NBA Big Events: Big Money Wednesday Recap
What’s up Grinders, hope you all had a profitable Wednesday! Most of last night’s attention was fixed on day one of the DraftKings Showcase, which featured just 40 entries, 10 of which advanced onto Friday’s final. This tournament was full of big names, with guys like PrimeTime420, McJester, HeadChopper and Al Smizzle earning at least one entry into the field, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of uber-talented players. I loved looking at the different strategy that all of these great players used last night, especially the players with more then one entry. It’s a good way (for new players especially) to learn and can leave you with some tournament strategies of your own after studying how the best approach contests like these.
DraftKings wasn’t the only game in town last night; DraftStreet continued with the Weekly $50K and also ran a DSBBC qualifier, while FanDuel offered up the $120K Super Slam. 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 10-game schedule, which isn’t huge for a Wednesday but it still left me with plenty to pick from. More on the studs and duds of the evening later, but let’s break down the night’s big winners in our community first. All RotoGrinders members who finished in the top-10 of a major tournament will have their names bolded.
Tournament Breakdowns
DraftKings Showcase Semi-Final
The top ten from last night’s action moves onto day two, which will take place on Friday. PrimeTime420 (7th overall, 8th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) put up a big performance on day one, finishing with entries in both 2nd and 9th place. He’s the only member that advanced multiple entries on to day two, so he’s in a nice spot going into Friday. McJester (1st in the TPOY rankings, 26th overall), who has been on fire over at FanDuel the last few months, finished third, followed by another strong tournament player in CPF501 (12th in the TPOY rankings, 44th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard). Headchopper (8th in the TPOY rankings, 18th overall) finished sixth, and the big game from under-owned DeMarre Carroll really helped to set him apart from the field. Dinkpiece (3rd on the NBA Grinder leaderboard, 4th overall) finished 7th, followed by msiler10 (528th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in 8th and rolltidechamps (424th overall) edged out 10th place by just .75 points. Best of luck to all of you guys on Friday, the odds are prettttyy prettttyy good that a Grinder takes this thing down.
DraftStreet DSBBC Qualifier #27
Bluestem89 (29th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard, 37th overall) finished 4th in this one, but was only 6 points away from the top spot. He had the stones to play Kyrie (9% owned, 51.25 FP’s), which put him in a nice spot along with strong games from Elton Brand and Nic Vucevic. Thedude404 (77th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard), who also played Kyrie on the road against OKC, finished a few points behind in 5th, and a25smith (16th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) tied for 7th place. GoodMR benefited from Jameer Nelson homecoming in Philly (11% owned, 39 FP’s) to finish in 9th.
DraftStreet Weekly $50K
Congratulations to quadfather (199th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) on taking down 2nd place in the Weekly $50K! He’s always interacting with our twitter feed and he seemed pretty stoked about taking down $5K, so I’m happy for him.. He was actually in first place as the night was coming to a close, but some late production from DeAndre Jordan left him in 2nd. Thedude404 finished third with some nice against the grain picks (Kyrie, Jameer, Brand, Courtney Lee), followed by thammond21 (393rd on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in 6th and nosquares (343rd on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in 10th.
FanDuel $120K Super Slam
Doesn’t it seem like McJester finishes near the top of this leaderboard every week? He’s been a machine this NBA season and is really locked in right now, topping our TPOY leaderboard at this point in the race. He played some under-owned/under-priced gems in Jarrett Jack, Ish Smith and Monta Ellis, which made rostering Durant (who nearly triple-doubled) worth it. Joejack (501st on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished 5th, followed by chicityscummy (774th in the TPOY rankings) in 6th and cardog777 (54th in the TPOY rankings) in 7th. Chitown_frenze (53rd in the TPOY rankings) rode an Orlando stack to a 9th place finish, and nanuka (50th in the TPOY rankings) rounds out the top ten.
Studs & Duds of Wednesday Night
Studs
Kyrie Irving – He broke out in a BIG way against the Thunder just a night after (personally) outdueling Kyle Lowry the night before. Uncle Drew was especially big in the 4th quarter, scoring 14 and bringing the Cavs back from a seven point deficit to start the quarter. He does tend to produce a bit less on the road which helps to explain his low ownership percentage across the industry, but he was on a lot of GPP winning teams last night.
Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan – With Chris Paul struggling to knock down those mid range jumpers he usually feasts on, Blake took over offensively, attempting 25 shots but knocking down just 11 of them. He finished with 23 and 16 and added three dimes, two steals and a block, which left him with a 50+ FP game on some sites. DeAndre was his typically efficient self, hitting six of seven from the field to give him 13 points to go along with 10 boards, four blocks, three steals and two assists. The duo struggled to shut down Dwight (he finished with 23 and 11), but both still outperformed their price tag on every site. Most of the other options in this game left people in a hole, since it didn’t end up being the shootout most thought it would.
Nikola Vucevic and Jameer Nelson – With the Magic heading into Philly, the starting five were among some of the most popular plays industry wide. Victor Oladipo posted a double-double and had a pretty nice night overall, but he was hurt by the turnovers (what’s new) and although he hit value, it wasn’t that monster game he’s capable of in a match-up like this. Nikola Vucevic returned to the team that he spent his first few seasons with and posted a very solid 21/13/2 line with three blocks and a steal. Jameer also had a homecoming of sorts, since he went to high school about 15 minutes from the Sixers arena (he also went to college about 10 minutes from the Sixers arena), and apparently had a group of his family at the game. He didn’t leave the court much, finishing with 16 points, 12 dimes and six boards in 42 minutes. The Magic and Sixers face off again on Sunday and we’ll be seeing a ton of rosters with some combination of Vuc, Dipo, Harris and Nelson.
