2012/13 Power Rankings...

So, without much need for an intro - here is the 1st edition of the 2012/13 JBL Power Rankings heading into next season. These will change over the summer once we know the NBA draft order and Free Agency opens on July 1st. Then, with all the expected changes this summer - I'll have to release a 2nd edition of these Rankings. And then finally, after the JBL Rookie Lottery is conducted - a 3rd and final rankings will be released. So, without further ado, here the 2012/13 Rankings.

#13 - Manhattan Beach Ballers. Even with the expected keeper to be Lebron James this MBB squad has back-to-back 11th place finishes since he made his return to the JBL. Couple that with 1 trade and 2 FA signings last season and there really hasn't been much reason to expect success. So, maybe a 13th place off season ranking will get the juices flowing. Or not.

#12 - Maui Ribs. Trev is now 5 years removed from his 2nd place finish in 2007/08. The years in between have been 12-9-9-12 so it's been a struggle. Trev has always found it difficult to find the time to follow the NBA closely as he's been commuting from White Rock to Kits. Maybe once Trev finds himself in a new house just 10 minutes from home this fall he'll find more time for the JBL. 

#11 - Brussels Muscles. Here's a team that gets ranked 11th based on his 5 year history as opposed to what they did last season. What Tim managed to do in 2011/12 has never been done before. He had the worst team of all time in the JBL. So, his previous years of 7th, 6th, and 3rd are what I'm looking at when I slot him into the 11 hole. He's got a long way to climb as he has no keepers but does have the best shot of landing the Unibrow in the JBL Lottery. Or he could land multiple picks and players in a trade????

#10 - Montreal Poutang. Three years into his JBL career and Montreal has 11th, 13th, and 10th place finishes to his credit. Hardly Oscar worthy performances. However, there were signs of hope last season. 2 trades and 16 Free Agency moves. A co-owner brought on board to handle crucial decisions. And 2 keepers spots to build around including the killer PG Kyrie Irving. Things are looking up in Montreal.

#9 - Yuma Thurmans. Chubby is coming off his best season since his return to the JBL 3 years ago. He has now posted 8-8-6 over the last 3 years. Can he continue to build on his success? Pat does a nice job at Auction because there isn't a lot of movement after that night. Last season saw just 1 trade and 9 FA moves. He does have 3 keeper spots to build around as well so maybe this coming year will be the year of Yuma. I actually think #9 could be low for Yuma based on his track record but the teams above him all have histories of more JBL activity which tends to lead to more success. The #9 to #5 spots were very difficult to rank.

#8 - Arctic Circle Jerks. Another team that I think could be really good next season based on his 3 keepers. Crikker could have Ibaka, Faried, and Favors. Or Sessions. Or DeRozan. I really like the building blocks. Arctic was killed by bad luck in 2011/12 and that is unlikely to happen to him again next season. The track record over the last 5 years is 11-5-6-5-8 so this feels about right (for now).

#7 - Bangkok Fighters. This is another placing by feel rather than by science. The Kok has a 5 year track record of 8-7-3-2-9 but those 3rd and 2nd place finishes were spirited by wicked keepers. As Woo will surely point out the Kok has better success when he has the building blocks in place. This Kok team for 2012/13 is going to have to be built through the Auction so we'll see what kind of squad Tricky Rick can put together.

#6 - Idaho Udapimps. Tuna is coming off an impressive 7th place finish where he actually moved up in the standings while gutting his team to acquire wicked keepers for next season. This team will feature Andrew Bynum, Ricky Rubio and either 6th man of the year James Harden or shot-blocker extraordinaire DeAndre Jordan. Whoever Tuna keeps will ensure he probably has one of the best group of returning players for the upcoming season. Predicting Tuna's finish has been very challenging based on his 6-4-12-3-7 track record over the last 5 seasons. What you will notice though is 4 top 7 finishes.

#5 - Juan de Fuca Yo Mamas. This ranking was earned through their 2011/12 performance. The last 5 years is only 4-9-7-10-3 but it's what Juan did in 2011/12 that has me believing. Last year's squad was built around KD, Cousins, Dirty Dirk and others. Juan has 4 keepers for next season and he could bring back 1/3 of the squad that finished in 3rd place with over 1000 points. The challenge is deciding on who to bring back. Do they go cheap and try to build again through Auction? Or do they keep guys at market value and build around known commodities? What Juan decides to do with their keepers will certainly affect their Rankings in the Summer version of this list.

