Vegas and Week 1

Well, first off, let me apologize for a lengthy absence. In the JBL's 20th season I have clearly let the 4-5 readers down by not updating this blog sooner. Lots has happened...so let's get to it.

• The 20th JBL Draft was held in beautiful/sinful Las Vegas. The suite at Mandalay was awesome and we had 9 eager JBL owners around a 10 x 10 area all with laptops doing their thing. I guess for Golden this was a bad setting as clearly I was affected by these surroundings. Either it was Vegas, or it was not having 12 year old hot dogs nearby, or the fact that I started drinking again at 10am the day of the draft. Whatever it was, Golden screwed the pooch. I'll address the Golden issues later. For now, let's go around the JBL.
• There were some teams that should clearly be pushing for a Vegas draft every year. Bangkok and Idaho were both impressive and the Fighters squad is out to an early, yet monstrous lead. Idaho clearly used a Roulette high to stick to a game plan and he came away with maybe the best Idaho team we've seen in years.
• Another draft day success was the Arctic squad. Maybe all these years he's just needed some peace and quiet in order to be successful?
• On paper, I like the look of the Chilliwack squad. His Excel spreadsheet was the talk of Vegas for quite some time. We'll see how this team pans out over the year - but I do really like what Benny did.
• The 2 off season favorites - Bangkok and Brussels - are in good positions to make a run at their 1st JBL titles. Rick had the best 4 man core of keepers probably ever (or at least the last 5-6 years) in the JBL. He supplemented those guys with Brandon Roy, Josh Smith, Tony Parker, and others. Let me make it clear - Bangkok is my early favorite for the JBL title.
• Brussels had 2 awesome keepers in Durant and Evans. He added Granger and Brook Lopez to the mix and may have 4 All-Stars come February. Tim is counting on some breakout years from Augustin, McGee, Jrue Holiday, Splitter, T Williams, Toney Douglas, and others. So this is a team of All-Stars and breakout hopefuls. Tim will need to be right on 3-4 of these of guys in order to win it all. That being said, he's right in the mix at this early stage of the season.
• Seoul is back looking for a 3rd straight JBL title. His team is led by Dwyane Wade, a cast of aging (but still productive veterans), and the likely ROY in John Wall. Once again, Woo has done some good things and it appears he is a title contender. Veterans Ray Allen, Andre Miller, J-Rich, Garnett, and Luis Scola all appear sold on playing for this always successful JBL owner. Look at Scola's early season success!
• Arctic paid big $$$ for Rondo and Blake Griffin. There was some snickering in Vegas that $58 bucks for Rondo was way too much. Two points about this price. (1) Someone else believed he was worth it and (2) looks like this was a good move after all. Blake Griffin went for $49 bucks and again he is living up to the hype. The Circle Jerks are a big team and should have no problem being a top rebounding team with the likes of Camby, Love, Griffin, and Horford. OJ Mayo and Beasley will have to pick up the scoring load as this team isn't blessed with a 25ppg guy. Overall, Arctic looks to be in good shape to be a contender.
• Idaho is in the mix early on as well. His starting lineup consists of 6 players that everyone would want and then he has 6 players that apparently no one wants (because he has offered them all in trade to almost everyone in the league). The Boris Diaw and Reggie Evans for Carlos Boozer offers still exist. Idaho is counting on his big guns to keep him in the title hunt. He pulled off the first big trade of the season when he traded a happy and healthy Devin Harris for an under-achieving Chris Bosh. We'll see how this move pans out as this was pretty early to make a major move like this one.
• Yuma has again put together a very veteran squad led by Kobe and Nash in the back court. Despite a shitty 09/10 season from Al Jefferson Yuma was happy to have him back again this season. Yuma also has David Lee, Al Harrington, Jason Terry, Mike Conley and others to make up what is a very solid 1-12 lineup. Again, I said it last year, but what a great draft room guy Pat is. He had a very under-rated performance in Vegas for his sarcasm wit directed at Bangkok. Nicely done.
• French Lick is a team that should have been drafting from Vegas. Too bad he couldn't make it. French used big dollars to select Chris Paul - who I think is a great guy to build around. I also liked the twin tower pairings of Duncan and David West. French made an early season trade by grabbing Bargnani from CHWK for Paul Millsap. French may have the best $1 pick of the draft in Nicolas Batum. He has looked awesome early on. This is another deep JBL team for French and he's certainly in the mix.
• Belgrade is back for year #2 and his Zombies squad is built around the scoring machines Monta Ellis and Carmelo Anthony. A couple of crappy games from Bosh and Marko punted him to the land of little money winnings (Idaho) in exchange for Devin Harris. Even though Bosh was sucking, this move has left Belgrade on the 'small' side when it comes to rebounding. Lucky for him he has Odom and Shelden Williams picking up any slack in this area. The return of Bynum and Okur could also help ease the pain here. The Zombies squad also has the required European talent with Bellinelli, Dragic, Kleiza, and Okur. Marko clearly learned from his rookie year and the Belgrade squad looks much deeper than last season.
