NBA Big Events: Big Money Wednesday Recap
The last of the major NBA tournaments is in the books, and the Grinder community had a big hand in the action last night. Before we get into breaking down the Bank Shot and Big Score, I want to congratulate Sports_25toLife on taking home $100,000 last night as the Bank Shot champion and naapstermaan for winning the $50,000 first prize in DraftStreet Big Score! Both guys are vital members of the community and Scott was actually a host on GrindersLive just a few hours before the games were underway, and it’s always nice to see our members win notable events like these.
Outside of the Bank Shot and Big Score, FanDuel ran the weekly Super Slam and StarStreet ran their last PBC qualifier of the season. PBC contestants are either on their way to the Mansion or are getting ready to head out there, so there is (as always) plenty of excitement surrounding that event that kicks off on Saturday… best of luck to all of our competing members! Sticking with last week’s format, I’ll run through the optimal lineups and top fantasy producers for all three of the major sites. As always, all RotoGrinders members who finished in the top-10 will have their names bolded.
DraftKings $1,000,000 Bank Shot
Another big congratulations to Sports_25toLife on taking down $100,000 as the Bank Shot champion! He had quite a few off the board picks then ended up making the difference for him, but DeMarcus Cousins explosion against the Knicks sent him flying up the leaderboard late in the night. Al Jefferson (4.2% owned), Josh Smith (7.1% owned) and Jamal Crawford (2.7%) all exceeded value in a big way and his lineup was simply full of the night’s top plays. McJester (1st in the TPOY rankings, 26th overall) finished 2nd (as well as 7th) with several successful off the board picks of his own, including Tim Duncan (4.9% owned), Jared Sullinger (1.3%) and J.R. Smith (3.5%). Draconfire (276th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished a few points behind in 3rd, with big games from Terrence Ross and DeMarcus Cousins setting him apart from the field. Headchopper (19th overall) also went flying up the leaderboard during DMC’s takeover, giving him a 5th place finish, with cubsfan333 (aka firsttimer, 600th overall) in 8th, and Kobe4MVP (aka Troll4MVP, 2nd in TPOY and on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in 9th place. In case you’re curious, here’s Sports_25toLife’s winning lineup (EDIT: the real one this time)…
DraftStreet $150K Big Score
Congrats once again to naapstermaan (17th TPOY, 36th overall) on winning the Big Score last night in impressive fashion. The Panda had to be enjoying the Kings/Knicks game, watching DMC impose his will on the New York bigs on his way to a near triple-double. Tim Duncan and Anthony Morrow also helped lead him to the promise land, but Cousins sitting at just 5% owned was the clincher. BW5126 (248th overall) finished just over three points behind Naap in 2nd place, and his success was brought on by big games from Josh Smith, Brandon Jennings and Jared Sullinger. Jbergey (129th overall) finished 3rd, followed by socrdave (14th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard, 24th overall) in 4th and fantasyballer123 (aka JoRo, 321st on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in 5th place. Draconfire carried over his success from DK with an 8th place finish in the Big Score, and donnybasbl (64th overall) tied for 9th place. Here’s the lineup that won Naap a cool $50K:
FanDuel $100K Super Slam
While the RG community wasn’t able to take this one down, nba2kfan (aka Bobby99, 32nd in the TPOY rankings) finish 2nd in this week’s Super Slam! Big performances from Brandon Jennings, Josh Smith, Anthony Morrow and Gorgui Dieng helped to catapult him towards the top of the leaderboard, and a $7,500 victory is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Syv37 (99th in the TPOY rankings) finished in 4th place, and brianpasquale1 (aka bp123088, 943rd in the TPOY rankings) rounds out the top-ten.
StarStreet PBC Qualifier
This was the last chance to earn your way into this weekend’s PBC at the Playboy Mansion; congratulations to kcannon (33rd in both the overall rankings and the NBA Grinder leaderboard) on making it happen! His lowest percentage owned player was actually Al-Farouq Aminu and Paul Millsap at 24% so he didn’t go too far off the board, but both Aminu and Anthony Morrow vastly outproduced their salaries and it was tough for anyone to compete without them. TeamSleep (62nd on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished in 2nd place, and TommyG1979 (72nd in the TPOY rankings) wanted to impress the ladies at the mansion with a 2nd PBC entry, but he fell a little short in 5th place.
Wednesday’s Optimal Lineups
Here’s a look at what it would have taken to be perfect on FanDuel, DraftStreet and DraftKings last night:
DraftKings Optimal Lineup: Wed. March 26th
| Pos | PLAYER | SALARY | TEAM | OPP | FP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PG |  | Brandon Jennings | $7,100 | DET | CLE | 49.75 |
| SG |  | Jamal Crawford | $5,100 | LAC | NO | 40.25 |
| SF |  | Josh Smith | $7,400 | DET | CLE | 48.50 |
| PF |  | Tim Duncan | $7,400 | SAS | DEN | 59.75 |
| C |  | DeMarcus Cousins | $9,700 | SAC | NY | 70.25 |
| G |  | Aaron Brooks | $4,700 | DEN | SA | 45.25 |
| F |  | Terrence Ross | $3,900 | TOR | BOS | 36.00 |
| UTIL |  | Al-Farouq Aminu | $4,600 | NOP | LAC | 33.00 |
| Totals | $49,900 | 382.75 |
DraftStreet Optimal Lineup: Wed. March 26th
| Pos | PLAYER | SALARY | TEAM | OPP | FP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | | Brandon Jennings | $12,138 | DET | CLE | 40.75 |
| G | | Aaron Brooks | $8,209 | DEN | SA | 38.75 |
| G |  | J.R. Smith | $9,501 | NYK | SAC | 35.50 |
| F | | Tim Duncan | $15,542 | SAS | DEN | 51.25 |
| F |  | Kenneth Faried | $14,115 | DEN | SA | 40.50 |
| F |  | Jared Sullinger | $9,849 | BOS | TOR | 38.00 |
| C | | DeMarcus Cousins | $21,570 | SAC | NY | 64.25 |
| UTIL |  | Anthony Morrow | $5,713 | NOP | LAC | 30.75 |
| Totals | $96,637 | 339.75 |
FanDuel Optimal Lineup: Wed. March 26th
| Pos | PLAYER | SALARY | TEAM | OPP | FP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PG | | Brandon Jennings | $6,100 | DET | CLE | 44.50 |
| PG | | Aaron Brooks | $5,100 | DEN | SA | 43.00 |
| SG |  | Eric Bledsoe | $7,200 | PHX | WAS | 39.70 |
| SG | | Anthony Morrow | $3,500 | NOP | LAC | 35.00 |
| SF | | Josh Smith | $7,600 | DET | CLE | 46.60 |
| SF | | J.R. Smith | $5,400 | NYK | SAC | 39.80 |
| PF | | Tim Duncan | $8,000 | SAS | DEN | 55.10 |
| PF | | Jared Sullinger | $6,100 | BOS | TOR | 43.10 |
| C | | DeMarcus Cousins | $9,900 | SAC | NY | 66.00 |
| Totals | $58,900 | 412.80 |