DraftStreet Fantasy Spin, May 10, 2014: The Steven Adams Strategy

New Zealander center Steven Adams of the Oklahoma City Thunder grabbed nine rebounds in 18 minutes in Game 3 Friday night, looking a lot like a rugby player instead of a basketballer. Fittingly, Adams grew up playing rugby before taking up basketball at age 13.

He also blocked two shots, putting together a DraftStreet score of 18.25.

As I begin the weekend and devise a strategy for the upcoming two-day fantasy tournaments, I have decided to build around young Mr. Adams rather than roll the dice on a much higher-salaried center. DeAndre Jordan ($16,530), Marcin Gortat ($14,156) and Chris Bosh ($13,483) are safer plays, but which of those three has been consistently productive during the postseason? That’s right, none of them.

Same goes for the hot-and-cold Tiago Splitter ($10,777) and everyone’s favorite stiff-turned-steady, Roy Hibbert ($11,218). The bargain bin at the center position also includes Kendrick Perkins ($5,930), who never produces anything resembling a decent line despite being a starter for the Thunder.

So the hope here is that Mr. Perkins gets into foul trouble early on Sunday in Game 4, and Adams’ minutes climb to the 20-something range. If Adams can produce a DraftStreet score in the 20s, this strategy will at least partly be a success.

Here are the rules for DraftStreet’s salary cap leagues …

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.

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.

(ALL FIRST-TIME DEPOSITORS GET A FREE T-SHIRT OF THE PHIL JACKSON TAKEOFF ON THE OBAMA-HOPE CAMPAIGN. CLICK HERE.)

Since I have gone into the bargain bin for Adams, it has given me the flexibility to draft Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul in the $22 entry fee league, which has a top prize of $500. I had to add two other low-priced players to get those three studs into the same lineup, but I figured I had to find a way. Durant is a scoring machine; Westbrook is flirting with triple-doubles every night, and Paul was outstanding in a Game 3 loss with 21 points, 16 assists (with no turnovers) and three steals.

I want those three to be my foundation, and anything I get from their supporting cast, which includes Adams, is gravy.

But then again, I need plenty of gravy to get that top prize. That is why it is so important to take the proper risk on the proper guys — even if one of them was a DNP-CD in his team’s previous game (that’s the best hint I can give you regarding one of my other low-priced selections).

Here are today’s studs-and-duds prices:

DraftStreet	Price
Stars	$$$
Kevin Durant	$22,370
LeBron James	$21,969
Russell Westbrook	$20,965
LaMarcus Aldridge	$20,686
Chris Paul	$19,942
Value Plays?	Under $10,000
Wes Mathews	$9,934
Jamal Crawford	$8,811
Ray Allen	$8,720
Shaun Livingston	$8,685
Mirza Teletovic	$5,593

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Allen’s price has risen more than $3,000 over the past two days following his solid performances in Games 1 and 2, so now is the time, IMHO, to ditch him in favor of someone else who can light it up in a hurry. Perhaps someone from Bosnia (hint, hint; wink wink).

Hibbert also has jumped up the salary chart after his milk carton act in the first round, and he is now in “stay away” territory. You’d expect Kevin Garnett ($8,888) have a strong game at some point. And you could also take a flier on Shane Battier, who is a starter for the Heat but will cost you only $4,605.

The trick in these two-day contests is to make the correct gamble on the bargain bin guys.

Check out the winning team from the Thursday-Friday $22 tournament in which I finished 62nd out of 100. (My team is on the left.)

What’s astonishing to me about the winning team was not that it had Kawhi Leonard on it, but that 53 of the 100 players selected Leonard despite his relatively costly price tag.

“kiddie34” did well with Hibbert and Allen, but it was Mario Chalmers and George Hill at less than 10,000 apiece who were the really astute picks. As for my team, I went too heavy on members of the Nets in the belief that their Game 2 effort would be much better than what they did in Game 1. And since Brooklyn is trailing Miami 0-2 heading into tonight’s Game 3, I would expect they’ll be on top of their game tonight — yes, even Garnett (But no, not to the point where I would place him on my team).

The profit for this week has now been erased, but there are still 48 hours to turn things around.

In the Friday-Saturday contest, I have two $11 teams — one of which was doomed by the pick of Nene (5.25 DS points thanks to his 11 missed shots), the other of which has a chance to finish in the money with six players in action tonight:

As you can see, LeBron is my ace in the hole with this team. Strangely, only 5 percent of the players selected him — despite the fact that he is going to try to blow the doors off the Nets in Game 3 and get this series over with sooner rather than later.

If Teletovic, Belinelli and Livingston can accumulate 50-60 DS points between them, I’ll have a happy recap for you Sunday morning.

In the meantime, good luck with your own teams. And check back here Monday, when the $40,000 Big Score tournament begins. There is 10 grand to the winner of that one!