• The name may have changed but Trevor is back for his 20th JBL season. The newly christened Maui Ribs didn't spend much of his allotted $260 bucks on draft night but he does have some talent. There aren't many "stars" but there are some very good players. Andrew Bogut (who Woo regrets not keeping for $25), Jeff Green, Caron Butler, Trevor Ariza and others will hopefully lead a well rounded attack for Maui this season. Maui boasts 2 players who are clearly exceeding their fantasy expectations in Wilson Chandler and Beno Udrih. Both have had very good starts to the season. Maui does have 3 players whose starts are very disappointing though - Jason Thompson, Jamison, and Kirilenko. It's early days so we'll see how this Maui team fares over the coming weeks.
• The Juan de Fuca (JDF) team is well balanced with Joe Johnson $36 being the highest paid player. JDF went big for his young bigs by drafting Cousins and Hibbert to man the middle. Both appear to be legit early this season. JDF also has the ageless Jason Kidd in the back court and he showed on opening night he still has the potential to drop 18 assists with just one turnover. JDF has Troy Murphy waiting in the wings to assist Zach and Gerald Wallace in the front court. The JBL chatter says that JDF's back court is weak with Ridnour, Affalo, and Barbosa. At this early stage, I will disagree and say it's just fine. I like all 3 players and think they can be fantasy factors.
• Chilliwack has Lebron and Dirk. Those are the superstars. He also boasts the rebounding beast Joakim Noah, the up and comer Marc Gasol and Utah's new PF Paul Millsap. After that, there are some question marks in Chilliwack but I do like what he's done. Brooks, Carter, and Nelson are not the most appealing fantasy names but they can be productive. The knock on those guys is their lack of consistency. Benny also has 2 very large trade chips (LBJ and Dirk) to dangle if this 2 superstar method doesn't work. Could you imagine what he could get for one of those guys? Chilliwack has a reputation as a JBL title contender and despite the team's week 1 struggles I fully expect this team to climb the standings in the coming weeks.
• The expansion Ballers got off to a rough start. First off, let me say it's awesome having Bobby Hucul back in the pool. I think I can speak for everyone by saying it's great to have you back and your passion and energy for basketball exceeds many past JBL owners. Welcome back Bob! Now, let me tear into your team, er, I mean professionally and constructively analyze them. I liked where Bobby was taking this squad with the early acquisitions of Pau Gasol and Amare Stoudamire. However, after that, the Ballers are filled with mediocre talent (I can say this because my Golden team is filled with it). When Emeka Okafor is your 3rd highest paid guy - times could be tough. Bobby is hoping for big years from Ginobili, Baron, and Jamal Crawford. He will also need breakout seasons from Favors, Casspi, and James Harden - which could happen. Bob's tackled the most challenging part of the JBL - the draft. Now let's see how he handles the roster moves, annoying trade offers from Idaho, and Free Agency. Best of luck Bobby - and welcome back!
• Well, I've saved the best (actually worst) for last - the Golden Showers. What the fuck happened? I clearly must have been drunk, asleep, stoned, or otherwise to draft the crap my team is currently saddled with. I only spent $221 dollars on draft day. Idiot. Not since Crikker's rookie season have we seen such a stupid move. The Showers are filled with role players and breakout candidates. There is one 20ppg scorer. No one on this team will average 10 rebounds. The team has no established shot blockers. I will say it - this team is horrible. Looking at the standings we have some cream over 1000 points and the 11th and 12th place teams are in the 500's. Golden is at 200 fucking points!! They may as well not even be in the league. God awful. Can I blame injuries? Sure, a bit. Not having Boozer and Mo Williams obviously hurts for right now - but even when they're back this is still the worst team in the JBL. Half of my starters in week 1 didn't even average over 10ppg. Disgusting. So, what's the plan in Golden? Well, I want to see what happens over the course of a couple weeks without Boozer. Then, let's see what happens for 3-4 weeks with Boozer. And by Christmas I think you'll find Golden still in the basement and ready to prepare for next season. (I've already floated an offer to grab some keeper talent). Tuna - please don't offer me Amir Johnson for Derrick Rose. The obvious trick is to get out of 13th place as that won't allow me to keep anyone. In a way, this is actually interesting for me as I haven't been in this situation before. Maybe I should speak to Tuna about being last to get some perspective?

Anyways, time to run. Again, sorry my absence from the Chronicles. I will do my best to document the 12 teams that matter in the JBL over the coming weeks. For now, I don't think the Golden squad is even worth discussing. Best of luck JBL'ers. Have a great season! The race for the 20th JBL Crown is underway!

Cheers,

JE