Last night, 12/31, we had a five-game NBA DFS slate, and the main DraftKings GPP was the NBA $700K New Year’s Toast ($150,000 to first). 22,061 unique players entered the fray with 54,901 entries at $15 each. 3,703 (16.8%) started the new year with a profit. Let’s get right into the NBA DraftKings Lineup review!
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DFS Rewind: NBA DraftKings Lineup Review | Dec. 31
This slate will be remembered as the night a short-handed Knicks team took on a suddenly short-handed Raptors. Alec Burks and Immanuel Quickley were ruled out before lock while Pascal Siakam was suddenly and unexpectedly ruled out about 20 minutes before that game started. So, the slate was flipped on its head twice, landing right side up for one 150-maxer who took the $150,000 1st place prize.
The Winner
Happy New Year indeed to 150-maxer wdrzich who won this tournament, cashing 58 lineups and profiting $149,764.84 off their $2,250 investment. Wdrzich used late swap to much advantage, ending up with three (now low-owned) Raptors and filling in the other pieces correctly, winning by half a point.
What’s interesting about this slate winning lineup is that the bottom two players failed. Chris Boucher ended up with a snowflake while Brandon Ingram was ejected from his game in the third quarter. Wdzrich used all $50,000 team salary and a cumulative team ownership that ended up being 153.6%.
Salary and Ownership
Two of the top 50 finishers used $49,600 team salary or less, including the 3rd-ranked entry, which used $49,400. All others used $49,700 or more. Here are the top salaries used in the GPP:
- $50,000 | 43%
- $49,900 | 23%
- $49,800 | 13%
- $49,700 | 8%
- $49,600 | 4%
Cumulative team ownership on the top 50 was concentrated in the 120-160% range. Pre-slate optimal lineups entered by users who did not late swap was 204.4%. Fifty-six players entered this lineup, which did not cash:
It was their highest median projected lineup available and was not late-swapped after news broke.
The 150-Maxers
12,750 lineups (23.2%) were entered by 85 150-maxers. Nine made a profit; most lost about $1,500. As a 150-maxer won the big one for the first time this year, we have already looked at the best 150-maxer lineup. Instead, I’ll note that two Awesemo guys, rynpak and ShipMyMoney, were in the group of nine that profited on this slate.
Besides that and the winner, not much to report on the 150-maxer front.
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Miscellaneous
The boom of the slate goes to Richaun Holmes who went 9.3x (48.25 fantasy points @ 13.2%). The bust of the slate goes to Zion Williamson who delivered 2.3x (18.25 fantasy points at 33.7%).
Three hundred and six lineups were reserved and not played. The lowest-owned lineup that cashed (min-cashed) featured a cumulative team ownership of 43.9%:
The lowest salary team that cashed (min-cashed) used $46,500 team salary:
The best single bullet (one entry in an MME GPP) was actually a tie! In an NBA DFS GPP with 54,901 entries, two unique users with unique lineups entered once each and arrived at the same score, a 312 which was good enough for sixth place and $8,500 each. Congrats to hoff83 and beau33 who replace the last best single user featured in this column, 33BigCat33…:
 
The best possible lineup you could have played last night scored a 341 using a team salary of only $49,600. This lineup would have won by 24.75 fantasy points:
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