Week 6 Thoughts...

What a race we have this season gents. We have 4 teams currently above 900 points; an expansion team hovering around 900 and exceeding all expectations; another group in the 700’s hanging in there and then some other teams ready to make runs when they get healthy. Here’s what’s on my mind these days.

The Wednesday night performance by the Ham N Eggers was nothing short of spectacular. A few of you are sick and tired of me spewing about this performance, but I’m still going to ramble on. With 11 players, Bellingham ham scored 216 points (19.6 average) and grabbed 75 rebounds (6.6 per man). On top of that he had 11 steals (1 per player with is about right) and then shot, most impressively, 53% and 50% from the Field and downtown. Those percentages, while factoring in they scored over 200 points, are insane. 

I’m sure I’ll be proven wrong, but I highly doubt we see another night like that this season. Yes, we’ll see more 200 point nights (probably tonight) and we saw French grab 87 rebounds on Wednesday. But the combination of 200+ point, 75+ boards and 50%+ on both FG% and 3PT% is unlikely to be seen again in my opinion. So then you think, wow, the Ham N Eggers are an awesome team. What a night! They must be running away with the JBL. Nope. They are the last place team right now. 14th place. Amazing. Unreal to think that our last place team can have a night like that. OK, rant over.

Brussels is living the dream right now. Sitting on top of the JBL world. It’s a pretty cool feeling. Let’s face it, Brussels hasn’t been a contender in awhile. The last 5 years have been nothing short of dreadful. Back in 2013, Brussels finished 2nd so this fast start to this season is a welcome change. So how is he doing it? It starts with Luka. He’s been nothing short of sensational this year. He’s pretty much 30/10/10 with an ATO over 2.00 while shooting 48.7% from the field. Sure, he’ll never block many shots and his 3PT% needs work (32.9%) – but come on, what a line. And he’s only 20 years old!! Brussels can contend every year with Luka on his roster. 

Brussels also has many veterans playing very well right now. Aldridge, DeRozan, Horford, Paul, Bledsoe – all 30+ years old. And Richaun Holmes was a great FA signing for Brussels. Timmy is having a career season so far – let’s see if he can keep it up.

Idaho is strong contender again after re-working his roster after a somewhat questionable draft night. He was able to move Wiggins, Love, Kanter and acquired Jamal Murray and Paul George. He also wisely dropped Eric Gordon. Now he’s acquired Jaren Jackson Jr. and Wendell Carter Jr and managed to get them performing again. He’s loving breakout and resurgent seasons from Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and Jarret Allen. He’s got 900+ points and done all of this without the services of DeAndre Ayton. He could be adding back a 20/10 player in a couple of weeks. This is a scary team my fellow JBL owners. Watch out. Will be interesting to see how Idaho clears room on his salary cap this weekend. He’s $15 over but has many outs to make it work. Barring injuries this team should be a title contender yet again. Oh, and for 20/21 – Idaho can bring back Carter Jr, JJJ, RJ Barrett, and has Klay Thompson on the cheap. 

French Lick is always a contender. The defending champ is having another great season. He acquired Ben Simmons to help him out as a jack of all trades. He’s got his Celtic boys (Tatum, Brown, Hayward) all having great years – albeit he has to wait for Hayward to come back from injury again. I would think French is disappointed in Mitchell Robinson, Lord Covingtonand Gary Harris. I expected better from all of those guys. Statistically Pat Bev hasn’t been great – but man is he fun to watch. Love that dude. Kelly Olynyk, originally drafted by Golden, has been a very serviceable Free Agent signing lately. Hassan Whiteside has been hot and cold but certainly been about what was expected of him in Portland. Buddy Hield and Terry Rozier have been all over the map. One night great – the other night terrible. But both have their positives to bring to French.  I think that French, even with 948 points right now, is likely disappointed with his squad’s performance so far this season. That being said, he’s right there, has Hayward coming back soon, and has several underachievers. French will be in the hunt at the end of the year – you can back on it. 

