Fading the Chalk: What a Strange Little Slate
I’m a restaurant manager that works crazy hours and uses DFS as a way to escape from the stress that comes with my job. I’m certainly not a pro, but I have been a profitable player over the past few years, and getting up early to blog about my process is one of the best ways that I have found to fight depression and anxiety. If you’d like to talk about barbecue, sports, or life in general, hit me up on Twitter: @EasyMoneySelby.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for me, but things are starting to look a little better. I’ve been getting around a bit more and have even started putting just a tiny amount of pressure on my foot in the boot.
I’m still struggling to sleep well though, so I have been extremely inconsistent with getting these articles posted. I’m sorry about that, and I promise that it’ll get better as my injury continues to get better.
My Lineup: Lock in Harden and Aldridge
After taking a look at each team’s lineup and salaries, my rough plan to attack last night’s slate was to get enough value from guys like Boban Marjanovic, DeAnthony Melton, and maybe even PJ Tucker so that I could afford to get up to James Harden and LaMarcus Aldridge.
From there, I filled in as best I could starting with Rudy Gay and Eric Gordon. That left me just enough room to finish with Chris Paul and Danilo Gallinari.
The Expert Lineups
There wasn’t a whole lot of our regulars at the top of the Rainmaker last night, but this lineup from MJClub found its way into the money. He skipped out on James Harden in order to spread that money around with guys like Kyle Lowry, CJ McCollum, Pascal Siakam, and DeAndre Ayton.
Booourns went the Harden/Aldridge rout, but he got creative with his value plays using guys like Fred VanVleet and Marco Belinelli and taking a zero from “Trade Bait” Trevor Ariza.
At first glance, it looked like Moklovin was thinking the same way I was using Melton and Boban to get up to Harden. But he skipped LaMarcus Aldridge and went cheap at PF with Josh Jackson and Richaun Holmes in order to get up to DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.
The Big Takeaway
As I was trying to explain my approach to roster construction to a friend earlier this week, I finally hit on a simple and clear way to describe it:
Start by finding some value plays that you like. Then add in a few studs that are in good spots. Then finish it out with the best +/- guys you can make fit.
It’s obvious that winning consistently at DFS is much more complicated than that, but every time I go through a tough stretch, it’s coming back to the simplicity of that model that gets me back on track, so that’s today’s big takeaway.
We’ve got another nice, big 11-game slate on deck for tonight, so we are going to have the opportunity to put that approach to work here in just a few hours. Let’s get to work on our research, and hopefully, I will be able to be back tomorrow morning with another edition of Fading the Chalk.
Did you play the NBA slate last night? How did you do? Did you fall into the traps of playing guys who didn’t produce? Or did you crush and find yourself up at the top of your contests? Either way, leave a comment and let me know what went into your process!
