Daily Dribble: Wednesday, February 26th

Carpe Diem....Sieze the Day!

Your opportunity to challenge your daily fantasy basketball wits against "The Machine" (Que Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine) has come in SKYLLZONE’s Fan vs. Machine. This contest is exclusive for people who find out about it from FantasyAlarm.com and has a $1000 Prize Pool. Oh yeah, and it’s FREE to enter, no strings attached, sign up is simple just about three steps then you can be off drafting against the machine.  If you want to find out more on what the heck SKYLLZONE is check out Rick Wolf’s Fan vs Machine: Beating the Terminator write up or for more details on how and what you win view Ray Flower’s Exclusive Daily Hoops Contest From SKYLLZONE. Now you should be ready for the fun part, preparing to draft your winning lineup.

Complete Strategy for Winning

  • Treat it like a cash game, not a Guaranteed Prize Payout (GPP). In large field GPP’s you have to go against the grain somewhere hopefully finding a high upside player or two that may be under owned, which would increase your chances of setting yourself apart from the thousands of players in the contest and improving your odds of finishing towards the top. Whereas in a cash game it is better to go with the safer, less boom or bust player options.
  • Know the Rules/Scoring- one important note is that SKYLLZONE does not penalize for turnovers or missed shots, so that improves the value of such players as Stephen Curry, Victor Oladipo, and Russell Westbrook, to name a few. All players I am hoping to land in the first four rounds of my SKYLLZONE draft.
  • Check the injury report here in the Daily Dribble before you draft, and our player news section on the homepage.  You do get two bench spots, so taking a flier on a high-upside player who is questionable due to an injury, for example LaMarcus Aldridge and/or Goran Dragic makes a lot of sense if they slip a little in your draft.
  • Drafting is made easier if you have rankings separated into positions rather than an all-in one list. This is not a necessity, but it is an added advantage to employ if you choose.
  • Keep an eye on the rosters of the ‘machines’ whom will draft after and before your picks in order to have an idea if a run on a certain position might occur. Or, if you are debating between a center and a point guard and you notice that each machine after already has a point guard but not a center, you would then know that a run of centers could be at hand, and vice versa.
  • You get two free teams, so pay extra attention to where some players go that you may like to target and/or missed on in your first draft so that you are able better gauge when you should draft them in your second go around.
  • Finally, take your time. Unlike most of your fantasy drafts you do not have a clock (other than your draft has to be completed before first tip off at 7pm). Nor, do you have any leaguemates pestering you to hurry up. So, if you are in a quandary over a pick take your time, do a little research, shoot me and/or Mark Kaplan a tweet for some sage advice, then make your pick. I promise the ‘machine’ will not care nor will they ridicule you like some of your punk leaguemates right before they make a boneheaded pick that had they taken their time to do some added research rather than harass you could have turned out much better. Speaking of research, I have gathered all the latest pertinent injury news and provided my analysis gearing it towards today's Fan vs Machine contest.

Draft Observations

ADP

Player

Round

17

Jeff Teague

Beg. 5th

23

Thaddeus Young

End 1st

30

Josh Smith

Mid 3rd

39

Victor Oladipo

Beg. 3rd

55

Andre Drummond

Beg. 3rd

69

Markieff Morris

Mid 6th

137

Nikola Vucevic

2nd

206

Kent Bazemore

8th

I have three more players that could be sneaky steals for you, but you will have to tweet out and/or post the link on facebook to today's Free Fan vs Machine SKYLLZONE contest. Be sure to @FantasyNomad in the tweet and/or tag Michael Pichan on facebook so I can send you the three discounted dandies for your willingness to help promote this battle against our non-human challengers.

Here is the link to the contest : http://www.skyllzone.com/promo/fantasyalarm?mid=501015

Tonight’s Injury News

The Celtics will be without their leading rebounder Jared Sullinger (concussion) for Wednesday's home game against the Hawks as well as guard Avery Bradley who is still out with an ankle injury. Both Kelly Olynyk and Brandon Bass were on list of late round targets during my SKYLLZONE draft in that order.

David Lee is expected to play Wednesday in Chicago against the Bulls after missing the past two games due to the stomach flu.

Goran Dragic (ankle) and Leandro Barbosa are questionable to play Wednesday in Utah and Eric Bledsoe is still out. Ish Smith would likely slide into the starting lineup and has the potential to stuff the stat sheet making him a great last round pick at SKYLLZONE and near min. salary option on other sites.

 

Nick Young (knee) will not play Wednesday against the Grizzlies. Kent Bazemoere posted another career-high in points for the third consecutive game as he finished with a game-high 23 to go with four rebounds, three assists, and three steals in a game-high 39 minutes of the loss to the Pacers Tuesday. Such a performance against such a solid defensive team as the Pacers is making it look like Bazemore is matchup proof.

Thomas Robinson suffered a left patella tendon strain vs. the Nuggets Tuesday and is listed as day-to-day. Robinson was only able to play three second half minutes due to severity of the pain, so it seems unlikely that he would play tonight against Brooklyn.  LaMarcus Aldridge, who has missed the last four games, is listed as questionable for tonight’s game versus the Nets as he continues to recoup from a strained groin. Blazers head coach Terry Stotts isn’t helping us out any either as he said there is “no update on Aldridge’s status” after Aldridge took some shots before Tuesday’s game against Denver. If both Aldridge and Robinson are out then Dorell Wright becomes an even more enticing late round pick at SKYLLZONE and a discounted dandy on other sites.

You should now finally be armed with enough ammo of info to not only take on the "Machine," but DESTROY IT! The only thing left for you to do is seize your opportunity and enter the Man vs Machine contest so can begin your quest towards drafting domination. Fantasy Basketball superamcy not only over your fellow men, but over machine as well.

To parapharase Pink Floyd, we told you the name of the game now it's time to ride the gravy train. Good luck! May you mash the machine and grab the cash.