#4 - Seoul Brothers. What? How does a team with 3 titles and a 5th place finish in the last 4 years only get ranked 4th for the upcoming season?? Well, it's simple in my mind. Woo finally has a job. The job he has now requires him to actually work during the day and not spend 6-8 hours on JBL analysis. So, can Phil overcome this burden of having to work Monday to Friday? Will he draft players all over 30 years old again next season? There were some cracks in the process exposed last season - can he recover?

#3 - Chilliwack Offs. The last 4 years read 3-4-6-4 so Benny has been in contention every year. Injuries killed his title hopes in 2011/12. He will be able to bring back 4 keepers for next season and you know he'll be working overtime with his Excel spreadsheet to find those values late in the JBL draft. Benny has also 3 titles to his credit so he knows how to win. He also knows how to intimidate and I give it 12 hours before we see a taunting email from the Wack to the Kok about his 7th place ranking.

#2 - French Lick Legends. Oh so close in 2011/12 this team should be ready to contend again this fall. 4 darn good keepers and a track record of 5-8-5-4-2 tells me he's a contender every year. He'll have Lawson, Teague, Anderson and another keeper to build around and French has shown he isn't afraid to make moves (16 trades and 21 FA signings in 2011/12). I fully expect French to be in the title hunt again next season.

#1 - Golden Showers. Sure, I know, it's probably a bad move to put myself here. But I kinda had to. I did win the title (even if it was by a C-hair). I also have 4 pretty good keepers coming back (Pekovic, Gortat, Ilyasova, Isaiah). I do have 8 titles in 21 years. My 5 year history reads 1-2-2-12-1. And to top it off I'm pretty sure no one puts the amount of time into the JBL that I do. Remember, I'm the guy blogging right now about arbitrary Rankings for the upcoming season - that is still 5 frikkin' months away!! Yeah, I'm obsessed. I know. What can I do? I need help. But as long as I'm obsessed - I think I'll have a chance....

So...there you have it. The first edition of the 2012 Power Rankings.

Who got shafted? 

Did Yuma deserve a higher rank?

Did Seoul deserve better?

Can the Juan squad repeat their 2011/12 success?

Can Arctic and Idaho build around their impressive keepers?

What kind of year will Brussels be able to put together?

Does anyone care?

Who knows...but it was fun to do.....

The Case for #5

So I actually started looking at the JBL rosters and teams again. I know, I know, it's May and the NBA playoffs are still on and we're nowhere near the next JBL season. But what can I say? I'm obsessed. My annual off season review and Power Rankings for the coming 2012/13 season are on my mind.

So, as usual, I considered many factors when coming up with this year's Rankings. Here is what I was looking at....

• past season performance
• last 3 years performance
• last 5 years performance
• # of 2011/12 trades and FA signings
• Who are your keepers?
• what does your team look like after Auction night?
• ability to make good trades
• willingness to make moves
• What does my gut tell me on how I think you'll fare next season?

All of the above factors go into my evaluation of where I think you're team ranks this off season. So, rather than give you my 1st Off Season Rankings order (yes, there will be a 2nd Ranking after NBA Free Agency takes place and a 3rd will be done after the lottery order is determined) I thought I would break the league down into 3 tiers first. As I went through the breakdown and rankings - one number kept popping into my head - the number 5.

The Elite - This group will be considered title contenders and have that aura of awesomeness every year. These JBL teams are just like the #5 Orange Men's Club - awesome. Each and every year it seems these teams are in contention. Similarly, each and every time you walk into #5 Orange you see naked chicks. I think there are 4 JBL teams in this group.

The Challengers - this group can be seen as the bunch who, with a little more JBL effort, could challenge for the money spots. There kinda like that really cool movie from 1986 called Short Circuit. It had that quirky fun-loving robot called 'Johnny 5' who came to life when he was struck by lightning. That's what this group of teams needs - to be struck by lightning and come to life. I think there are 5 JBL teams in this group.

And finally, it's the 'Hawaii 5-0' group. Think about all the TV shows out there these days. It's actually now come to the point where there are no new ideas so TV stations have to bring back shows that were cool in the past and do them again. That's what happened with Hawaii 5-0. The TV stations have re-invented the same shows and sold the public that they are cool again. So, this group of JBL teams need to reinvent themselves and come back new and improved...just like this cool sitcom. At the moment, I think there are 4 JBL teams in this group.

So, those are the 3 groups. Splitting the teams into the 3 groups wasn't very difficult in my mind. But when it came time to actually thinking about a final ranking I was having a really hard time slotting in a team at #5. There, finally, after how many paragraphs - you finally get my reference to the #5. You're welcome. 