I want to talk about this Cali Fornication team. Currently in 5thplace they have taken an approach to the JBL that we haven’t seen in a long time. They are completely punting PTS. I mean completely. They have Drummond at 17ppg and Gobert at 13ppg. EVERYONE else on their team is averaging single digits in scoring. Amazing. The team is averaging just over 9PPG. So how are they doing it? They are 2nd in 3PT%, 2nd in steals, 1st in FG%, 5th in rebounds and 6th in blocks. This is an amazing approach and so far it’s earned them 5th place. Can they go higher? Well, if they improve the ATO (currently 9th) – they have a chance. The one thing they won’t improve on is PTS – they are already 900 points behind the 13th place scoring team. It’s an interesting team to watch – especially with Victor Oladipo on his IR right now. How will they utilize him? Or is he trade bait? Or is he a great stash for the 20/21 season? Anyways, this Cali team, essentially coming back to the JBL as an expansion team, with no keepers, has exceeded all of my expectations so far this season. Well done to this conglomerate of owners. 

The Wack is hanging on. Someway, somehow. He’s lost Curry. He traded for Fox and lost him before he even had a chance to suit up for the Offs. He employs Dillon Brooks, Jordan Clarkson, Langston Galloway, Kris Dunn and Frank Kaminsky. Yet the Offs march on. How? Firstly, because Anthony Davis is having a monster year. Because KAT is also doing KAT-like things. It wouldn’t surprise me if KAT was the highest auctioned player next season. And Ja Morant – my Rookie of the Year. The kid has been outstanding for the Grizz/Offs this season. Over 19ppg, good assists, shooting 46/41 and getting 1.4 steals. Amazing production. While this Offs team certainly doesn’t have the name recognition of many JBL rosters – they are hanging around and still have a shot at the money spots. Winslow is just coming back from injury. Fox will be back next month. And Curry for the home stretch. Can the Wack get top 4? We’ll see.

Maui could certainly argue they have been hit the hardest by the injury bug. While the Wack lost Curry and Fox – Maui has lost man games from Bagley, LeVert, Ibaka, Ball, Porzingis, Capela, and others. Even as I type this Maui has 6 medical signs beside players – 4 of which are supposedly playing tonight. Capela has been a pleasant surprise. Many were shocked by his $69 dollar price tag but he’s been a rebounding machine lately to help Maui stay afloat. Jonathan Isaac is having a breakout season and could be one of the top keepers for 20/21. Maui’s had great performances from late round grabs Luke Kennard and Davis Bertans, while veteran Mike Conley has been disappointing. This Maui team, currently sitting 12th, is much better than that. I expect them to climb the JBL standings if/when they get healthy. And you know Trevor has the patience to wait it out. 

Oh Bangkok. What can I say? I had this squad as one of my favourite title contenders to start the year. So why is the Kokstruggling. I believe the biggest factor has been the play of Nikola Jokic. A top priced man at auction, the Joker has put up nice numbers. 16 and 10. Over a steal per game. Nice ATO. But when you spend big bucks – you can’t get “nice numbers. Also, Myles Turner was injured and has missed a lot of game. While Myles isn’t a superstar, his blocks have been sorely missed. Pascal Siakam has been a star and Donovan Mitchell has been great. It’s clear that, for now, the Kok won the Zion trade. Easy to say since Zion hasn’t played a game yet. Jrue Holiday, for me, has been disappointing. There were many people thinking he could be a MVP candidate this season. His numbers have been good – but not great. Jeff Teague has certainly been a disappointment this season. I think we all expected more. The other guys on the Kok roster have their moments (Hunter, Theis, RHJ, etc) but just not enough of them. Can the Kok move up the standings? Yes. Lots of time left in this JBL season. 

This JBL season is the most competitive year we’ve seen in a long time. Look at the recent years – the JBL champs have run away with the titles. Last year, French won by over 300 points. Right now, there are 8 teams within 300 points of 1st place. Uber competitive this year. Which is great. Love it.

