Welcome all to the Annual “YEAR IN REVIEW”!! What happened in the JBL in 2008/09? What went right for teams? What went wrong? Who made good trades? Who made some stinkers? This is where the woulda coulda shoulda comes back to life!
Let’s have a look at each team and their year. Let’s see who the MVP was – who the Unsung hero was (the guy who never gets enough credit for being valuable to his Fantasy team – who was the best Waiver Wire Addition – Best and Worst Trades – and best Keepers for 09/10....here we go...
Boston Pancakes
Nothing much went right in Boston this year. Trevor was coming off a 2nd place finish in 07/08 and after JBL Draft night his 2008 squad looked a lot like the previous year’s team. Looking at his opening night roster, this was a team that could contend. Duncan, Carmelo, AK47, Calderon, Turkoglu, S-Jax, Prince, Iverson, Rip Hamilton, and Andrew Bogut appeared to be a very solid core. Too bad that most of these players missed significant amounts of time during the 08/09 season. And then, when Trev makes a trade, even that one blew up in his face. He traded Duncan for Amare and then STAT is lost for the season with an eye injury. In the end, Trev’s team played almost 100 fewer man games than the Seoul squad. That’s like giving Woo (and the rest of us a 2-3 week head start). Impossible to contend with that many injuries.
MVP: No team has a MVP when you finish dead last
Unsung Hero: Travis Outlaw
Best Waiver Pick-up: Delonte West
We Expected More: Andrew Bogut – 31 games is bullshit
Best Keepers: Turkoglu for $13, Prince for $11
Pearl Necklaces
Our absent owner finished in 11th this season. I’d like to comment on how Steve buckled down and made every possible move to salvage his 08/09 team. I’d like to say he traded like he was Tuna on crack. I’d like to say that Steve made some great trades to improve his team and that it was just bad luck that he finished 11th. I’d like to say that – but it’s simply not true. What did Steve do to try and win the JBL? Nothing. His big trade was Rafer Alston for Luke Ridnour. Think of it this way – on draft night we all get 15 players. Steve needed just 4 more players all year for his season!! Compare that to the 50 players that Brussels used for the season. So, his apathy got him what he deserved...11th place. When players are picked by Pearl on JBL Draft Night – they go there to die!
MVP: Vince Carter – 20-5-5 and 38.5 from downtown – a great season
Unsung Hero: Trevor Ariza (steals and more steals)
Best Waiver Pick-up: Steve Blake – ATO is nice
We Expected More: Shawn Marion – 13 & 8 for the once top-5 Roto player – you suck!
Best Keepers: Shaq for $22, Ginobili for $17
Dildo Baggins
The 10th place team in the JBL this season doomed himself from the very beginning and he probably didn’t even know it. What did he do wrong? He didn’t show up for the JBL draft – choosing instead to be responsible and working and then doing the draft online. That will kill you right there. The Baggins squad was loaded with ‘star’ talent after the JBL Draft. With big names like Kobe, Wade, David West, Bynum and Brand – everyone thought this team would have a chance. However, a few things went wrong early on. #1 – this team was not good at shooting 3’s and the team’s % was crap all year. #2 – Brand wasn’t as good as he was supposed to be. #3 – He tried to correct the 3PT% with Joe Johnson – but it cost him Dwyane Wade. #4 – His lower tier players were simply not good enough. Lou Williams played 47 games for this team - and he shot 37 and 27 respectively. Mareese Speights played 42 games for this squad. Sure, Speights could be good – but he isn’t yet – he averaged 8 and 3. And Chris Wilcox played 29 games for Dildo while averaging 9 and 5. Those ‘role’ players have got to be better to succeed in the JBL.
MVP: Kobe – another amazing year
Unsung Hero: Grant Hill – still getting it done at his age!
