Season in Review - Part II

 

9th place - Bellingham N Eggers

 

At first glance you might think the 9th place finish is a disappointment but this squad was much better than this for most of the season. Looking back at the weeks this team was in the 5th to 7th range for most of the season. Then, like the rest of us, injuries struck down these Eggers.

I admit, I wasn’t that high on this team going into the season. But they really were a very solid squad for most of the season. Big years from Beal, Allen, Hayward, Grant, and others were key contributors to their success. But also, all of those guys I just listed missed time with injuries down the stretch. The best blocking team in the JBL was almost the worst in ATO.  You didn’t see many point guards on this roster.

 Ham made a couple of significant trades this season. He traded Curry to Idaho for Myles Turner and Mike Conley. And then, since he was so strong in blocks, he moved Turner, Ibaka, and Ingles to Seoul for Valanciunas, Adams, and Tate. Since Turner got hurt shortly thereafter I think it was a pretty clear win for Bellingham. Jonas was an absolute monster for Ham in his 34 games. He put up 18 and 14 while shooting 64% from the field. Yowza.

 Bellingham also rostered one of my least favourite players in Dillon Brooks for most of the season. While being a strong Canadian, I just don’t like the kid. He takes some crazy shots for Memphis and I wish they would move him to a bench role. From a fantasy perspective, yes, he scores 17+ PPG. But the rest of the line isn’t really that helpful. 42 and 35 for percentages are not good on those volumes. He doesn’t rebound well and his ATO is meh. No blocks obviously but he does get just enough steals to make him a plus there. So really, a 2 category guy - but are those worth it for the drain on your %’s?

 So who will the Eggers bring back for next season? 2 spots and a lot of potential options. Jarrett Allen got off to a roaring start in Cleveland before tailing off and being shut down. Would he be an option for $33 bucks? What about the blocking French Canadian Chris Boucher for $16 (more on his exploits below). And if Allen is potentially worth $33 - is Jonas worth $39? Jerami Grant and his 22 PPG for $19? John Wall for another season at $14? Or maybe the young Talen Horton-Tucker for $11 if the Lakers get him a bigger role next season? Lots of time to make these decisions and it’s always nice to have multiple options.

I think the Eggers have just as much an argument as a lot of other teams on how greatly the injuries and the shut-downs impacted their roster. I think this was likely a top 8 team with some better health.

 

MVP

Bradley Beal was a standout for Ham this season. He managed to get in 60 games and was 2nd in the league in scoring. He also shot 48.5% from the field while grabbing almost 5 boards a game and 1.15 steals. While his 3PT% wasn’t the greatest he was very solid and provided good points for the squad.

 

Unsung Hero

The surprise performer from this team was obviously Chris Boucher. With the Raptors signing Aron Baynes in the offseason I don’t think anyone thought Boucher (all 118 pounds of him) would play this many minutes. And even saying that - it was only 24 minutes a game. However, in those minutes (and 60 games for Bellingham) Boucher put up 13 and 7 while shooting 51 and 38 and blocking 111 shots. He was drafted for just $11 bucks so he is definitely in contention to come back next season.

 

Bust of the Year

Drafted for $19 bucks I think Kevin Love wins this award again. Whoever he’s played for in the JBL over the last few seasons he has likely won this award for them as well. On the one hand, I kind of expected this as I think he’s done. He cannot stay healthy. That said, when he does play and actually cares, he can still easily get a double-double. The problem is he cannot stay healthy and I don’t think he cares. Getting out of Cleveland would likely save his career but who is going to take on those remaining 2 years and 60 million owing.

 

  

 

8th place - Vancouver Jizzlies

 

OK, I’ll be honest, about 4-6 weeks ago, I thought the Jizzlies were the most likely team to finish 14th. I thought the same when the team was drafted. Just didn’t see them being that strong. For 19 of the 21 weeks, I was right. Then it all changed. Things were quiet in Vancouver. Not a lot of FA signings and not a single trade this season. It was quiet. Too quiet for a team to make a late season charge. Or so I thought.

Take a look at where they were in the Overall Standings at a few moments in time (21 week season).

 

Week 5 - 12th

Week 8 - 12th

Week 12 - 14th

Week 16 - 14th

Week 17 - 12th

Week 18 - 11th

Week 19 - 12th

Week 20 - 9th

Week 21 - 8th (FINAL)

 

In the last 2 weeks this squad jumped from 12th to 8th. Amazing. You don’t see that very often.