So...I have it narrowed down to 4 teams for that #5 spot in the rankings. A top 5 spot sounds so much cooler than the #6 spot doesn't it? I have built cases for each of these 4 teams (pro's and con's) about why they should be slotted in at the #5 spot. It's gonna be tough. Real tough. But I'll just have to do it - because no one outside of about 4 JBL blog readers actually cares anyways. So, with that in mind - the next time you  hear from me I will have the 1st Edition of the 2012 JBL Power Rankings. For now, I say good night.

Season in Review - Part 5

The French Lick Legends probably should have won the JBL title. If not for the heroic efforts of Mr. Irrelevant on the final night the trophy would be in French Lick. French was in the bottom half of the standings to start the season but over time gradually turned into a contender. It always helps when you have a farm team (Brussels) to pull up players from but French worked hard to build the squad. 16 trades in total. No other team can match that amount. Of course, 8 of those trades were with Brussels and 6 more were with Idaho. Brussels sent French such players as Aldridge, Lawson and Jason Terry and Idaho made the monster future deal with French (acquiring Bynum & Jordan) and gave French Bosh, Rondo, Anderson, and Wallace (to name a few). French also made some shrewd FA signings (Gooden) over the course of the season.

French was strong in every category and was just 1 made shot from his team or 2 more steals away from the title. I don't need to recap how close it was here - I'm sure French still feels the sting of being that close.

The good news is that French should be right back in the hunt next season. He has 4 keeper spots for next season and can bring back Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague and Ryan Anderson and one more....maybe Aldridge? Or how about Jason Terry? He's a Free Agent this year and could find himself a new home.

French's last 3 seasons in the JBL Standings - 2nd, 4th and 5th. He's improved each of the last 4 seasons and has just one more spot on the mountain to climb. Will he be able to achieve the pinnacle in 2012/13? Will he be able to leverage 8 trades and 10 players from Brussels if Timmy is making his big comeback? French may have to find some new trade partners next season.

And finally came the Golden Showers squad. I've already covered the top 10 reasons why my squad won the title. Some shrewd trades and timely moves. Some good old fashioned knowledge and insight. And of course, a whole lot of luck. Combine that all together and mix in a whole lot of man hours researching and you too can win the title.

Well, that's it boys - the JBL season in a nutshell. I know our season ended a couple of weeks ago and my timing of the review wasn't that good - but hey - it's more than most get in their Fantasy pools. So, for now, that's it....

I will be blogging all summer long as the NBA lottery approaches; the NBA Rookie draft is in late June; and Free Agency begins July 1st. I'm hoping to hold a summer BBQ for those in town at some point during the summer. And of course, at the BBQ hold the JBL Rookie Lottery. I just need to purchase 91 ping pong balls.

What will I blog about next? Up next will be the JBL Off Season Power Rankings. These are traditionally based on a few factors. Historical performance. Keepers. Time willing to put in. And what my gut tells me. So, I'll probably have those rankings in the next week or so. I also want to look at some of the NBA rookies that will be coming into the league next season and try to figure out who is going to be the next Kyrie Irving and who will be the next Hasheem Thabeet.

The next deadline date for JBL owners is July 1st - all JBL rosters must be reduced to a maximum of 10 players. Some already have 10 players or less. Those teams don't have any decisions to make. You'll notice that I've started to release players from JBL rosters that were not eligible for protection. So, in the coming 2 months - have a look at your rosters and see if you can get to a maximum of 10 guys. If you have 3 keeper spots - you don't have to decide now and get down to 3 guys by July 1st. You can keep 10 and then see what happens with the NBA draft and in Free Agency. Then, on Sept 1st, we're going to reduce the rosters down to 6 players (maximum). Then, on October 1st, the 2012/13 JBL season officially begins. JBL teams must reduce their rosters to the maximum allowable (based on standings) and trades can be made.

So, that's all for now...have a good evening...

Season in Review - Part 4

The Chilliwack Offs finished the season in 4th place. Benny's squad was one of my favorite's after Auction because of how he constructed them. They were big (Griffin, Gortat, Duncan, McGee, Horford, etc) and they had the reigning MVP (Rose) to lead the way. The team got off to a quick start and were one of the best teams from the get go. During the year the Offs made 6 trades. Two of those trades were key to Golden's ultimate success but nevertheless it wasn't those trades that doomed the Offs - it was the number of injuries they would sustain. Derrick Rose missed a whole bunch of games. Al Horford was lost for the season. Kyle Lowry had a bacterial infection and missed time. Trevor Booker became a Washington regular and then got hurt. Channing Frye missed time. The list goes on...the Offs were killed by quality man games. You can't replace a guy like Derrick Rose. His eye popping numbers are not available in the FA market.