Best Waiver Pickup: DJ Augustin
We Expected More: Joe Johnson (35.2% from downtown in Dildo – not good enough)
Best Keepers: Augustin for $10, Stuckey for $8, Harrington for $9, Hill for $9
Juan de Fuca Yo Mamas
First of all, I’m still in shock that Juan finished this low in the Standings. 9th place? Amazing. What went wrong?? That’s easy – they have 3 owners! When there is that many cooks in the kitchen – anything can happen. It’s time for Juan to split up and each run their own team. You’re telling me that these 3 guys don’t have the time or knowledge to run a JBL team?? Come on – did you read my Pearl Necklaces review? If Steve can do it – so can you guys! Anyways, enough venting about Juan’s ownership. The Mamas certainly tried to right the ship when things weren’t going well. The big move was bringing in Kevin Durant. This kid has turned into an absolute beast in just his 2nd season! Juan just didn’t have it this season. They were 4th in rebounds and 5th in 3PT% but last in ATO, 11th in steals, and 10th in FG%. I think if we started the season over with the rosters from the end of the season that Juan would be a top 6 team. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough time to turn things around. Juan’s best trade was bringing in Durant and Mo Williams while giving up an aging Nash and often-injured Josh Howard. This was a great trade for Juan – but it was a little too late. The one thing I do suspect is – that no matter how many owners this team has in 09/10 – they will be out for revenge and they will certainly have a very large wager with Bangkok!
MVP: Troy Murphy (14 and 12 while shooting 45% from downtown!!!)
Unsung Hero: JR Smith
Best Waiver pick-up: Wilson Chandler
We Expected More: Corey Maggette
Best Keepers: Durant for $38, Lopez for $6, Harris for $18, Murphy for $16 – Juan has some very tough choices to make – cause he can only protect 2 guys!!! That’s great for the rest of us...
French Lick Celtics
I just know that Chris is disappointed in his 08/09 season. I know that he takes great pride in his Fantasy skills and he’s deeply upset about his 8th place finish and the fact that he finished behind Idaho. French tried everything he could this season as over 50 players came and went through the roster. In the end, nothing really worked. There was no late season charge this year. There was just a slow dying moose lying at the side of the road. Whatever that means. I could list all the good things that went on in French...but there are just as many bad things that happened. He had Chris Paul, then he traded him. He had Tracy McGrady, but he got hurt, again. He had Michael Redd, but he got hurt, again. He had Yao, he had Dirk, he had everybody – but nobody worked in French Lick this season. So, he had some big names...but he also employed Dominic McGuire, Keith Bogans, JJ Redick, Brian Skinner, Sean May, and DeMarcus Nelson. So, we can never say he won’t try anything – cause those names scream desperation! That’s why Hildy will win it all one day – cause he’s willing to try anything. Despite his lack of JBL success to date, I think he’s on the cusp of a big season in 09/10.
MVP: Paul Millsap – he earned himself a big NBA raise
Unsung Hero: Thaddeus Young – no one thought he could go 15 and 5 with 1.4 stls
Best Waiver Pick-up: Paul Millsap – should Utah keep him or Boozer?
We Expected More: Tyson Chandler – 8 and 8? Really? That’s it?
Best Keepers: Thad Young for $10, Mayo for $15, Rondo for $24, Millsap for $15, Hawes $15
Bangkok Fighters
Ah, the Fighters. He’s got another 7th place ribbon to hang in the trophy case. I’m getting a bit tired of all the hype and pre-season hoopla around this team – only to see them disappoint. Every year, Sports Illustrated ranks this team as a contender because he’s been in the pool for so long. And every year he comes up lame. What’s he going to say about 08/09? At least he beat Juan de Fuca? Is that it? I could see his draft plan this year – he tried to build a team around Bosh and Garnett and 2 super rookies. It may have worked, if the KG he paid $62 bucks was the KG from the late 90’s or early 2000’s. Instead, he got the old KG – the one that broke down and is more concerned about winning than Fantasy stats. I’ll give credit to Rick in the rookies category. Every year he seems to be willing to find and draft the gems. This year it was Mayo and Westbrook. I’m sure that Bangkok is planning on building the 09/10 squad around Westie. The other thing that Rick did well this season was....trade with Golden. He got Deng, Duhon, Love, Lee, and Billups out of me in separate deals. All of those guys were key pieces to Rick’s 7th place, worthless, finish in the Standings. Here’s an odd stat - Bangkok had 3 players all 82 games as a member of the Fighters (Miller, Westbrook, Scola). So, what’s in store for the Bangkok squad next season? Well, for starters, he’ll have to figure out which two keepers he will bring back. And then, the hype will begin. Bangkok will promise victory. The side-bets with Juan will be revealed. And Bangkok, one of my favourite JBL owners, will be out to win his 1st JBL title. I can’t wait for the ride.
