Boxing Day Banter...

Merry Christmas JBL'ers!
I hope you had a great day with your families and that Santa brought everyone a little something something...
At my house, it was awesome, great times with family and friends. A great couple of days together.

So what's going on in the JBL?
Golden finally unloaded Ryan Anderson and picked up malcontent DeMarcus Cousins. For the record, Golden offered this deal and it was accepted about 15 minutes later. Anderson can score, rebound and knock down massive amounts of 3's. He doesn't provide much help in steals or blocks though. Cousins, when he's not in the doghouse, is actually pretty good in both categories. I'm willing to taking on the head case to get more steals and blocks as those 2 categories are really close.

I'm interested/worried/anxious to see what happens with his situation in Sacramento. Does he get traded? Does he get benched? Does he come back motivated to prove everyone wrong? I don't know. I do know that Sacramento is a shit-show these days and I wouldn't trust anyone on their roster in terms of fantasy. Actually, I take that back, I think their most trustworthy player is Jason Thompson.

I have to say I now have 2 guys on my team that I really don't like - Cousins and Westbrook. Not a fan of either but I'm somehow relying on them to be 'main' pieces of my squad along with Timmy D.

I'm not happy with how the Golden boys performed tonight. I had 11 man games and not a single player over 16 points scored. Not a good night.

Some other random thoughts from the past week or so...

• The love affair with Thad Young continues. He had 3 steals and 4 blocks tonight alone. His last 10 games - 16ppg, 7reb, 20stl, 10blk and shooting 54%. Nice.
• Josh Smith had a monster game tonight - 31-10-2-2. Juan de Fuca has solidified their hold on 3rd place in the JBL standings and are 100 points clear of 4th place Arctic. Over the last 4 weeks Juan has been putting up huge numbers led by Chandler, Josh, David West and Klay Thompson. But the player who deserves a lot of credit is Kemba Walker. I didn't think he could be as efficient as he is. Over his last 10 games Kemba's %'s are 46/38, he has 15 steals, and his ATO is 57/18. That's pretty darn good in my books. Juan de Fuca is a dangerous team. A very dangerous team. Based on their stats - they are right in this thing. Watch out for this team as the calendar rolls over to 2013. 
• One disappointing player continues to be Kevin Love. He had another stinker tonight. He shot 3/14 and 0/7 tonight and is now shooting 35/22 on the year. Add in the fact that he doesn't get a lot of steals or blocks and he's having a rough season. Not what MBB wanted I'm sure.
• The Clippers continue to impress me. They are now 22-6 and are getting a complete team effort every night. Griffin is improving as a fantasy stud (even though his scoring and rebounding are down) because he's added steals (43) and more blocks (19) to his game. Matt Barnes, Jamal Crawford, Eric Bledsoe and Lamar Odom make up a wicked bench. And just think - they will still get Billups and Grant Hill back soon as well. This is a scary good team my friends.
• Steve Nash and Dirty Dirk both returned this week for Team Old (Maui). I still like this team and think they will climb in the standings. They are the best scoring team (by average) in the JBL and have room to move. 11 of the 16 players on this roster are over the age of 28. Nine of the guys are over 30 years old. This is awesome in my books. Well done Trev. World Peace and Parsons continue to impress me every week.
• Andre Drummond continues to emerge in Detroit. Pretty soon he's going to have to be turned loose full time. He had 16 and 12 tonight in 36 minutes off the bench. He shot 7/9 tonight and is now at 57% on the year from the floor. He's got 23 steals and 46 blocks as well. It looks like he's a future stud in the middle. Now, can/will CHWK leverage him into a big name? Or will Benny ride him out and wait for him to emerge? Will teams in 9th to 13th start to have eyes on Drummond as a possible keeper? Lots of time until our 'keeper trade deadline' but he's got to be turning some heads as maybe the top guy out there.
•  All is quiet in Wooville. I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen a bit of shake up. Kobe continues to carry this team in scoring (40 more tonight) and now leads the league in scoring at 30.2 PPG. It's rare to see  a Seoul team 11th in ATO and 11th in steals. These are usually solid categories for a Brothers team. Too many inconsistent guys right now in this lineup I guess.
• Yuma has slipped into the basement despite David Lee's best efforts. He is playing out of his mind right now and I would consider him a top 10 fantasy player based on his current numbers. He's averaging 24 and 12 over his last 10 games while shooting 61%. Yes, that's correct - sixty-one percent. Yuma is getting a few guys back from injuries this week (Gasol and Kawhi) so maybe that can give him some hope. Injuries to Gerald Henderson, Kyle Lowry, and now Kris Humphries have also taken their toll on this roster. He's going to need to stay healthy and get some production from 12 active guys each week to climb out of the basement.
• Somewhere, Tricky Rick is smiling because Jared Dudley dropped 36 points tonight. While he's a far cry from ever averaging 16-5-5, Dudley has been on fire of late and has really picked up his game. The Kok continues to hang around (currently 5th) with one of the youngest teams in the JBL. Did you know the Kok's oldest player is Chris Bosh at 28? 
• Brussels is another young team that is struggling to gain traction in the standings. I see his Portland boys (3 of them) all had big games tonight (28-18-17 points). And the surprising Nikola Vucevic continues to impress. He was drafted for $1 dollar and is now averaging 10 and 10 with 1 block per game while shooting 50%. Not bad for a buck! He would likely find himself in the 'best keeper' conversation at this point. 
• As I write this tonight it's about 15 minutes from the mid week free agent awards. I'm thinking Hakim Warrick just made a name for himself tonight with and 18/9 performance filling in for the injured Bryon Mullens. How high will someone go? Yuma, French, Bangkok and Golden have all the money. But will someone invest big bucks into Hakim Warrick? What about a Nate Robinson in Chicago? Or an E'Twaun Moore from Orlando? John Salmons in Sactown? We could see 3-4 names find new homes tonight I think. 

Well, that's it for tonight. The JBL Standings are compressing every night as the gap between 1st and 13th continues to shrink. It's an exciting race and teams continue to flip flop in the standings every night. Good times in the JBL ahead. Have a good week everyone.