Gay Love is so Wright...

OK, I had to say it. Come on though. I have Rudy Gay and Kevin Love as potential keepers for next season. Of course I am going to go with the obvious Gay Love reference. You would too. You know it. Add in 'Mini-Gay' clone Dorell Wright and you have a pretty darn good trifecta of keepers.

Check out Gay and Wright's season numbers...

Gay - 20ppg, 6reb, 47% FG, 39.6% 3PT, 1.133 ATO, 91 STL, 58 BLK, 19.9 Tendex

Wright - 16ppg, 6reb, 43% FG, 40.1% 3PT, 1.752 ATO, 77 STL, 42 BLK, 18.3 Tendex

Very similar staff stuffing numbers and both figure to be back in Golden for the 11/12 season.

And of course, Kevin Love and his 20 & 15 potential will be back.

Two wild cards in Golden's potential keeper stable will be Luis Scola and Elton Brand. Both do some very good things for very good prices. I won't be able to keep them all so a couple of them will be headed back to Auction.

So, why and how did Golden acquire Rudy Gay? Well, for starters, here are my yearly JBL goals. Win the title. If I can't win, finish in the money. If I can't do either of those I want to finish as high in the standings as possible so I can keep as many players as possible for next season. Whether that's 5th or 8th doesn't matter to me - because I will be able to keep 3 guys for next season. So, when Bangkok came after Aldridge and was offering a package that included Elton Brand and Rudy Gay I had to make it happen. As I have previously mentioned, both Brand and Gay are good keeper options. And when it was only going to cost me LaMarcus and Josh McRoberts - I had to make the move.

I'm not sure what Bangkok really gets out of this deal to secure his 1st ever JBL title but let's break this down some more...

Check out the comparison of Brand and Aldridge...

Aldridge - 22ppg, 9reb, 49.7% FG, 65 STL, 70 BLK

Brand - 15ppg, 9reb, 52.2% FG, 64 STL, 63 BLK

So - what does Bangkok gain?? He gains 7ppg for starters....that would be a really big deal if Bangkok wasn't already in the lead in scoring. However, the Idaho squad can really score and adding another top level talent certainly gives Bangkok a much better chance of holding Idaho off in that category.

And Aldridge could actually be considered a bargain at $40 bucks for next season as a keeper as well - but Rudy Gay for $29 bucks appears to be the much better bargain.

So, for once, I can say that I have modeled my JBL strategy around what Bangkok did this past season. He went to Vegas with 4 stud keepers, drafted well, and has led the JBL standings ever since. Golden hopes that with a Gay Love Wright trio of keepers that next season I can do the same. And, who knows, maybe Scola or Brand could actually sneak into the mix when it's all said and done.

The JBL is all about winning the title. Finishing 1st place. Capturing the crown. It's the only thing that everyone remembers from year to year. We list the JBL Winner on the front page of the website every year. All the other spots are gone and forgotten - except in the minds of those individual teams.

The goal now for the Showers squad is to stay healthy and compete for the 4th and final spot. I'm a long way back and I honestly don't expect to get there. However, if I come up short, and finish somewhere from 5th to 8th - I'll have 3 outstanding keepers for next season. No one will remember the 10/11 Golden Showers season except for me - but hopefully everyone in the JBL will remember the Showers and the 2011/12 season they are poised to produce....

And with just over 2 hours left before the keeper trade deadline...it appears all has gone silent...