 42 points (including five 3’s) and 16 boards against the Pacers. I like playing him in GPP’s when he’s up against a tough opponent, because most of the field is hesitant to pay top dollar for a guy facing a tough defensive unit.
Paul George – George has started to get back in a groove, which was fairly obvious last night as the T’Wolves struggled to contain him just as much as the Pacers struggled with Love. After failing to consistently top the 20 point mark over the last two-three weeks, George went off for 35 points on 11-22 shooting (10-10 from the line) in addition to racking up 11 rebounds, 3 steals and a block. The seven turnovers put a slight damper on his stat line, but he exceeded value across the industry and I doubt anyone who played him was complaining with his output.
James Harden – Harden toyed with the Lakers (lack of) perimeter defense last night, hitting 5 of 7 looks from beyond the arc on his way to a 29 point, 11 assist, 6 rebound game which included five combined blocks and steals. He’s had a few huge games against the Lakers this season, which makes sense because they struggle with basically every backcourt they face and Harden is one of the NBA’s elite scorers, which he displayed proudly at Staples Center on Wednesday.
Kemba Walker – After a nice game on Tuesday against the Pistons on the road, he exploded against the same team a night later on his home court. Kemba handed out a season-high 16 assists in addition to his impressive point (24) and rebound (5) totals, and had no trouble slicing up the Pistons when the Bobcats weren’t attacking Andre Drummond in the post. The success of Al Jefferson and Cody Zeller opened up things for Kemba, and he took advantage of the lackluster defense from Brandon Jennings. Two steals and a block from Kemba was just icing on the cake.
Joe Johnson – With Deron Williams returning to Utah, it seemed like he was the Net with the best chance at posting a big fantasy line. Instead, the perennial all-star showed his worth with an extremely efficient night. JJ finished with 27 points on 10 of 16 from the field with six dimes, three steals and two boards. He blew his value out of the water on every site, and was a big time GPP difference maker for those with the stones to take the chance on him. Deron ended up with a very useful line (19-7-4) of his own, but taking salary into account he wasn’t even close to as valuable as Johnson.
Elton Brand – Can’t say I saw this one coming, but it seems like enough people did for him to become a key value play across the GPP landscape. With Gustavo Ayon out, Brand was left with the starting center duties and responded in a big way, posting 20 and 11 on 7 of 11 from the field, making him a gem on efficiency sites like DraftStreet (although you’ll take those numbers from him in any scoring format). Washington has actually been fairly good at defending the center position this season (8th on the year, 15th over the past two weeks), but Brand had it going on in the post and actually looked confident with the ball in his hands. He was able to get the Hawks back in the game after halftime with a few buckets, but he never really got much going late in the game and the Hawks went to their backups with some valuable time left in the 4th.
Carmelo Anthony – Melo was overlooked by a lot of people due to the match-up not being too appealing, but he put on one of his scoring exhibitions in a nice road win for the Knicks. He dropped 42 points on the Pelicans and added a combined five blocks and steals, which made up for his lackluster rebounding total (4). We all know Melo can pour it in with the best of them and he is really fun to watch when he’s on, and there just wasn’t a whole lot New Orleans could do once he got in a groove.
Kendall Marshall – With Steve Blake being traded not long before tip-off, Marshall was left with basically all of the ball-handling duties and he responded by posting 20 points, 16 assists and 3 steals with Patrick Beverley spending a fair amount of time on him. Marshall will remain a key cog in the LA backcourt as long as guys like Kobe, Nash and Farmar are on the shelf, and he can still be had for a discount on several sites (FanDuel and DraftKings to name a few) for Friday’s game. Say what you will about Mike D’Antoni, but the guy can create fantasy gold out of another team’s trash.
Nikola Vucevic – He’s not in that top tier pricing level right now with the likes of Al Jefferson, Dwight Howard and Andre Drummond, but he basically matched or exceeded the performance of those three at a much cheaper price and was a popular cash game play across the industry. Vuc went for 20 and 12 against the hapless Cavaliers front-court, although Tristan Thompson and Tyler Zeller both had their way with Vucevic on the other end. Zeller has had two consecutive big games relative to his price, but his value will be crushed once Spencer Hawes is in a Cavs jersey.
Patty Mills – Mills has been great recently with the Spurs dealing with injuries to Parker and Leonard, and he’s become one of the rare players that you can trust in a bench role. To be fair, he’s still seeing starters minutes, but the fact that he comes off the bench might scare away your average player. He somehow managed to get up 26 shots in just 29 minutes on the floor, and he was able to turn them into 29 points to go along with three boards, two assists and two steals. He’s not your typical point guard by any stretch, but the guy can put up points in a hurry when he’s confident. As long as Parker is out, he’ll be a strong GPP play with cash game appeal on sites that still haven’t bumped his salary up.
Duds
Andre Drummond – Drummond and Jefferson both managed to put up big performances in the meeting between these teams on Tuesday, but while the story stayed the same for Jefferson, Drummond had one of his worst outputs of the season. He was kept off the boards very well in this one after racking up 22 boards in Tuesday’s meeting, and it seems like Steve Clifford figured out a pretty good method of attack against the raw big man. Drummond will continue to post monster rebound totals on a regular basis, and this game should be considered more of an anomaly then anything else.
Nicolas Batum – Batum was one of my favorite plays with Aldridge out of action, since I thought he’d work some of the pick and pop plays that Aldridge was leaving behind, but instead he attempted just eight shots and made just two of them. He finished with a line of 8-5-5-1-2, and the lack of production matched with four turnovers equaled a poor fantasy effort from Batum. He’s dealing with a hand issue but he’s been able to play through it and has shot well at times while wearing the splint, so it was a bit frustrating to see him finish with such a limited stat line.
Tyreke Evans – Reke certainly had some GPP appeal on a site like FanDuel where his price has fallen below $6K, but he left his owners in a pretty large hole due to foul trouble in just 22 minutes. He didn’t help himself with a 3 for 11 shooting effort, and missed four of his six attempts from the line. Poor rebound and assist totals made matters even worse, so it was basically a complete disaster for Evans against the Knicks. He’ll probably come out with a 20 and 10 game his next time out, it’s hard to tell with him right now. He’s a very volatile player that comes off the bench (which equals uncertainty in playing time), which brings a fair amount of risk but he’ll remain a GPP option if his price stays low.
Stephen Curry – Curry stepped into a very solid match-up against the dinged up Isaiah Thomas, so it looked like we could see one of Steph’s monster performances if the game stayed close. Instead of a blowout being the problem, Curry just didn’t get his shot to fall and was much less aggressive with his shot then we’re used to seeing. It’s not often that he attempts only three more shots then Andre Iguodala, but this was the case last night. Curry finished with a meager total of 13 points and 8 assists, and it didn’t help that he struggled to rack up anything meaningful in the rebounds/steals/blocks department. Anyone who paid a premium for him against the Kings was left extremely disappointed and had to watch David Lee and Klay Thompson post bigger stat lines.
Terrence Jones – Jones was a very popular play on both DraftStreet and StarStreet last night thanks to a very depressed price, but he didn’t even manage to pay that off in a great match-up with the Lakers. This type of opponent (one that plays more of a stretch 4 at PF) seems to suit his style, but the Rockets instead decided to give Omer Asik and Donatas Motiejunas around 20 minutes each, which basically matched Jones’ total (Asik actually played two more minutes then Jones). He’s about as boom-or-bust as they come in the NBA, but the combination of match-up and price left most people (on DS and SS, at least) feeling like they were priced into playing him, and I was one of those people. It didn’t hurt you much in cash games since he was so popular, but it certainly stung in tournaments.
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