So how did they do it when they really weren’t making a lot of moves? Well, they were healthy while many other teams were struggling to field 12 healthy players. And their players got HOT.  I mean super hot.

I reviewed the last month of the season and there are some significant contributors to the Jizzlies late season success.

 Bogdan Bogdanovic averaged 22 PPG while shooting 50% and 48% and grabbing 1.8 steals per game This MVP guy Nikola Jokic averaged 27 and 10 while shooting 56% with an ATO north of 2.000 The brilliant Canadian Kelly Olynyk averaged 19 and 9 with 1.9 steals while shooting 49 and 36.

And The Process, Joel Embiid, averaged 24 and 9 and shot 50/37 with 1.1 blocks per game.

 Add in other key contributors like Coby White, Jordan Clarkson, Kemba Walker and Kyle Anderson and this team was ON FIRE for the last month.

 The Jizzlies accomplished a lot despite playing guys like Elfrid Payton (40) and Blake Griffin (29) way more games than they likely deserved. That said, the Jizz now have an opportunity to protect 3 players and build off this late season surge.  We all know the importance of having a good core of keepers for under market value helps build a contender. So who will the Jizz bring back? Let’s look at some options…

 

Bogdanovic for $12? He sparked ATL to a great season.

Jordan Clarkson for $7? Is he the 6th man of the year?

Kelly Olynyk for $8? Can Kelly O and Mr.Wood co-habitate?

What about bringing back the Joker for $72? Is that market value?

Kemba for $23? Can he stay healthy?

 Lots of options and some very important decisions for the Jizzlies if they want to build on their best ever finish (they finished 8th in 2015 as well). Things could be looking up finally for a team in Vancouver!

 

MVP

Nikola Jokic. Period.

 

Unsung Hero

I think there are a couple of options here but I’m going to give my love to Kyle Anderson. I think many of us thought that JJJ would be back to take some of those forward minutes and I know I thought Brandon Clarke might eat into some of Slo-Mo’s time. But that simply wasn’t the case. He averaged 12ppg with 6reb. He had 84 steals and 57 blocks in 69 games. He shot 47% and 36% and his ATO was 2.910. Those are some darn nice numbers

 

Bust of the Year

I think the easy answer would be Blake Griffin or Elfrid Payton based on their JBL salaries but I am actually going with Coby White. The 2nd year guard was projected by many to be a breakout star. He went for $18 at JBL auction so there was some interest. Yes, he averaged 15ppg but he only shot 41/36 and needed a late season tear to get his numbers up. Expectations were that he was going to be that lead guard for Chicago and he might even push close to 20ppg. Well, that didn’t happen and in fact he lost his starting role not long into the season. We expected more Mr. White.

 

 

7^th place – Arctic Circle Jerks

 

This Arctic squad finished smack dab in the middle of the standings. Didn’t really push for a top 4 spot was solid enough that a 5^th to 8^th finish was likely. This was a team that saw 11 guys play more than 40 games on the roster. The big 3 of Kyrie, Gobert, and Vucevic were very strong. Kyrie only managed 51 active games for the Arctic was he was more worried about 3^rd world issues; the flat earth; gun violence; and why the rubiks cube isn’t round. But anyways, if he had played a full season you wonder if Arctic could have pushed higher.

While his rookie point guard selection, Killian Hayes, didn’t pan out, he did find a rookie PG gem in Immanuel Quickley. On the Hayes note, I did agree with his pick at the time. A lot of industry experts were high on this kid. Now, for Quickley, I didn’t think that Thibs liked rookies. So while he only played 20 minutes a game he did manage 12ppg and 40.5% from downtown.

 Arctic saw good seasons from a re-born Andrew Wiggins. Bet you didn’t know he blocked 70 shots in 71 games! He also shot 48% and 38% while scoring 18+ppg, grabbing 5 reb a game and nabbing 66 steals. Those are pretty darn good numbers in my books.

 As with all the other teams, Arctic lost some quality man games from De’Angelo Russell (he only played 36 games for Arctic), Larry Nance (only 29 games), and Tyler Herro (only 46 games). Now, that said, he did get 71 games from Gobert and 70 from Vucevic so it is nice to get 70+ from a couple of studs. Not many JBL teams could say that.  

