NBA Big Events: Recapping the DFBBC
FanDuel’s $1.2 Million Daily Basketball Championship took place last on a busy 14 game Friday night, and it was an interesting night to say the least. There was a ton of value available on FanDuel last due to a number of all-star caliber players sitting out (Kyle Lowry, Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard, Isaiah Thomas, David Lee, etc.), which gave players the flexibility to fit multiple $10K+ studs into lineups if they decided to go that route. A busy April night in the NBA wouldn’t be complete without a injuries coming out right as (or right after) rosters locked, and this came to fruition when Nikola Vucevic was announced as out just a minute or two after 7:00 ET, which had to be unbelievably frustrating for those that rostered him.
Now that the DFBBC is in the books, there isn’t much to be excited about in terms of big events down the home stretch of the regular season, so this was your last chance to take down six figures during a night of basketball in the near future. I’m sure we’ll have some noteworthy events as the playoffs get underway (DraftStreet is running another Big Score, for example), but they won’t have the same type of appeal as a tournament with a prize pool this big. As usual, the Grinders community had a heavy influence near the top of the leaderboard and several members (including the winner, streethustle) finished in the top-ten. I’ll break down the top twenty in last night’s contest and like always, all RotoGrinders members who finished in the top-10 will have their names bolded.
FanDuel’s $1.2 Million Daily Fantasy Basketball Championship (1st-10th)
Congratulations to streethustle (1948th overall, 627th in the TPOY rankings) on taking down $120K as the DFBBC champion! He’s not a big name in the industry and I’m not sure exactly how many entries he had, but this should be welcome news for the average player that doesn’t think they are capable of winning an event like this. Streethustle is ranked (currently, at least) 1839th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard, but he surely sent himself flying up the rankings for next week’s update after last night. His volume of play will likely be skyrocketing as well, so it’s very likely that this isn’t the last time we see his name at the top of a big event leaderboard. Drolson22 (7th in the TPOY rankings, 102nd overall) finished just 1.9 points behind streehustle in 2nd place, which landed him a cool $60K, but coming that close to doubling it has to sting a little. I’m sure he’s not complaining with the 2nd place prize though, and his lineup was just about as flawless as possible. Both of these guys rostered LeBron James, James Harden and Zach Randolph, which went a long way towards their success last night. Donnybasbl (65th overall, 73rd on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished 7th, hitting on the big three of LeBron, Harden and Z-Bo in addition to Rajon Rondo and Shaun Livingston. Ehafner (2nd overall, 4th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished 10th, and was part of the 7.8% of the field that hit on Jeff Teague big double-double.
FanDuel’s $1.2 Million Daily Fantasy Basketball Championship (11th-20th)
Stlcardinalsfan84 (9th overall, 10th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished 15th, and he also hit on LeBron, Harden and Randolph as well as Jordan Hill, Draymond Green and Rajon Rondo. 00_oreo_00 (15th TPOY, 85th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished 16th, followed by GrindersLive host csuram88 (6th overall, 6th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in 17th to round out the RG members in the top twenty. All in all, having seven members in the top twenty is a pretty successful evening, especially when you consider our members took down both 1st and 2nd place. In case you’re curious what the DFBBC winning lineup looked like, here it is:
If you’re also curious as to which players were the “must haves” of last night, here are a few of the difference makers that paved the way to success…
LeBron James – He obviously benefited from the game going into double-overtime, but sometimes things like that can tip the scales one way or the other. The King put up 34 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in addition to 4 steals and a block, which left him with 57.1 FP’s against Minnesota. Wade’s absence clearly played a role in his success as well, but he was just on his game tonight and when he’s scoring like that he can really put up a monster fantasy lines with his solid peripheral totals.
James Harden – Harden also took advantage of a key injury to a teammate last night, and his value always gets a nice uptick when Dwight Howard is out of the lineup. He dropped 39 points on his former team to go along with 9 boards, 7 dimes and 2 steals, which almost equated to a 60 FP total (he finished with 59.3).
Zach Randolph – Z-Bo beat up on a weak Denver interior to the tune of 20/15/4 with two steals and three blocks, so he had it all going last night. This was a game the Grizzlies needed to win and it looked like they might let it slip away on numerous occasions last night, but Randolph and Conley played well in the 4th quarter and padded their stat lines late in the game.
Draymond Green – I wanted to throw a value play out there and he seems to fit the bill better then anyone else, since he was on a high percentage of the teams that finished in the top twenty. He was rostered by a heavy portion of the field in general at 35.7% owned, and pairing him up with LeBron at small forward proved to be the best way to go. 35 FP’s from a guy priced at $4600 will help you in absolutely any format.