Elton Brand – I have to admit, I’m shocked that I’m listing Brand here for the second week in a row, but injuries to Millsap and Ayon have opened up a lot of playing time in the front-court, and Brand is taking advantage. He was out there for 34 minutes last night, and somehow managed to block five shots against a small Celtics lineup, which went along nicely with his 10 points, 7 boards and 5 assists. He was one of the top value plays of the night, a trend that should continue as long as Millsap/Ayon are out and his price stays down.
Marc Gasol – If you fit him into your lineup after the news broke about Wesley Johnson starting out on him, it worked out quite well. Gasol put up a well-rounded 14 points, 12 boards and 5 assists to go along with two blocks and a steal, and considering his price on most sites, that was enough for him to be valuable. The Lakers are a mess on the interior right now and have been playing undersized the last few nights, so don’t expect their defensive woes against PF’s/C’s to end any time soon.
Monta Ellis – He was surprisingly under-owned on FanDuel (7.7% in the SS at $6700), but proved to be one of the top values at SG. Monta had no trouble finding his shot against the Pelicans, finishing with 23/7/4 to go along with four steals. He’s been frustrating to own lately but he rewarded those who took the chance on him last night.
Rajon Rondo – There was actually a pretty nice point guard battle going on at TD Garden, with Rondo and Teague both going for 20+ points in what was one of the highest scoring games of the day. Rondo had a nice night from the field and finished with 22 points and 11 dimes, also adding three steals. Jerryd Bayless got the start at SG for Gerald Wallace and was the better value between he and Rondo from a $/PT view, and managed to drop 29 on the Hawks but didn’t add much statistically outside of the scoring.
Ish Smith – Ish was an extremely popular cash game play and was one of the highest owned GPP players as well, but he still helped a lot of people with 13 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. He was only about 25% owned in the Super Slam, and playing him at near minimum price helped a lot of people afford Kevin Durant.
Duds
Damian Lillard – After a few big nights with Aldridge on the shelf, Lillard played just 29 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back, although the playing time had much more to do with the score. He actually didn’t play badly, but failed to record even a single assist and scored just 14 points, numbers you rarely see from him. Lillard also had just a one steal/board apiece, which led to a sub 20 FP night. He won’t have games like this very often and at least like this might bump his price back down a little.
Mike Scott – Scott was an absolute mess on Wednesday night, missing all six of his attempts from the field in just 17 minutes. The starting unit plus Lou Williams all played at least 30 minutes, which didn’t leave much for Scott since both teams were playing with smaller lineups. His run as a popular value play will come to an end as soon as Millsap returns, which will probably be sometime very soon.
Chandler Parsons – If you couldn’t afford the big guns in this game, Chandler Parsons seemed like a good way to get exposure to what was supposed to be the highest scoring game of the night. It ended up as one of the lowest scoring, and Parsons wasn’t alone in terms of disappointments from this one. He failed to crack 20 FP’s, which left those who paid a mid-to-high tier price tag for him in a big hole. Parsons struggled with his jumper all night and failed to produce much in the peripheral categories, which led to an all-around dud on Wednesday night.
James Harden – Harden posted a better stat line then his teammate Parsons, but it wasn’t much better from a salary standpoint. He finished with 18/6/3, but turned it over six times and was one of the many disappointments from this game. It wasn’t hard to find yourself standing on a landmine if you took a player in this game; Chris Paul could have just as easily been listed here, but he at least 34 FP’s even on an off night. Jamal Crawford injured his calf at the end of the second quarter and didn’t return, and if you were hoping for a bounce back night from Terrence Jones, think again.
Power Forwards from the Orlando/Philly game – Neither Thad or Tobias Harris completely killed lineups, but both under-performed in prime match-ups. It was surprising to see Thad finish with just three rebounds, and that ultimately was what led to his relatively poor performance (we can’t expect six steals from him every night). His price is still at a manageable level on some sites, but if you paid almost $18K for him on DraftStreet, it was a tough game to watch. At least we know he’s still human and he’s not going to throw up 50 spots just because he’s the only NBA caliber front-court player they have. Tobias Harris frustrated owners for a second straight game, finishing with 13 points and 7 boards, but didn’t really produce anywhere else. He played 29 minutes last night, while all of the other starters (including Maurice Harkless) played 31+. With Big Baby out of town, Harris’ future should be much brighter then what he’s been doing the last few nights.
Michael Carter-Williams – The triple-double he posted against this team seems like a distant memory now. MCW couldn’t put things together for a consistent stretch of time last night and totaled just 8 points on 3 of 13 shooting, adding six boards, four assists and three steals. I was expecting a bigger line from the rookie in a match-up with Victor Oladipo, but Brett Brown wasn’t riding MCW or Thad for as many minutes as he normally does, which didn’t help either players production.
Anthony Davis – This one wasn’t really his fault, but it all hurts just the same for our purposes. The Brow left with a shoulder injury after just 13 minutes on the floor, during which he posted a very time-efficient 6 points, 9 boards and two blocks. Is it easier to watch one of your players leave with an injury after a hot start or to watch him stay in the game and simply not produce? Not that I’m rooting for another human to get injured, but at least when it happens you can shut off the TV and go do something else.
Kris Humphries – It didn’t end up being all that bad after Hump played just four minutes in the first half, since he was pretty productive in 13 minutes after halftime and finished with 10 points and 5 boards. His price last night was in punt range basically everywhere except DraftStreet, so that line didn’t really kill any lineups, though it’s certainly not what his owners were hoping for after Sullinger and Olynyk were ruled out.