This Golden squad is…..hmmmm….trying to find the right words. My current active roster is $111 bucks. I’ve got my big ticket items riding the pine due to injury and suspension. Based on JBL salary – Golden could be in the running for hardest hit by injury/suspension. I love watching Montrezl Harrell play. He’s the energizer bunny out there. Digging how Brandon Clarke looks in Memphis – but of course would love to see him get more minutes. SGA started fast and has started to fade but love his potential. And Kendrick Nunn was a real FA find for me. You all know I don’t usually spend big FA dollars but I’m sure glad I did on Nunn. The Bam for Fox trade obviously was good timing for Golden, not so much for the Wack. I could imagine where I would be if I still had Fox on my roster too. VanVleet wasn’t even on my list of guys to draft – I was just trying to jack the price on him because he’s a Raptor. That move turned out pretty good so far. The rest of the roster is a bunch of no names who do the little things well. It’s not the sexiest Golden roster but it’s doing enough to stay in contention right now while I wait for Kyrie, Otto, and Mr. Collins. 

Norfolk got off to a hot start this year. They were on fire. The last couple of weeks the fade has started. Many Norfolk guys were overachieving initially. Lately, the injuries to Aron Baynesand Ricky Rubio have been costly. Going into tonight, Norfolk has played the fewest man games. Always tough when that trend starts. OG Anunoby has been amazing this season and Sabonisexcelled when Myles was on the sidelines. Jimmy Butler is great – but continues to miss a game here and a game there. Will Barton is having a great bounce back season. And Spencer Dinwiddie has picked up his PTS and ATO in Kyrie’s absence. The good Doctor just needs to get healthy. We saw they were a really good team for the first few weeks so let’s see what happens in the next few weeks. Aron Baynes was a fantastic FA signing but Ayton’s return could squash that production. I think John Collins return may actually boost Trae’s numbers because Atlanta has really struggled as defenses put all their efforts into stopping him. Bradley Beal continues to put up monster numbers. I wonder if Beal could even be a keeper candidate for next season at $51 bucks?

This Jizzlies team is mid-tier right now and has been hit quite hard by the injury bug. Losing Vucevic and Favors really hurts. Also having the Draymond in and out of the GSW lineup has made it really hard for this squad to get any traction in the standings. I like Embiid, Millsap, and Booker – all having good years. IT3 has been a pleasant surprise too. I think DejounteMurray could be classified as disappointing so far – just like the Spurs season. There are a lot of similar guys on this roster putting up similar numbers. Did you know that Hood, Smart, Gay, Hardaway Jr, and Forbes are ALL averaging between 11.5 and 12.9 PPG? After I reviewed the rosters after the JBL draft there was always one name that stood out on this roster. Kevin Durant. To me, this 19/20 season was all about KD and the 20/21 season. This Vancouver squad has arguably the best keeper for 20/21. Whether they try to play that chip now and move up in the 19/20 standings is totally up to them. Can they get a record haul of players to contend right now? Or would they be wise to hold onto KD like a precious gem and go for the title in 20/21? I know what I would do….

Juan de Fuca is hanging around. As they always do. Giannis is having another MVP season. Could he actually be a keeper for next season? Juan also likely wins the FA signing of the year award with Devonte Graham. He’s at 18ppg, 2.29 ATO and shooting over 40% from downtown. Zach LaVine might still be a horrible defender on a really bad Bulls team – but he’s putting up good numbers again for Juan. Has Zach now officially become associated to Juan in the JBL? I think so. Kawhi has been really good – when he plays. Just hard to figure out the Clippers schedule these days. Malcolm Brogdon is another guy having a really good season – but also missing games. I would call Julius Randle a disappointment. Thought he would be closer to 20 and 10. Hachimura has been good, then not so good, then good again. Typical rookie. Will be interesting to see if he ends up in Juan’s future plans. Derrick White is another guy having a disappointing season – saying that about a few Spurs. Gasol is only averaging 6ppg but is still helping out elsewhere. At that PPG, Gasol should be a Cali player. Moe Wagner has been a nice find here in Juan as well. This squad is a nice mix of superstars and role players and I do think they can hang around and contend for a money spot. 

