Wackin' It

I want to take a couple of minutes to focus on those Chilliwack Offs. The team that everyone in the JBL Draft room was immediately afraid of as the Draft night moved along. This was a team that was balanced. Clearly, Wack ownership had prepared for this night. Clearly, Wack ownership didn't have a job (other than being a Daddy) and had the time to create multiple level Excel spreadsheets to make sure this draft went just right.

Benny's squad was built on the 'depth' approach. This is the one that usually wins. I say that because Golden has employed it many times as well as Oliver Your Face was known for this balanced team attack. Right there, that's 9 JBL titles. So, I knew Benny was on to something when he went down this draft night road.

So what is balance? How about not one single player in the top 10 CBS ratings. But how about having 10+ guys in the top 100? Ray Allen, Mike Bibby, Ben Gordon, Andre Iguodala, Josh Smith, Al Jefferson...these were the guys that the Offs were built around. And these are the guys that made the Wack so successful this season.

Because Benny drafted so wisely - he had plently of bucks left near the end of the night to grab outright bargains in Mario Chalmers, Andris Biedrins, and Ben Gordon. It's not often you can get a 20ppg scorer for under 10 bucks!

For most of the 1st half of the season, this team was relatively healthy. He lost Josh Smith for a couple of weeks, but otherwise, the Offs were rollin' along most of the season. The Offs picked up reinforcements early in the year with a date-rape like trade of Mike Conley for Jeff Green. Nice move Benny. (I could have had Green for Marvin Williams - whoops!)

Then, Benny swooped in on Bangkok and stolen Durant for Barnes & Horford. Once KD hit town, he took off to superstar status. I'm pretty sure the Wack can take credit for his immediate rise to stardom.

Then, like the rest of the JBL players, the injuries started to work their way to Chilliwack. Down went Biedrins. Ray Allen missed some game. And unfortunately down went Al Jefferson (this was the crushing kick in the nuts). The Big Al injury was probably just as painful as that twisted testicle Benny had back in 1992.

And finally, what I believe to be the crushing blow, was the Kevin Durant trade. Like any white man would - Benny feared the grinning little asian man coming up from behind. Phil Woo was closing in and Benny had to make a move. So, he traded Durant and Mo Williams for Steve Nash and Josh Howard. In my books, this trade, coupled with the Big Al injury, put the Seoul Brothers into the favorite position.

Durant in Juan de Fuca has averaged 30ppg, 7rpg, shot 50% FG, and 46% 3PT. Mo Williams, the all-star, has averaged 21ppg while shooting 47% FG and 51% from downtown. That's right 51% from behind the arc. Mo has made 93 3-pointers in 31 Juan de Fuca games. It's no wonder Juan climbed the 3PT ladder so fast.

Meanwhile, Nashie has been good, he's averaged 16ppg and 10apg while shooting good percentages. The problem is that Nash was brought in to help out in the ATO category. Unfortunately, after 27 Nash games, the Wack is still 11th in ATO. But the real sharty underpants of this deal has been Josh Howard. For starters, he's been hurt a lot during his time in the cornfields. And somehow, the player who they used to think was going to be Matrix-like, Howard is only averaging 18 and 4 with a negative ATO. Maybe bringing a 'toker' to beautiful BC was a bad move??

With 3 weeks to go the Wack is still poised for a top 4 finish. It will be disappointing not to win it all, but it's hard when you lose your top player (Big Al). Jefferson is a $50+ player in the JBL and when he went down - down went the true hopes of the Wack.

Benny is loaded for next season though. He has Gordon, Biedrins, Green, and Mike Bibby as possible protections so he has a pretty good core already.

The Wack has been in the JBL forever. Benny and I go waaaay back. He was the best man at my wedding and we shared a condo for a few years. He's one of my best friends in the whole world and Benny and I have wrecked many young men's lives with JBL-ology (poor Scott Carroll). We have shared many laughs and basketball debates over the last 18 years and I look forward to competing with him in the Fantasy world of the JBL for many years to come! Love live the Wack!