Draft Street Fantasy Spin, April 28, 2014: Piling on Donald Sterling’s Team

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I don’t imagine Donald Sterling will be in attendance tomorrow night when the Clippers and Warriors play Game 5, and I expect Sterling’s team will put up a much better fight than they did Sunday in Oakland. But you know what else? I think the Clippers are finished mentally as a result of the Sterling scandal, and I am using that theory as my strategy for the Monday-Tuesday fantasy contest I have entered with DraftStreet — $22 to enter, and $1,000 to the first-place finisher. It would be grand (pun intended) if my hunch turns out to be correct. I was faced with a choice this morning — enter four teams in the $5 entry fee contests, or throw all my eggs into one basket and go for the bigger prize in the $22 league. Being a bit of a gambler, I chose Option B — and I recommend you do the same. I will not divulge all of the players I have chosen for the Monday-Tuesday league, but I will reveal the three Warriors: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and David Lee. My other five spots are taken by two members of the Miami Heat, two members of the Dallas Mavericks and one member of the Washington Wizards. (That’s as far as I can go with the hints, as I am trying to win this thing.) My first week as a fantasy writer included just two cashes, but I still had a better week than Sterling or commissioner Adam Silver, who has his first crisis on his hands and hasn’t dealt with it in nearly the forceful manner that his predecessor would. I have resolved that this week is going to be different, and it starts with my latest entry. As for my Saturday-Sunday and Sunday-Monday entries, let’s just say I have a faint glimmer of hope that I will cash when tonight’s games have ended. Deron Williams and Joe Johnson hurt me. That’s all I’ll say about that. What is more important than looking back is looking ahead. So let’s have a looksee at who is priced high, and who is priced low. But first, for the uninitiated, the rules … You pick three guards, three forwards, one center and one utility player using a salary cap of $100,000, and then you root for them to fill up the box score. You can sign up here, or by clicking the banner at the top of this post.) Steals and blocks are worth 2 points. Rebounds are worth 1.25 points. Assists are worth 1.5 points. You lose 1 point for every turnover, and you lose 0.5 points for every missed field goal attempt or missed free throw attempt.

My advice is to stay away from LeBron and KD, first of all because I expect the Heat to wipe out the Bobcats in Game 4, with LeBron getting his work done in three quarters or less; and in the case of Durant because of the defense Tony Allen has been playing against him. No question the Thunder are going to look to Durant to score 40-plus, but Memphis has flustered him too much in this series for me to gamble all of that salary cap space on him. Of the value plays, I have listed Mario Chalmers only because there is always a chance that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will sit Dwyane Wade — or severely limit his minutes. The best value play is Iguodala, who broke out of a protracted slump Sunday to put up one of the lines we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him: 22 points, nine assists, four rebounds. Those who failed to make the value play chart include Samuel Dalembert and Roy Hibbert, both of whom are a roll of the dice. I’ve also left off Luis Scola after he failed to come through for me Saturday when I made the mistake of including him on all four of my teams in the $5 entry league. Here is what the winning team looked like (first place was worth $300): You will notice that Joakim Noah was the only high-priced selection by Sanchocow, who made the astute picks of Taj Gibson and Trevor Ariza to put himself over the top. Sometimes that’s all it takes — one or two players overperforming, and the rest producing solid but unspectacular lines. A total of 247.25 is actually a very low winning score, which goes to show that you need not have your A game in place in order to cash. And let’s not forget, winning cash is what this is all about. So good luck, and again, the sign-up page for DraftStreet is available if you click right here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an update.