 Just like the frozen tundra of the Arctic, Crikker was very frigid when it came to trades. Not a single one. Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Maybe his hands were too busy in the ‘circle’ to hit the trade button. I know I sent him some offers at some point, but traditionally Arctic is a tough one to make deals with. Usually it takes a Pershick Christmas gathering, spiked eggnog, and some Idaho banter to get him to cave.

 While the Arctic didn’t make any trades, he sure did explore the Free Agent wire. For the final week of the season, the Arctic roster featured 10 FA’s of this 15 players. Very impressive. He found some key contributors like Jalen Brunson, Doug McDermott and Kevin Huerter along the way.

So with 3 keeper spots available where does the circle jerker go? He could consider Mr. Wiggins again for $25. Or maybe Kyrie for $53? What about Gobert or Vucevic for even bigger dollars? Or does he go the cheaper route and look at Quickley for just $7 bucks? Herro would be only $15. There are lots of options here.

 

MVP

Rudy Gobert gets the nod here for me. 14, 13, 2.7 blks. Shooting 67.5%. Dominant in 3 categories.

 

Unsung Hero

Again, a few options here but I was always surprised to see how well Jalen Brunson performed. In his 48 Arctic games he averaged 12ppg, shot 52/39 and had an ATO of 3.500. I was impressed.

 

Bust of the Year

Killian Hayes or Cam Reddish. Both didn’t last long and to be fair, they were injury drops, but I think both had some expectations attached to them and for one reason or another they failed to live up to the hype.

 

 

 6^th place – Norfolk-in-Chance

 

Looking back at my pre-season preview of this team I see I had them ranked #9 in my power poll. I thought they would be strong in scoring (turns out they finished 2^nd in scoring) and I also thought they would be strong in 3PT% (whoops, this bunch finished 13^th). I also questioned their rebounding abilities (and this team finished 2^nd in boards). So, what can I tell you? Sometimes even the Godfather can’t predict the future.

 My pre-season preview also talked a lot about the potential of Spencer Dinwiddie and Cole Anthony. Well, those clearly didn’t factor in either. That said, I questioned the Drummond factor if he got traded as well as Trae Young’s impact with Atlanta’s new found depth. BINGO. Nailed those ones. OK, moving on.

 Who played the most games for Norfolk? None other than Enes Kanter. All 72 for the Blazers. And while I initially didn’t think he’d play much – turns out that he played loads of minutes because of all the injuries Nurkic suffered throughout the year. Kanter put up 11 and 11 and shot 60%. Great year. Bobby Portis also was a big factor as he managed 11.5 ppg and 7reb while shooting 52% and 48.7% from downtown in his 61 Norfolk games. Yes, that is correct – 48.7% from downtown!! What a fantastic $5 FA signing.

 Diving deeper into the numbers, I can now see why this team struggled from downtown. All of these high volume jackers (Trae, Booker, Lopez, Schroder, Oubre) just couldn’t find the range from deep. Even with Portis shooting at such a high clip and Lillard bombing away at 39.1% - nothing could save them from a 13^th place finish in 3PT%.

 Unlike many teams that cycled through a lot of players, Norfolk only used 21 players this season. And again, another team that didn’t make a single trade!

 Looking at this team I would say that many of their big names underachieved (Drummond, Schroder, Oubre) but his role players all overachieved (Kanter, Thad Young, Portis). It worked out pretty well overall I think. This team struggled in ATO (12^th) and Blocks (11^th) and you wonder if Dinwiddie would have helped in ATO and a few more games from Drummond would have helped in blocks. We’ll never know.

 What we do know is that Norfolk has the opportunity to bring back 3 players for next season. Will Trae Young be back for year 4 in Norfolk? I would think so at just $24 bucks. What about Bobby Portis for $10 bucks? There a couple of cheap options too. Kanter for $6 or Thad Young for $6?

 

MVP

Damian Lilllard is the man. 67 games played. 29ppg. 45/39 percentages. 62 steals. 2.487 ATO. Superstar.

 

Unsung Hero
As mentioned above, I think this team’s success was due to those middle-tier players being so good this season. Portis, Kanter, Harrelll all had good seasons. But the winner for me was the $1 dollar free agent signing of Thaddeus Young. We all thought he would be bench fodder in Chicago but it turned out that Billy Donovan loved him. At almost 33 years old, Thad put up 12ppg, 6reb, 74 steals, 40 blocks, 2.139 ATO and shot 56% from the field.