MVP: Chris Bosh – 23ppg, 10reb, 1blk, 49%
Unsung Hero: Luis Scola – 13ppg, 9reb, 53% - what a great role player
Best Waiver Pick-up: Jason Thompson – I loved this late season pickup (14 and 10 with 1 block)
We Expected More: Kevin Garnett - $62 bucks for 16 and 8?
Best Keepers: Westbrook for $10, Lee for $21, Scola for $20, Perkins for $9, Ford for $17
Brussels Muscles
Look up mediocrity in the dictionary and there is your 2008/09 Brussels Muscles squad. The team wasn’t great – but it wasn’t bad. We do know that it wasn’t as good as Idaho and we do know that Idaho will remind Tim of that fact for about, oh, the next 7 years. Tim is another JBL who is not afraid to make roster shuffles. He used well over 50 guys this season and had everyone from Superstars to deep bench players. His 7th place finish certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. Tim did a good job of selling off assets high and buying low. Prime example – Al Harrington. He scooped Al outta Idaho while he was injured, played him for 7 games while hot in New York – then shipped him off to Dildo. That’s a classic Benny-type trade. And speaking of trades – Timbo pulled off an amazing 22 of them this season! 8 of those trades were with French Lick and another 7 were with Idaho. So, I guess Tim can’t really complain about Idaho beating him – because Tim was stocking his team! Furthermore, I don’t think we can rightly say that Seoul and Bangkok are the only ‘cozy’ trading partners when Brussels hooks up for 15 deals between French and Idaho. In 2009/10, Tim will finally get to feel the pressure of running a JBL team while married! Now he will have the outside pressures of his wife nagging him to get off the computer and spend some time with her. We’ll see how he deals with this type of pressure!!! There is a lot of pressure on the Brussels squad in 09/10 as he was the lowest ranked Pershick!!! Not something you want to deal with very often.
MVP: Nate Robinson (73 games in Brussels with 17ppg)
Unsung hero: Charlie Villenueva (the guy no one wanted averaged 16 and 6 in Brussels)
Best Waiver Pick-up: Antonio McDyess (11ppg and 11reb in 38 games in Brussels)
We expected more: Gilbert Arenas (Timbo’s favourite player tanked the season to collect his coin)
Best Keepers: Tyrus Thomas for $10, Derrick Rose for $24, Arenas for $23, Nate for $8
Arctic Circle Jerks
So close, yet so far. 1 rebound. 1 rebound. 1 rebound. Try not to think about it. It’s not that big a deal. Not only did you manage to finish 5th...you lost out to Idaho. See, there’s always a silver lining. This Arctic team was an under the radar type squad all year long. We didn’t hear much from the Arctic this season – other than a 48 hour spat with Timbo. There weren’t a lot of trades in the Arctic. There weren’t a lot of signings in the Arctic. So, what does that mean, he did a great job on Draft Night. He ended up with 7 players playing their entire season from start to finish in Arctic. He had 4 players play over 70 games for him – that’s impressive. His best trade was getting Duncan for Amare – this was mostly because Amare blew an eyeball a couple games later. Arctic used Dwight Howard’s monster year to lead the JBL in blocks. He took a chance on Marc Gasol and Andrea Bargnani (again) and both these ‘risky’ draft night picks paid off as both those guys had very solid seasons! Other draft night success stories were John Salmons, Beno Udrih, Raymond Felton and Raja Bell. I think after such a great Draft that he will be begging to run the online chat again this season as it appeared to work just fine for him (as it has for me in the past).
