Check out the Strat-o-Matic website and Basketball Prospectus as they simulate the 2011/12 NBA season. If you need a boxscore fix...this is the place to go!
http://basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1883Did you also check out the finalized keepers for the upcoming season (whenever that is)??
What do you think about Manhattan Beach keeping Pau and Amare. That's 2 pretty big names to hold over. A very similar strategy appears to be happening in Idaho with Lebron and Dwight Howard under wraps for next season. Idaho will have just $76 bucks for 11 players when the Auction happens. And what do we make of Turkoglu and Diaw being identifed as keepers? Really? Boris Diaw and Hedo Turkoglu are keepers?? OK.
And what's going on with Juan de Fuca? They are scheduled to protect Kenyon Martin even though he signed in China for a year? Will K-Mart be able to get out of the deal and return to the NBA this season? Perhaps.
There are a few JBL teams that I really like the looks of heading into the next NBA season...
Yuma - I like Conley, Pierce and Humphries. I think Pierce was a little over-looked last season and he quietly had a very productive year. And Mike Conley appears to be an under-the-radar type PG - but check out those numbers. He too had a very good season.
I also like what Arctic is bringing back. Tyreke, Serge Ibaka, and DeRozan. That's potentially two 20ppg guys and a league leading shotblocker. Not bad if you ask me. I think Demar is ready to explode in TO next year and take over as the face of that franchise. Sure, he doesn't get many steals or blocks, but it's always nice to have a 20ppg guy for just $10 bucks.
I also like the Bangkok, French Lick, and Chilliwack squads a great deal. French has Stephen Curry and DeAndre Jordan for cheap money and I think both will have big years. Bangkok, coming off a disappointing 2nd place finish (after leading most of the season), brings back a very experienced core. And Chilliwack has 3 big studs to build around. How good can Blake be in year 2? I mean, honestly, in his rookie year Griffin averaged 22 and 12!! My God that's impressive. I think everyone in the JBL knows I am also quite fond of Joakim Noah and Marcin Gortat. Our summer summit had rumblings of a potential trade offer of Chilliwack's big 3 for Golden's big 1. I can definitely see that heating up again if the NBA gets a season scheduled.
I am excited to see how Kevin Love plays under a coach like Rick Adelmann. I thought, all along, that Rambis shouldn't try to play in the triangle offense with the core of players he had. Now, with a coach like Adelmann, what will become of Mr. Love? Well, let's remember the kind of numbers that Chris Webber was putting up with Adelmann as his coach and the kind of offense that Sacramento had way back when.
Check out the 2000/01 Sacramento Kings.
http://www.dougstats.com/00-01/SacramentoKings.htmlWebber averaged 27 and 11 and 4 assists. Wow. He also had 93 steals and 118 blocks. He was a fantasy stud. Now, I'm not saying that Love would ever average those type of numbers but I do think that Minny will be a better squad with Adelmann at the helm. And Love did average 20 and 15 on a 17 win team last year. I guess only time will tell. And of course, we need a NBA season!!
I was on TWITTER today and noticed a few tweets from guys like Glen Davis stating that they should take the 50/50 BRI split and get back to playing. I wonder how long before the rest of the players pipe up to get a deal done. I think it's coming and I think we could still see NBA basketball on Christmas Day. Fingers crossed.
So, I think it's time to try and set up a dinner with the JBL boys so we can do the rookie lottery. It would be nice to time the lottery with the announcement of a NBA labour deal so we can do the lottery; do the rookie draft over 12 days; and then do the JBL Auction just before the season starts.
