I'm on holidays this week (Spring Break) so I thought I would take a couple of minutes to break down last week's activities.
Idaho got St. Patty's day rolling with the acquisition of Ricky Rubio from Juan for Carlos Boozer. This must have been a difficult decision for Juan to make as Rubio is a wicked keeper for next season. However, they did the right thing and went for the big man Booz to help them in their quest for the title. Win first - keepers second.
Idaho and French hooked up on an 11th hour monster deal with French getting Rondo, Anderson, and Gerald Wallace for Bynum, Devin Harris, and Markieff Morris. That deal put French way over the salary cap and he had to make some additional moves. Early this morning French acquired Mike Conley from Yuma for Steve Nash. Nice to see Yuma still reads trade offers. And then French called up Trevor Ariza from his farm team (also known as Brussels) and demoted S-Jax and Caron Butler. That's French and Brussels 8th trade this season. I remember when everyone thought Trev and I were 'convenient' trade partners. For the record - Trev and I have zero deals this season. I think that notion can be laid to rest. And hey, I'm not against French and Brussels making deals - if no one else is active in the trade market - why not make a deal? Good on ya.
So, what does this all mean for French? I think it means he's the favorite to win it all. Yes, I realize he has no blocks at all and will lose 13 points in that category. However, he now has the highest scoring team in the JBL and should be able to move up in this category. I would say his minimum gain would be 40 points and he could gain 100 points. He will be 1st in ATO (another 13 points). He should also lead the league in steals now and can gain 65 points in that category. When it's all said and done French should be approaching the 1100 point plateau. I mean, just read his lineup, it's crazy good. If he does win the title - do we give Brussels an assist? And I'm sure French knows he's short on blocks so I would expect Chris Kaman to get called up shortly. We should all be so lucky to have a farm team....
Idaho has sold the farm and now has 4 potential keepers for next season - Bynum, Rubio, Harden, and Jordan. He's also at $167 bucks and has this week to acquire some salary and get to the salary cap floor. This is a new rule provision (10.09) in the JBL Constitution (still being worked on) and I would expect Idaho to sign Andrew Bogut and his $47 dollar price tag to get up to the floor. Idaho is currently 7th (which means 3 keepers) so the rest of us will already get a shot at one of those guys for next year. In my opinion that would be Harden as the other 3 guys are more valuable at their current price. Where it gets interesting is that Idaho has 714 points and Montreal, currently in 9th, has 603 points. Can Idaho be at risk of falling to 9th and only being able to protect 2 players? If that's the case - looks like DeAndre Jordan would become available to the rest of us at Auction too. So...we'll watch the Idaho squad and see what happens. I will say this - Idaho did a good job at getting guys for next season. He has the top center keeper and probably the best PG option. Great work Tuna.
So where was everyone else on this final day to get keepers for next season? I know I only had a couple of offers from Bangkok (not good ones I might add) and one from Montreal (decent but not earth shattering). I had a couple of feelers from Idaho - but nothing major. And I admit, I didn't make very many offers as 4 other teams are in title contention. So, that only left 8 teams in play. I guess the days of the JBL keeper trade deadline being a busy one are gone. We're all old and in bed by 10pm. Or, we're disinterested and just don't care. Or maybe I'm overselling the day? Maybe this pool is just that...a pool. It's not considered by many a Dynasty league where one season rolls to the next. It's just another fantasy pool that 5-6 guys pay attention to and the others are there for draft night and along for the ride.
Just going back to Bangkok's offers for a second. I just saw Idaho give up Rondo, Anderson, and Wallace for Andrew Bynum. The Bangkok offer to Golden was a 3 for 2 deal where he wanted to acquire Gortat and Jack. He was offering 3 players. The best of those players was Tony Parker and the other 2 probably aren't worth mentioning - but I will. Let's just say one guy's season average is 9ppg and 4reb and the other guy averages 6ppg. I could have found similar players on the waiver wire. So, Bangkok's offer was essentially Tony Parker for Marcin Gortat and Jarrett Jack? If that was the attempt to get trade negotiations underway - it didn't work. Sorry. Had you started with Howard and Parker for Gortat and Jack - we would have been cooking.
So - it's week 13 and there are actually only 6 weeks left in the JBL season. You'll see an additional column has been added on the roster screen. The column is 'KEEPER' and that status will either be 'Y' or 'NO'. Any roster moves from today on will result in the player losing keeper status. Of course, guys in the final year of their contract will also have a status of NO. And finally, Wilson Chandler has the status of 'NOT YET'. Because Chandler was signed as a JBL Free Agent he must play 20 NBA games to be eligible for protection (Rule 5.10). Now, that being said, he just signed with Denver and they have 21 games remaining. If he plays in 20 games - Chandler will be eligible for protection.
Our next major date is the standard TRADE DEADLINE. This is Sunday, April 1st. So yes, as we've seen this morning, trades are still permitted up until midnight of April 1st. Free Agents can still be signed up until the end of the season.
Good luck to all. We have 5 title contenders in my opinion. We have a Toilet Bowl dog fight between Maui and Brussels. We have an Arctic battling to get into 10th for the extra keeper spot (since he's loaded with cheap talent). We have the Idaho free-fall watch on to see if his team falters after being gutted. And we have 5 title contenders. One of those 5 teams isn't going to win; is going to finish out of the money; and only get 3 keepers. Welcome to 5th place. Triple kick to the nuts. Another 3 owners are going to be extremely disappointed because they have very good teams and they are going to come up short. Go back over the past seasons and find me one where there are 5 teams in contention. You won't find one. We have the makings of the greatest stretch drive we've ever seen in the JBL. Hang on for the ride.
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