Week 8 - What's Going On...

Week 8 – Christmas Approaches

With the big day approaching, this is usually the time of year that JBL teams start shuffling the deck chairs. It’s been 7 weeks and most players are settling into who they are going to be for the season. Sure, there is still some room for improvement (Danny Green and Markieff to name a couple) but for the most part, they are who we think they are - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmQbk5h86w

So what’s happening the standings??

• My pre-season favourite Maui Ribs are on the Equator. They are the dividing line between contender and pretender. I still think they are a money team but they need to be more consistent and get healthy. Have they started the best 12-man roster they could yet? I don’t think so.
• Above Maui there are 5 teams that can currently be classified as true contenders. Again, the scary Chilliwack squad is sitting there in 5th with blocks (9th) and rebounds (10th) being his 2 worst categories and he has Valanciunas waiting in the wings.
• Seoul is still right there too. Why? Because he’s a 5-time champion.
• Juan continues to excel despite numerous injuries. Lord Covington continues to impress and is definitely my favourite 76er. And let’s not forget they have Kyrie still coming back.
• French does everything well except shoot. That being said, they are almost at 1000 points and are still in title contention.
• Golden, despite being in 1st place, did a major shuffle on the weekend. Trading Whiteside and Dragic for Towns and Holiday is a major move at this time of the year. Could Whiteside have garnished more assets in February? Maybe. But the chance to acquire a potential 5 year asset like Towns was too good to pass up. I have to say, South Surrey was very easy to deal with. This Towns/Whiteside deal was consummated in approximately 5 minutes. I made an initial offer that was rejected with some feedback. My 2nd offer was accepted. Again, done in a matter of minutes. I’ll comment more on this deal in a couple minutes. Overall, Golden has 4 new starters this week (Towns, Holiday, Barnes, and Felton).
• The group of teams below the Maui Equator can, for now, be called ‘chasers’. Idaho, Arctic, Splooge and Norfolk are the best of the bunch it appears. Idaho continues to hang tough with his 6 and 6 approach. 6 guys that would be sought after by strong JBL teams and 6 guys who could end up on the waiver wire at any given moment (it could be 7:5 Idaho, I’ll give you that) Arctic is more 9/3;  Norfolk is probably a 10:2 or 9:3 roster and Splooge is probably 9:3 or even 10:2. These guys are still right there but the gap is widening. And hey, don’t take these numbers the wrong way – I consider Golden to be a 8:4 or maybe 9:3 type of roster most weeks. We all have guys that could be dumped to the waiver pile in a heartbeat.
• After the chasers group there are 3 teams that need an overhaul.  These teams are situated in 11th to 13th. We all know the higher you finish in the standings the more keepers you get. 13th is not a good place to finish because, as Timmy can attest, you don’t get to protect ANY players for next season. Getting up to 8th place gets you 3 keepers for next season. It should be a focus for these teams to ensure they are trying to move up the standings while acquiring keepers for next season. The challenge is trying to get the best keepers while trying to move up the standings. Those 2 objectives often clash as getting the best keepers usually requires selling the farm. Again, these teams need to make sure that they are (1) still trying to move up the standings and (2) do so while still acquiring the best cheap talent as potential keepers. If you have 2 players who essentially put up the same stats and player A’s salary is $20 and player B’s salary is $2 – you know which guy you should own right??
• To further the importance of keepers I will say this….the best teams in the JBL are typically built around two things – great keepers and/or great rookie draft picks. Golden, Juan, French and Chilliwack all had great keepers and are all in the top 5 right now. Maui had great keepers (Gobert) and great draft picks (Unibrow and Oladipo). The idea that you can go into a JBL Auction without any keepers and simply out-draft the rest of us should be considered very difficult to accomplish. It’s highly unlikely to work on a regular basis. That being said, the Seoul Brothers has done very well this year without any stellar keepers and without a high impact rookie pick. So, Phil, you can tell me that it is possible, I’m OK with that. But for the majority – get some GREAT keepers!!!
• This leads me back to the Whiteside for Towns trade. I get why Splooge made this deal. Whiteside is an attractive piece because he could go triple-double with blocks. He’s averaging over 4 per game this year. Add in the fact that he can be protected for $11 bucks next year and he’s a top 10 keeper. Also, Dragic is under-performing and should improve while Holiday is an injury risk. From my end, Towns has the potential to be a 5 year keeper. Sure, his remaining salaries would be $20-$25-$30 and $35 but he could be worth it. He’s averaging 15 and 9 with 2.2 blocks and shooting 53% in his rookie year. He could be a monster once he figures everything out. Even while chasing a title, my focus still remains on longevity so that Golden can compete for years to come. It’s not quite Christmas and Golden is already discussing extensions with Towns, Drummond, and Kawhi for next season.
• The latest chat discussion featured the ratio of Idaho outbound trade offers to inbound trade offers. Is it 10:1? 25:1? 50:1? 100:1? Chilliwack believes it has to be 100:1 and is willing to bet a hair modelling application on the outcome. So, let’s think this through. Can Idaho really make 100 offers for every single offer he receives? So how many of us would actually make an offer to Idaho? We all know that would create multiple counter offers involving completely different players that we didn’t even want in the first place. But, let’s say that Idaho has at least 7 guys that we would want on our roster (Conley, Monroe, Lillard, Noel, Anderson, Hayward, and Gasol) and that we would actually pursue these players. Did you notice that Danny Green, Cody Zeller, and Jeremy Lamb are not included in this list? I’ll ask you this - have you made ANY offers for any of those players listed above? I know I have. I really think the ratio is less than 100:1 – because I really want to see Benny make a hair video – kind of like this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXMBxcHxkMA
• Looking ahead to next year’s Auction there are 3 players that will definitely be back in the pool. Kenneth Faried, Marcin Gortat, and DeAndre Jordan. Faried has been a keeper for 5 years (he’s on the only rookie to ever last all 5 years – so far) so it will be interesting to see how much he goes for at Auction. Gortat is aging gracefully and would be a nice #2 center on a JBL roster. Finally, DeAndre, the monster, the machine, the legend. He’s a beast and is currently averaging 11ppg, 13reb, 2.4 blocks while shooting 69% from the field. He also has 17 steals and his ATO (24/28) is far superior than many of the other big name centers. Jordan is probably a $60+ dollar player depending on when he comes up at Auction. He’s a cornerstone piece and I’m looking forward to the bidding war in October 2016.
• OK, now I’m just pulling topics from wherever, but I will continue. Remember the Chilliwack and Arctic trade where the Wack got Kevin Love and Jae Crowder and Arctic got Rondo, Jabari Parker, Josh Smith and Luis Scola? Man, what a trade. 6 players involved and 5 of them have been impactful. I’m going to exclude Josh in this discussion because he’s really become an afterthought in Clipperville. I’m amazed by this deal and how good it’s been for both teams:
• Love is averaging 19 and 10 and shooting 48/42 for Chwk
• Crowder is 14 and 4 while shooting 47/40 and getting lots of steals
• Rondo is 13/12/7 while shooting 49% and getting a bunch of steals. He’s back to his old form and is probably a $50 dollar player again
• Scola’s put up 11 and 5 while shooting 50%
• Parker is averaging 12 and 5 while shooting 48%

The fact that 5 of 6 players involved in the deal have done really well is amazing. It’s clearly a win-win for both teams. Remember, Benny essentially turned Myles Turner into Kevin Love and the Arctic improved his depth tremendously. I love this deal for both teams.

That’s all for me today…up next…I’m going to give all of you my top 5 potential keepers on each team. Stay tuned…Johnny’s got the Chronicles mojo back!