The Offs will be able to protect 4 players for next season and I would think the emerging Paul George will headline the list. George is becoming a Matrix-like player and averaged 12ppg, 6reb, shot 44/38, was a positive ATO player and added 108 steals and 38 blocks. I also think JaVale McGee has be a strong contender based on his ability to block shots. Surely, George Karl can get him under control and McGee can start at Center next season in Denver. Benny will be right back in contention next season because he puts the time in. He always seems to have a good draft and is not afraid to pull the trigger on a trade. Preparation + trades + JBL activity = success.

The 3rd place team this past year was the resurgent Juan de Fuca Yo Mamas team. This was a team that was built around the big 4 of Durant, Cousins, Chandler and Nowitzki. Add in FA sensations Mike Dunleavy, Zaza Pachulia and Gordon Hayward and this was a deep and dangerous team all year long. The loss of Ricky Rubio really hurt this squad in ATO (11th) as that was really their only weakness. Juan was actually 1st in 3PT%; 1st in scoring; 2nd in rebounds and 3rd in steals. This was a team that had 1012 points on the season! And while that total was only good enough for 3rd place - it was 467 points better than their arch rivals in Bangkok.

The Juan team has 4 keeper spots for next season and does have some choices to make. Juan can go with established guys like Chandler or KD; the young star on the rise (Cousins); or the cheaper options (Hayward, Knight). Does this 3rd place finish spark a renewed rivalry with the Kok? Is Juan back on the list as a contender now? How will 3rd place finish influence the Power Rankings considering the previous 3 years were 10th, 7th and 9th place finishes??

That's all for tonight...stay tuned for part 5 when French and Golden get the once over...

Season in Review - Part 3

Idaho was pretty much the middle of the pack all season long. I give him credit though - he tries hard. He makes a lot of moves. Some work, some don't. But he tries. When it became pretty clear that he wasn't going to be able to finish in the money - he traded Carlos Boozer for an injured Ricky Rubio. At the keeper deadline he moved all his big time assets to get his hands on Andrew Bynum. In all, Tuna made 17 trades with 9 different teams. That's awesome.

Who had more fun this season with their JBL team? Idaho has to be right up there with all the moves. And now, Idaho will be able to bring back 3 players for next season. He'll get to chose between these 5 players:
Andrew Bynum, DeAndre Jordan, James Harden, Ricky Rubio, and Klay Thompson. He can only keep 3 and Tuna will have some hard decisions to make. You have to believe that Bynum, Harden, and Rubio are the leading contenders to be back in Idaho next year.

Yuma had to have one of the quietest 6th place finishes in the history of the JBL. The team finished with 762 points and was actually 4th in scoring. This was a team with Kobe, Al Jefferson, Paul Pierce, Pau Gasol, Brandon Jennings, Kris Humphries, and others. Pat's squad really flew under the radar and was quite competitive throughout the season. Pat made 9 free agents moves but only 1 trade (and that deal was on the trade deadline day). With a little more 'roster management' who knows where Pat could have ended up.

Yuma has 3 keeper spots for next season and has some potential talent to bring back...
Kris Humphries had a monster year as Kris Kardashian and averaged 14ppg and 11reb and had 50 steals and 74 blocks. He could come back for just $20 bucks. Brandon Jennings could come back for $22 after averaging 19ppg and 5ast with 105 steals. Three wild card keeper options would be JJ Barea $1, Danny Green $4 and Kawhi Leonard $5. Green and Leonard both have great upside but play in the very rigid San Antonio environment. Meanwhile, JJ has to share time with Rubio. No matter who Yuma brings back - you know this team is going to be one of those bubble contending teams. Pat seems to be locked in around the 8th spot every year with very few roster moves. What if Pat actually worked on his JBL team? Could he become a contender? We'll find out next season...

5th place went to the Seoul Brothers this year. Read that sentence again. Are you smiling? The team finished with just 808 points. This team was devastated by age and injuries down the stretch. Just look at the man games lost in the last few weeks - Ray Allen, Jose Calderon, Darren Collison, Nene, Ridnour and others all missed time. Crazy. Looking back on this Seoul team the weirdest stat I could see was that 9 of the players on Seoul's roster at the end of the year were actually guys that Phil drafted at Auction. He stuck with his old guys and unfortunately the plan just didn't pay off. Woo only made 5 trades this year and some of those cost him guys like Duncan and Marcus Thornton. And his Andray Blacthe experiment? That one didn't work.

