Rise & Grind: Monday, February 23rd
Welcome to the RotoGrinders cup o’morning joe. Start your day off right here, as we sort through the weekends happenings and take a peek at the upcoming DFS day.
In Case You Missed It
In case you were busy researching the correlation between hand size and great wide receivers, here is what you missed over the weekend.
In Driving Fast and Turning Left – Joey Lagano narrowly edged out Kevin Harvick to win the Daytona 500 under caution. There isn’t really a DFS tie-in here, unless you joined the RotoGrinders season long Nascar League The big story isn’t that Logano won though. It isn’t even Jeff Gordon finishing 33rd in the first race of his final season. The big news here is that Danica Patrick did not crash.
In Get in Your Home, Ball! – If you tried out PGA this past weekend, you already know it was a rough week. If you played Ryan Moore, I hate to add insult to injury, but you have to watch this clip. Moore used his driver to try and drive the green on the 410-yard par four 10th hole. He hit a beautiful shot that looked like it was going to drop in for an albatross. The ball rolled across the hole, lipped out, and then kept going, and going, and going, and going. Moore ended up with a par on the hole, lost all concentration and bogeyed the next two holes. While we are on the subject, congratulations go out to seventh-ranked Grinder baloo3101, who took first and fourth in the 3-Wood. Also, congratulations to our very own Notorious, who took third in the same tournament.
In Competing for Millions – After winning $2 million in the FanDuel FFFC, Grinder escot4 is headed back to Vegas to compete for another million. escot won the DraftKings WFBC qualifier on Friday. If you would like the link or to congratulate escot, try visiting this forum thread.
In Fading Westbrook with Durant Out – If you are a frequent reader of this piece, you already know that if Kevin Durant is out, you don’t fade Westbrook. This has been one of the Ten Commandments of DFS ever since the DFS Gods revealed them to Al_Smizzle on Mount Sinai. In the FanDuel Slam last night, Westbrook was only 75% owned. This means that 25% of you still don’t get it and maybe never will. Let’s just move on before we anger the DFS Gods.
On The Menu
Now that we are caught up on DFS happenings, here is what is on the menu for tonight.
On the Ice – If you love short slates, NHL tonight will be right up your alley. There are only two games on the schedule. If you play on a plus/minus site like FanDuel, you will either to have to take skaters against your goalie, or gamble on different lines from the same game and hope they don’t score on each other. Things are a little better on DraftKings without plus/minus concerns, but let’s just say a two-game NHL slate shouldn’t be anyone’s focus tonight.
On the Hardwood, College Edition – College basketball doesn’t offer much of a reprieve for those who avoid short slates. Tonight’s schedule only includes three games. Apparently, these kids actually attend classes sometimes and can’t play every night. Who knew? Even with only three games, both FanDuel and DraftKings still have some decent sized GPPs for the taking.
On the Hardwood, NBA Edition – With short slates for NHL and CBB, tonight is all about the NBA action. We have a perfect sized slate tonight which includes eight games. Notorious has his First Look posted already. As you start building your lineups, remember the DFS Gods are watching. Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson are out for a few weeks. Tyreke Evans becomes a “must-play” and the DFS Gods are expecting you to use him if you faded Westbrook last night. Also, the immortal Hassan Whiteside gets a prime matchup against Philadelphia. These are the type of plays you should be looking at tonight.
#Narrative Street – While Evans and Whiteside are the “chalk” picks, they won’t win you a GPP by themselves. You are going to need to find a few players with a little extra motivation. Tonight, the official game of #NarrativeStreet is the matchup between Minnesota and Houston. In this game alone, we have an Andrew Wiggins #BirthdayGame, Corey Brewer #RevengeGame and a Kevin Martin #RevengeGame. Outside of the HOU/MIN tilt, we have a massive #RevengeGame for Isaiah Thomas returning to Phoenix and a #RevengeGame for Ajinca returning to Toronto. We also have Kawhi Leonard looking for #Revenge after Utah passed on drafting him. In the world of giveaways, it is Joakim Noah #BobbleheadNight. I usually don’t do this, but with so many #Narratives, we need an official Rise and Grind #NarrativeStreet team. So, here you go. This lineup will win all the money tonight on DraftKings.
PG: Isaiah Thomas #RevengeGame
SG: Kevin Martin #RevengeGame
SF: Kawhi Leonard #RevengeGame
PF: Brandan Wright #Revengegame
C: Joakim Noah #BobbleheadNight
G: Greivis Vasquez #RevengeGame
F: Andrew Wiggins #BirthdayGame
UT: Alexis Ajinca #RevengeGame
Honorable mention: Corey Brewer #RevengeGame
If you have your own ideas for an all #NarrativeStreet team, drop them in the comments below. Maybe you can put together one that will beat mine. Good luck out there, Grinders.