 

Bust of the Year

This is probably the toughest one yet to decide. Especially since Norfolk only used 21 players. I don’t want to say Spencer Dinwiddie because it was an unfortunate injury that made him a bust. I’m going with Andre Drummond here as only getting 46 games out of him leaves a lot to be desired. Once he joined the Lakers he put up 11 and 10 and 1 block so pretty pedestrian by his standards. I wonder where he will end up next season….

 

 

 5^th place – Golden Showers

 

Where to begin with this lot of miscreants? How about I start with the long time favourite Shower, LaMarcus Aldridge. We see these NBA aging veterans all the time. Sometimes they fade away and sometimes they just fall off the cliff. Well, LA12 fell off the cliff. I should have known after watching him in the very brief pre-season and seeing that he looked overweight, out of shape about 57 years old. Never should have spent money on him. But hey, he was a key piece in my KAT/Holmes acquisition as salary filler.

 So, like every other team, Golden lost man games from darn near everyone on this roster. Obviously those man games lost from guys like SGA (only played 34 games for Golden) or Nurkic (only 33) hurt more than others but when your big boys aren’t playing, you won’t be winning.  Curry missed time due to covid; Derrick White recovered from a fractured toe to return for 1 game and re-fracture a toe; Fournier had ‘back spasms’ for 4 weeks; and the list goes on. Cry me a river I know.

Looking fondly over this cruddy roster I realize now that I employed 46 different players this past season. Just 7 of them played 36 games or more for Golden while a whopping 27 of them played less than 10 games in Golden. Meaning? You better be good or you won’t last long in this town.

Looking back, protecting Brandon Clarke was a mistake. I was thinking he would improve on year 1 and with JJJ missing time that he would get some good minutes. Nope. Wrong. Bye bye Brandon. I should have protected Fred VanVleet. Whoops. My loss was Brussels gain. 

I took a stab at everyone’s favourite OKC breakout star Darius Bazley and he killed my percentages. For some reason I played him 35 games and he shot 39/29 on big volumes. Why Johnny why? I traded him to Idaho for Derrick Jones Jr who played just 3 games in Golden before being cut. That said, I moved up the standings and was far better off without Mr. Bazley. Consider yourself banned!

 It wasn’t all bad in Golden. I did uncover, through dumb luck, a possible rookie gem in Tyrese Haliburton. He’s likely to be back for a 2^nd year based on his impressive rookie season. I also loved watching Richaun Holmes and Beef Stewart man the middle as undersized centers. They play with such passion and energy that it’s hard to not love them. Another lock to be back is Shai Gilgeous Alexander. While I have concerns over his foot injury he will have had several months to rest before next season since OKC shut him down ages ago. In his 34 games for Golden he put up 23ppg, almost 5 reb, shot 51/43, had an ATO of 1.960 and nabbed 27 steals and 23 blocks. He will be back for $16 dollars.

 The Golden keeper crop could be Haliburton, SGA, Holmes, Stewart or Nurkic. There are only 3 spots available and loads of time to decide. Haliburton's value could depend on whether Buddy gets shipped out of Sactown. And Holmes is a free agent who wants to stay with the Kings but would look really nice in a Hornets uniform catching lobs from LaMelo. Stewart would be great if Plumlee leaves town. So, a few options with a few dependencies. We will see what happens.

MVP

While maybe not my favourite player, Khris Middleton was probably Golden's most consistent over the course of the year. He played 68 games in Golden and averaged 20ppg with 6reb. He shot 48/41 with a 2.076 ATO and picking up 74 steals. Not sexy. Just steady. 

Unsung Hero

Isaiah Stewart takes the award here as I didn’t think this kid would be this good so soon. Mason Plumlee was manning the middle just fine and then Detroit started to rest their ‘older’ guys more regularly and Beef Stew was born. He played in 36 games for Golden and averaged 10 and 7 with 1.5 blocks and shot 56% from the field. He has no neck but that’s OK – he’s beef stew.

 

Bust of the Year

It has to be LaMarcus. I spent $40 bucks on this guy and he was horrible. Just terrible. I don’t want to talk about him anymore.