Nevertheless, Seoul proved once again that you don't have to load up on scorers to contend for a JBL title. Seoul was in the title hunt and was 12th in scoring for most of the season. Woo could bring back as many as 3 players for next season but I'm not seeing super cheap talent on the roster. I could see Woo coming back with a clean slate in 2012/13. Despite this 5th place finish and the lack of keeper talent on the roster - I think Seoul has done enough over the past 5 years to warrant a pretty high off season ranking.

That's all for tonight...only 4 teams left to review....
Also, we'll have a new NBA champion this year - the Mavs are officially out.

Season in Review - Part 2

Well, it's Tuesday now and as the NBA playoffs roll on the JBL season seems like a distant memory. I still can't believe Golden held on for the victory. I'm excited for next season already. I'm already looking at the NBA Draft prospects and who is projected to go around 13th overall (I'm anticipating no lottery luck in the JBL Rookie Lottery). With just 1 chance out of 91 - I'm thinking my Golden squad will have the 13th pick in the 2012 JBL Rookie Draft.

So, let's carry on with the 2011/12 JBL Season. 9th place was the Kok. What a difference a year makes. In 10/11 the Kok finished 2nd with over 1100 points. This season - its a disappointing 9th place finish with under 550 points. The Kok brought back 4 players (Aldridge, Deng, Parker, Dudley) from that very successful 10/11 team. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out this past year. Rick put all his eggs into the Dwight Howard basket and for awhile there things were looking good. However, as the season wore on, the Howard saga in Orlando appeared to not only affect Orlando players - but Kok players too. Rick tried a variety of role players (Gee, Mullens, Ayon, etc) but none really made a big impact. In the end, 9th place was probably about right for this team. So how does Bangkok stack up for next season? The last 4 years? 9th - 2nd - 3rd - 7th. Rick has just 2 keeper spots for next season. Reviewing his roster I really think there are only 3 players even in the discussion - Tony Parker, Dwight Howard, and Marcus Thornton. I think, depending on how you want to build your team, those 3 players could be worth more than their current salaries. Finishing 9th will give the Kok plenty of rookie lottery balls and Rick is very good at picking good rookies. If things went to plan - the Kok would likely have the 5th rookie pick. Will Rick keep Howard? Will Rick be able to bounce back from such a ho-hum season? Can Rick focus on the JBL with a dog interrupting his sleep patterns?  What will the side wager with  Juan be next year? I think Seoul would love for me to rip into Bangkok here - but there really isn't much to say. I have an almost indifferent feeling about this Kok team. He had some good players. He had some not so good players. In the end, the Kok was 'meh'.

In 8th place was the late charging Arctic squad. This was a team built around it's big men. They had Ibaka, Monroe, Lee, Bargnani, Favors, Bogut and the Manimal. What they weren't built around was any player who could shoot 3's (last place), pass the ball (last place), or steal (12th). The Guards the Circle Jerks brought in were overweight (Felton), injured (K-Mart), moody (Young), and playing for the worst team ever (Augustin).  This team appeared destined for a 9th to 12th place finish until a strong 4 week push at the end of the season. Getting into that 8th spot is HUGE for team with the keepers that Crikker has to choose from.  You have to think that Ibaka and Faried are the 2 favorites for the 3 spots. The 3rd spot will likely be favored to go to Ramon Sessions. Since he arrived in Lakerland his stats have been pretty special. Those 3 keepers would be a very nice start for an Arctic squad 8th-5th-6th-5th over the last 4 years. Add in a potential top 6 rookie pick (don't forget Arctic grabbed Faried with the 6th pick this past year) and Arctic could have 4 very good and cheap players to start next season. Could next year finally be the year that Arctic breaks through? Will Faried become a double-double machine next season? How much better can Ibaka be? I think this Arctic team is ready for the next step. They've been a bit unlucky with some injuries in the past couple of seasons and with 3 good keepers and a top rookie -this team could be ready to contend and could have a decent off season ranking....

Up next will be the 7th and 6th place teams in Idaho and Yuma. Idaho used 42 players this past season and made the big splash at the trade deadline to acquire Rubio and Bynum. And what's funny is that after he sold the farm for those 2 players - his team actually improved. Go figure. I'll discuss that and more in the Season in Review - Part 3. Stay tuned.