Editor's Note: The biggest and baddest NBA Mega Slam returns to FanDuel Wednesday night, March 25. There are $1 million in prizes to be awarded, with $100,000 going to first place. It's just $25 to enter and starts at 7 p.m. ET. Enter Now!

If guaranteed tournaments are your thing then Wednesday is your night on FanDuel and its Mega Slam event. There are 8,750 places to make money in this tournament, but you're entering for the potential of life-changing money ... you're in it to win it.

The problem with a contest of this size is it's nearly impossible to be in it to win it with one entry and at $25, multiple entries add up in a hurry. We're going to need an extra edge, so I'm taking a look at a week's worth of Slam winners to see if we can learn anything from the past.

The working theory is that we come up with a group of players we're comfortable with playing and then play as many combinations as our bankroll will reasonably allow. To make it clear, I am not suggesting you spend all of your bankroll trying to win the Mega Slam tonight. That would be a poor decision.

First off, eight days worth of data does not a scientific study make, but it gives us somewhere to start. There were clear trends that emerged and other things that were less convincing. I'll handle this in Q & A form, so let's get started.

How many points do I need to score to win the Slam tonight?

Over the last eight days, a total score of 372 would have won you the Slam 75 percent of the time, so that’s a pretty good place to start. Now that comes with the caveat that a typical Slam averages around 11,000 entries. There are more than 45,000 seats for Wednesday's competition, so it's certainly possible the winning score pushes closer to what looks like the outlier score of 401.6, which happened on March 20.

Do I have to play Russell Westbrook? 

Do you really want to leave this guy hanging?

In all seriousness, you don't have to play Westbrook, but you do need to pick one stud. Seven of the past eight Slam winners have had one (and only one) player that cost more than $10,000. No one had multiple studs and only one winner had zero.

There are six candidates to consider, but I'm only taking four of them seriously. First is Westbrook ($13,300), largely because he's Westbrook. I don't love him against the Spurs, but the guy does have 80 Fantasy point potential.

Anthony Davis ($12,400) and James Harden ($11,500) face each other in a huge game with playoff implications. What makes this one interesting is that Dwight Howard may be returning and would have a (slightly) negative effect on both players' values. DeMarcus Cousins ($10,700) went off Tuesday night and has a decent matchup against the Suns, but he hasn’t been great with no rest. Since all of our studs have warts, it may be better to look at the opportunity cost later in the article

At what position to do I spend the most money?

The results were all over the board on this one, but it's clear where you can save money. Only two winners spend more than $6,200 per player at small forward and most winners spend less than $10,000 total at the position. This is one of the reasons I'm not really considering LeBron James . Just remember, you're not actually punting the SF position. You need to save money and find a guy who's going to get you six to seven times the value.

It benefits you even more if they aren't owned by a high percentage of contestants. DeMarre Carroll ($5,700) is a high-variance play with a great matchup, as is P.J. Tucker (assuming Brandon Knight doesn't play). Joe Ingles ($3,500) is going to be highly owned with Gordon Hayward out, but his upside may be worth it. Ingles has played 30-plus minutes 10 times this season and provided excellent value in six of those games. He has a solid matchup and a price that helps mitigate the cost of whatever stud you want.

Other high-variance guys I'd consider are Andrew Wiggins ($6,000) and Wesley Johnson ($4,000). Johnson in particular should be owned at a very low percentage, but there is a reason for that.

Speaking of ownership, how unique does my team need to be?

Probably not as unique as you think. Every single winner had at least one player that was 30 percent owned and several winners had multiple players 40 percent owned or more. On the flip side, every winner but one had at least three players that were less than 20 percent owned. In other words, you don’t want a completely chalk lineup but you don't need to be smarter than everyone else at every position. If you believe someone is going to be highly owned and highly valuable, play them. It's as simple as that.

OK, back to that opportunity cost thing, what did you mean?

One thing you notice in several of the winning lineups is a ridiculous performance from a mid-to-upper range player. The funny thing is these guys are rarely low-owned players. When choosing which stud you're going to play, you want to make sure you don't cost yourself a chance at a huge value player.

The most obvious instance of this would be at center,because you can only select one. The most likely explosion at this position would be Gorgui Dieng ($6,700). Minnesota is still shorthanded and facing a Lakers team that has been a great matchup for big men.

Another position I see a problem at is point guard. Trey Burke ($5,100) figures to get high usage with Hayward out and faces a Portland team that has been getting torched at the position. If Nicolas Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge are still out then Damian Lillard ($8,700) remains an elite level play despite the poor matchup.

If it's variance you're looking for you could even throw Ty Lawson ($7,100) into the mix against the 76ers. All of this adds up to a situation where it's really difficult to see myself paying up for Westbrook.

So what is the winning lineup?

I like you guys and I love this job, so I’m not going to lie to you. I am not Biff Tannen. I do not have a 2016 edition of Grays Sports Almanac. As I said above, people who really want to win this contest are going to play a variety of combinations. Those people include some of the best DFS players in the world. If there was one lineup, wouldn’t they be playing it? Why waste $25 a pop with different combinations if there is clearly a "right" one?

If you're playing cash games (50/50s, head-to-heads, etc.) and you want to consume lineups, I get that. But in a large tournament like this you should be researching a collection of players and then trying to hit the right combination with them.

Here are the players I plan on making sure are in the mix, along with whatever value pops up late in the evening.

Damian Lillard ($8,700) vs. Utah

Ty Lawson ($7,100) vs. Philadelphia

Trey Burke ($5,100) vs. Portland

Jeremy Lin ($5,100) vs. Minnesota

Zach LaVine ($5,100) vs. LA Lakers

James Harden ($11,500) vs. New Orleans

Eric Bledsoe ($8,700) vs. Sacramento

Elijah Millsap ($3,600) vs. Portland

Jason Terry ($3,500) vs. New Orleans

Andrew Wiggins ($6,000) vs. LA Lakers

DeMarre Carroll ($5,700) vs. Orlando

P.J. Tucker ($5,400) vs. Sacramento

Joe Ingles ($3,500) vs. Portland

Anthony Davis ($12,400) vs. Houston

Paul Millsap ($7,900) vs. Orlando

Kenneth Faried ($7,000) vs. Philadelphia

Marcus Morris ($5,500) vs. Sacramento

Gorgui Dieng ($6,900) vs. LA Lakers

Enes Kanter ($6,900) vs. San Antonio

Steven Adams ($5,500) vs. San Antonio