MVP: Dwight Howard – 20-14-3 – the guy is a monster
Unsung Hero: John Salmons – I say borderline All-Star with 18-4-3, 1stl, 47% and 42%
Best Waiver Pick-up: Ramon Sessions – 14ppg, 6.5ast
We Expected More: Ben Wallace – drafted by Arctic, in 17 games for them Big Ben averaged 2ppg
Best Keepers: Marc Gasol for $8, Bargnani for $10, Salmons for $18, Felton for $14
Idaho Udapimps
It’s a historic season in the JBL as the kid has finally done it – he’s won some money! On the final night, it was a late rebound from the Golden squad that broke the rebound tie between the Showers and the Arctic and gave the Udapimps the last money spot. I gotta give the youngster some credit – he never gave up and he climbed the standings all year and he was rewarded on the last day. Like most years, Idaho traded, added,dropped, and traded again to get more and more players. By the end of it all, he had assembled quite the group of JBL Fantasy studs. His climb in FG% was amazing. His ability to maintain a good 3PT% shocked most of us. In the end, it was by far his most impressive performance to date. Idaho made some bold moves and took chances on Randy Foye, Jermaine O’Neal, Baron Davis, and Anthony Randolph (to name a few) and some of these moves paid off. Blowing his Free Agent wad on Boris Diaw was clearly his best move as Diaw was spectacular after his move to Charlotte. One move I’m sure he regretted was the Mike Conley for Jeff Green trade – as Benny clearly won that deal. However, in most cases, I think Idaho did just fine in the trade department. So, for those of the JBL owners that finished lower in the Standings (and I know that Idaho will remind you of who you are) there are some troubling signs for next season. You see, Idaho did not blow his wad this season (well he did, but that’s for Crikker’s article) as he has plenty of talent coming back next season. And frankly, I don’t think I’d want to finish below Idaho two years in a row.
MVP: Tony Parker (stolen out of Golden early in the season)
Unsung Hero: Randy Foye (17ppg – who thought he would do that?)
Best Waiver Pick-up: Boris Diaw (14ppg, 5.7reb, 4.63ast, 0.8stl, 0.7blk, 50% & 42%)
We Expected More: Jermaine O’Neal (13 & 6 – 31 yrs old and looking like he’s done)
Best Keepers: Ellis for $19, Brewer for $11, Diaw for $15, Thornton for $12, Foye for $18
Chilliwack Offs
Coming out of the JBL draft, I think everyone realized this was a scary team. They were big (Jefferson, Smith, Biedrins, and Randolph) and they could shoot (Ray Allen, Bibby, and Gordon). The Wack was the team to catch early on and all appeared to be smooth sailing in the early weeks. While other teams were being ravaged by injuries – the Offs were like a boy in a bubble. Ultimately, the injury bug caught up to Benny – and big time. He lost Big Al, he lost Josh Smith, down went Biedrins, down went Camby, down went Josh Howard and finally down went his chances of another JBL title. Along the way, Benny raped his good buddy in Bangkok by stealing Kevin Durant for Al Horford and Matt Barnes. Even emphasizing the AND part of that trade doesn’t justify it. It’s one thing when you get a 3-point specialist like Barnes – it’s another thing to realize Barnes shot 34.3% from downtown this season. That’s like going to Morton’s Steak House and ordering the chicken! Benny tried to right the ship and stay with Woo by acquiring Off favourite Steve Nash – but it was a little too late. When it was all said and done – this team was 2 steals away from 2nd place. That’s it – just 2 steals. Instead, Benny will have to live with the 3rd place finish and prepare for next season. At least he has the satisfaction of being the best Pershick in the JBL – and for a change that is quite the accomplishment when you think that the Pershick’s finished 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th.
MVP: Al Jefferson – I know he only got in 50 games – but in that time he emerged as a top 10 Fantasy stud. 23 and 11 with 1.6 blocks. That’s studly!
