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First things first: Someone is going to turn $22 into $10,00o by the end of the night. That is a Donald Sterling-like return on your investment, and it will spur elation that will border on dementia.
So good luck to all those who are in the running.
IMHO, this contest is going to be won by the person who strikes it rich on one or two low-salaried players. As I discussed yesterday, Al Harrington would seem to be a big player as this Big Score contest begins. His salary cap price was just $2,000, which left a lot of cheddar to be spread around on some expensive nachos.
Now, after seeing what went down Monday night, there is a new wrinkle: Will Barton. The Portland benchwarmer erupted for 17 points, six rebounds and two assists in 30 minutes of the Blazers’ Game 5 victory, and the burning question for tonight and tomorrow is whether to include him on the teams you select going forward.
As for the $40,000 Big Score tournament, I have three teams entered — two of which are dead meat.
Here is the one that has a chance of making me some money:
As you can see, there is a lot of upside here with Chris Paul and Kevin Durant playing for me, especially after LeBron James produced his best game of the playoffs last night. My three low-priced players produced scores that were quite low, although none of the three was a roster killer.
In order for that team to cash, Paul and Durant will need to be spectacular, and Crawford will need to be somewhere betwen 25-30 points. Also, Harrington needs to post a DS score in double digits. Perhaps he will be tonight’s Will Barton.
So as we move forward with this week’s plays, I must account for the fact that I wagered $66 on the Big Score tournament, including $44 from this week’s $100 budget. That means I will have to be a little more prudent that usual, but so be it.
Draft Street is offering $2, $5, $22 and $55 entry-fee tournaments, and I am playing in the $22 league because it offers a nice first prize of $500. Yes, we go for the gusto around here. (And in this contest, some gusto can be had by finishing lower than 1st, as you can see in this chart …)
For those who are new to this, here are 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 on the DraftStreet banner at the top of the page.
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.)
Now, let’s check today’s prices:
| DraftStreet | Price |
| Stars | $$$ |
| Kevin Durant | $23,717 |
| Russell Westbrook | $21,843 |
| LeBron James | $21,449 |
| Chris Paul | $21,153 |
| Blake Griffin | $19,954 |
| LaMarcus Aldridge | $19,773 |
| Paul George | $18,119 |
| Value Plays? | Under $9,000 |
| Boris Diaw | $8,181 |
| Ray Allen | $8,109 |
| Mirza Teletovic | $7,126 |
| Darren Collison | $6,443 |
| Marco Belinelli | $5,851 |
| Alan Anderson | $4,572 |
| Will Barton | $3,765 |
I am astounded that James does not have a higher price than Duant, especially given what happened Monday night in Brooklyn when LBJ scored 49 and carried his team like he did back in his Cavs days.
Yes, I expect a monster game from Durant.
But I also expect a similar encore from James, who is playing like a man possessed.
With the other high-priced stars, I expect Westbrook to defer much more than he did in Game 4, lowering his value.
I want no part of Aldridge, who is not facing the Rockets anymore and will not break out against the Spurs.
Paul is a worthy play, given what he has been doing in this series, and George? Man, I just can’t get a handle on him, but I’d expect that he will follow up his 39-point effort with something much more mortal.
So as always (almost), I am fielding a studs and duds team that includes Durant and James, along with three bargain bin guys from the above chart. Yes, one of them is Barton.
Hey, if I have learned one thing from watching Roy Hibbert over the past week, it’s that lightning actually can strike twice. And sometimes even more.
I’ll be back tomorrow morning with a breakdown of who won the $10,000 Big Score first prize, and why.
Good luck to y’all.