#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.....
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