Unsung Hero: Jeff Green – rock solid contributor all season long
Best Waiver pick-up: Joel Pryzbilla – monster season filling in for the injured Offs
We Expected More: Josh Smith – big contract should get you more than 15 & 7
Best Keepers: Green for $11, Biedrins for $20, Gordon for $11, Bibby for $18
Golden Showers
This 2nd place Showers team was good, but it wasn’t nearly good enough. From JBL Draft night onwards, the 08/09 JBL season was about superstars. Because of the way the JBL draft went this year (high priced guys and then bargains – no middle class) – this was all about having the superstars. Seoul had Lebron and Chilliwack had Al Jefferson and those 2 teams were clearly the class of the JBL from the get-go. Golden reacted and landed D-Wade and the race was on. Unfortunately, like many of the other teams, too many injuries didn’t allow Golden to put out the best possible line-up for several weeks. If Golden sucked at anything this season it was in the trades department (other than Wade and at the deadline). Golden turned down multiple offers that would have landed very good players. And then when Golden did pull the trigger – the deals were horrible!! Golden traded Deng, Love, and Duhon for Elton Brand – who was injured, returned for 5 games, and then was injured for the rest of the season!! Golden stuck to his guns with his Blazers plan all season and Roy and Aldridge were both very good all year for the surprisingly good Portland squad. Golden doesn’t sneak up on anyone in the JBL anymore and will have to do his homework next season if he hopes to continue his JBL success.
MVP: Dwyane Wade (did you really expect anyone else?)
Unsung Hero: LaMarcus Aldridge – rock solid 18 & 7 with 78 stls and 78 blks
Best Waiver pick-up: Francisco Garcia (40% downtown, 80 steals and 65 blocks from a SG)
We Expected More: Greg Oden (Golden gave him 37 games to prove his worth – didn’t work)
Best Keepers: Wade for $69, Nelson for $15, Gordon for $10
Seoul Brothers
Your 2008/09 JBL champions! This team was awesome from the get-go. Maybe it’s something to do with Woo’s tireless approach to the JBL. I wonder if his company knows that he does 50 hours a week at work and 25 of those are reviewing JBL stats? I wonder if Woo is sending part of his winnings to Doug for his Tendex rankings? We can make fun of Woo all we want – but he did something we didn’t. He won. He also set the 12-team scoring record with 1055 points. If you have the time, or the energy after reading this – go check out what this team looked like after the JBL Draft. It was Lebron and some other guys. I still remember talking to Phil prior to the draft and his plan all along was to land Lebron. He made it happen and then he filled in around Lebron and created this monsterous JBL team. If you actually look at the names on his roster – there weren’t a lot of Super Studs – but there were a lot of solid Fantasy players. You put that recipe together and put it with the fact that the Seoul squad played the most man-games (despite injuries to Boozer) and the fact that several guys had breakout or career seasons (Azubuike, Okur, Nene, Rondo, Turiaf, etc) you have the makings of a JBL champion. Believe me, I know, I’ve used it before. And that’s why it pains me to see Mr. Woo use my own strategy to beat me. Woo never rested either. When it looked like the Wack or Golden may push him – he went out and used Rajon Rondo to get Dirk Nowitzki. Woo even had the balls to drop Richard Jefferson, a 19ppg guy, and use Ronny Turiaf because he was more valuable in ATO and blocks. That’s strategy. That’s borderline genius. That’s Johnny-style. Well done Woo. A well deserved win. And I think you proved your point to all the non-believers – Doug’s Stats has its merits.
MVP: ummm, hmmm, random pick...Lebron
Unsung Hero: Kelenna Azuibuike
Best Waiver Pick-up: Ronny Turiaf
We Expected More: Lamar Odom
Best Keepers: Nene for $7, Lebron for $78, Azubuike for $6, Conley for $10
Well boys, that’s it from the Commissioner’s Office. Thanks again for your JBL participation!! Stay tuned for Crikker’s take on the 08/09 JBL season. Have a great summer. And remember – Woo is preparing for the ‘09 JBL Draft already – shouldn’t you?
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