Another day, another huge cash in NBA DFS contests for a Stokastic pro. This time it was Stokastic CEO Tom Kennedy who placed second in the DraftKings NBA DFS Milly Maker, taking home $150,000 and adding another $20,000 with a few other lineup cashes. And as always, Tom used Stokastic Sims to help him get there:
My closest brush with a Milly. Rarely dabble in high stakes but couple things changed: (1) revamped my process with Stokastic Sims (especially late swap simulator) and (2) sites consistently overlaying satellites. Edges lurking everywhere just need to find them. @StokasticHOF pic.twitter.com/XVscwMUddK
— Tom Kennedy (@tomjk321) December 27, 2023
Let’s take a closer look at Tom’s near-millionaire-making lineup and the Stokastic tools that helped him bag $170,000 in combined winnings.
Winning DraftKings NBA DFS Lineup & Strategy
The Spurs were a widely recommended route for this slate, as was the suddenly incredible value that Andre Drummond became. Drummond got the minutes vacated by Nikola Vucevic, and his day was so huge at just $4,700 that having him in the lineup was a must to win big in the Milly Maker. Luckily, Tom did roster Drummond in the utility slot, and his Spurs of choice were Jeremy Sochan and Julian Champagnie. Champagnie paid off a bit more since he A) was rostered less, B) had a lower salary and C) scored slightly higher, but Sochan was passable as chalk as well.
A big boon for Tom was having not one, not two, but three players drop 55-plus fantasy points — including two of at least 66 — with none totally breaking the bank. De’Aaron Fox and Franz Wagner were Tom’s highest-priced plays, and both splashed huge; Fox did so at low 3.8% ownership. Tom’s other high-priced contrarian play, Dejounte Murray, did not pay off quite as well but was not a huge bust either, and the low-priced chalk of Jalen Smith paid off his salary nicely.
Great question. Advantages are (1) speed of simulations and (2) superior sim algorithm developed by our data team. Some of this is built into default sim runs. But others require user intervention… https://t.co/z339wc7dXD
— Tom Kennedy (@tomjk321) December 27, 2023
As Tom laid out in his tweet above, he was able to find success on this slate by tweaking a part of his process: Using the late-swap simulator feature of the Stokastic Sims tool. The Stokastic Sims have helped numerous Stokastic pros and community members cash big in NBA and NFL DFS contests this year, and exploring all features of the Sims is the best way to truly take your daily fantasy results to the next level.
Interestingly enough, the lineup that edged out Tom’s for first place (and $1 million) came from DraftKings user hishboo, who appeared on Stokastic’s own Neil Orfield’s podcast High Stakes in early December. You can check that out here; in the meantime, here is his lineup:
First place differed from second place in only three places: Cade Cunningham, Devin Vassell and DeMar DeRozan instead of Fox, Sochan and Murray. Cunningham, Vassell and DeRozan accounted for 142.25 fantasy points, while Fox, Sochan and Murray totaled 133.25. That 9-point difference was all it took, and the point differential between Tom’s second-place win and falling into five figures instead of six was only 10.25 fantasy points. Remember, the margins are thin, so finding every edge is crucial to maximizing your DFS game.
And there are always edges to find if you stay engaged with the Stokastic community.
If you want to turn your NBA DFS season around, there is still plenty of time! Sign up now for Stokastic’s NBA DFS package to gain access to the contest sims, lineup generator, projections and much, much more — and get yourself up on that podium alongside other Stokastic users and pros!
