Rise & Grind: Friday, February 20th
Welcome to the RotoGrinders cup o’morning joe. Start your day off right here, as we sort through yesterday’s happenings and take a peek at the upcoming DFS day.
In Case You Missed It
NBA Trade Deadline – With only two games last night, I was expecting a boring day in the NBA. The games played on the court were okay, but the chess match off the court was intense. With about twenty minutes until the deadline, it seems like everyone with a pulse was traded. Some of these trades make a lot of sense, and some of them remind me of that lunch trade scene in the movie Uncle Buck. Watching that clip, I still feel bad for the poor kid. I bet Sam Hinkie would gladly trade lunches with him. Watching the 76ers most nights almost makes my lunch come back up anyways. If you haven’t looked at the list of trades that took place yesterday, ESPN has a recap here. Make sure you take a look at that list at some point today if you are playing NBA DFS tonight.
Pitchers and Catchers Report – As of today, MLB Spring Training has officially begun for all 30 MLB teams. Pitchers and catchers have reported and begun workouts. That means we are only 44 days away from the first MLB DFS slate on April 6th. If you are looking for a good starting point for MLB research, check out Jon Bales’ book for which there is a coupon available in this forum thread.
Big Winners – A two-game NBA slate didn’t deter many of you from playing NBA on its first night back. Grinder “wizard_of_ball” proved why he is the wizard, taking first place in the FanDuel Slam. Interestingly, he did it with 7 of 9 players from the late game. Around here, we affectionately call that the “Late Night Hammer”. The Wizard deserves props for properly employing it. Other big winners can be found in the Thursday Links forum thread.
On The Menu
On the Court – With 13 games on the schedule, tonight should be a riveting night in the National T-r-a-d-e Basketball Association. Notorious has his First Look posted already. I salute Notorious for his effort trying to get things figured out already. With so many trades yesterday, we may not know who is actually playing tonight until right before tipoff. Stay tuned throughout the day for news.
NBA Offerings – With such a hectic trade deadline, #HotTakes abound on the moves that were made. RotoGrinders’ very own #HotTake artist, CrazyGabey, will be doing a trade deadline recap on the Daily Fantasy Fix Podcast today. I’m sure there will also be some advice on how you can make money tonight off yesterday’s trades. Later today, Notorious will have a detailed look at every game in the NBA Grind Down, BritDevine will be bringing you his NBA GPP Plays, Beermakersfan will be serving up a 6 Pack of fantasy goodness, and we’ll also have a Starting Five.
#NarrativeStreet – All of the above options are a great place to find picks based on research. As we all know, research alone won’t win you a GPP. You need to identify the picks with a little extra motivation. Here are tonight’s picks to click based on narratives. James “Neck Tat” Johnson chose this day to be born, 28 years ago. The Neck Tat gets the #BirthdayGame bump going up against Atlanta. On the #RevengeGame front, Chandler Parsons faces his former team when the Mavs host the Rockets.
I don’t have many regrets in life, but yesterday I missed a huge opportunity in this space. It was Alexander Ovechkin #BobbleheadNight and I forgot to mention it. Ovechkin made me pay for it by scoring a goal and picking up an assist. I apologize to you readers if you faded Ovechkin. It’s never a good idea to fade #NarrativeStreet. As of this writing, I have not found any bobblehead promotions for tonight, but rest assured that if I do, I will post them in the comments below. We don’t want to miss out on another opportunity like this.
On the Ice – While most DFSers are focused on NBA, the NHL is offering a seven-game slate for your enjoyment. I normally don’t provide NHL recommendations in this space, but today I’m getting Wild. The Minnesota Wild square off against the Edmonton Oilers, who are one of the worst teams in hockey. I recommend you get Wild with your lineup and stack them up. Pepsi7 will have his NHL Daily Plays up later today. I bet he’s also getting Wild.
GrindersLive – After on eight-day layoff, NBA GrindersLive makes its triumphant return tonight. BritDevine and DraftCheat kick things off at 3:30 PM EST, followed by CrazyGabey and Hoop2410 at 4:30 and then Dean78904 and Al_Smizzle at 5:30. If you have an XM Subscription, you can also catch DB730 and Beermakersfan at 6:00. With so many moving parts, you won’t want to miss tonight’s NBA analysis. The fellas will have reaction to trades, late breaking news, and the usual analysis of every game.
After your NBA roster locks, be sure to come back to GrindersLive for College Basketball After Dark at 8:00. STLCardinals84 will join Varncass to discuss tomorrow’s huge CBB slate.