The Arctic has been quite active this season. An early season trade brought them Wiggins, Love and Kanter. Wiggins has been surprisingly good this season. Really good actually. Love has also been good but the missed games are starting to creep in. I’d be surprised if he ends the year in Cleveland. Some desperate team will likely take a shot at him (Portland?). Kanter has been injured so Arctic hasn’t been able to benefit from his rebounds. Glenn Robinson III has been a nice FA signing while Coby White also has his moments. Lou Williams is so fun to watch. The term ‘professional scorer’ is mentioned so often with him. How can I not mention James Harden and his 38PPG? He’s also grabbing over 6 boards and getting 1.6 steals. However, his 43% and 34% percentages at his high volumes are not helping. I like Bogdan Bogdanovic more in real life than in Fantasy. He’s still good I just wish the Kings were using him more – instead of signing Harrison Barnes for 80+ million – they could have had Fox, Hield, Bogie, Bagley, Holmes. That said, Bogie is a nice 6thman. D’Angelo Russel has put up big numbers, but because he’s a Warrior – he’s been injured and is missing games. I think we all scoffed at Arctic’s $40 FA bid to sign Carmelo. It was still too much, but is Carmelo actually JBL worthy again? He’s had a couple nice games in a row now. Lauri Markkanen is clearly a disappointment here. Seoul moved him on and now Arctic hasn’t been able to awaken the giant. Many had Markkanenapproaching a 20/10 season this year so his 13 and 7 while shooting 35/28 is really disappointing. 

Seoul is hovering around 700 points in the standings. This team can really score but everything else is up in the air. I know Seoul is anxiously awaiting the return of Zion. Like a sequel to a good movie, The Return of Zion, coming soon. Who has been Seoul’s best player so far this season? Is it Tristan Thompson? He’s far exceeding my expectations. Is it Tobias Harris? He’s having a great year except his 3’s are not falling. Is it Evan Fournier? How surprising is it that this balding Frenchman is scoring 18+ a game while shooting 42% from downtown? And can someone talk to Evan about his hair? He needs to fix it. It’s terrible. It’s like when Benny tried to keep things going up top before he realized what he looked like. Look at Harrison Barnes! I had no idea he was at 16 and 5 and shooting 50/40. Huh. Who knew? I would say Valunciunas has been disappointing. He’s at 13 and 10 but I think we expected him to be closer to 18ppg. Gallinari is playing alright in OKC – he’s surely going to be traded to a contender at some point. Aaron Gordon has been disappointing while Daniel House has been surprisingly good. Woo certainly misses his boy Kyle in the lineup too. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Woo has added Garland to pair with Sexton. He’s got the Sexland backcourt. It’s god awful – but good for you Philly Woo. And you may have noticed I haven’t mentioned one particular player yet. Mr. Westbrook. While he’s scoring 22ppg and grabbing almost 8 boards and 1.6 steals – his other numbers are killers. He’s shooting 42/22 and his ATO is 1.58. Atrocious. I get what Seoul was trying to do but Seoul is now 12th in FG% and 13th in 3PT% - and we can all thank Westy for that. 

So, I’ve covered off all the JBL teams and my musings about each….how about some final random thoughts…

Which NBA will fire their coach first? I thought the Bulls would be better – so I’m wondering how long Boylen will last. If Popovich wasn’t the coach in San Antonio, I’d say he’d be in trouble –but there is no way they can fire the legend. They will likely make a trade first. Could DeRozan or Aldridge be on the move? I know LA12 said he’d love to finish his career with Portland. 

When will the Knicks fire Fizdale? What are they waiting for? Is Dwayne Casey safe in Detroit? They need to blow that team up. Drummond surely will walk this summer – why re-sign in that mess? All the other struggling teams are likely OK as their coaches try to build a roster. Atlanta and Memphis have good young rosters so why fire the coach. Charlotte is horrible – but what do you expect with that roster? No way GSW is moving on from Steve Kerr. Would Portland move on from Terry Stotts? No, don’t think so. But I can see them making a move for Love or LA12 if things don’t get better in a hurry.  

OK, that’s it for now. If you’ve read this far, hope you found it mildly informative and amusing.