Week 20 - Three Things....

 The JBL chat board is quiet. The JBL banter is quiet. While JBL teams can still make trades – I don’t think there are a lot of offers floating around out there. Is the JBL season already over? Have we all just accepted our plot in the standings?

 

I will say, and maybe I say it every year, because we use a season long rotisserie style league – at this stage of the season (75% complete) – it’s really hard to drastically move up or down in the standings. So be it.

 

So what am I going to talk about in Week 20? I could discuss why Maui is going to win. But I will save that for the last couple weeks. I could discuss where the rest of us went wrong. But most of us know those reasons already.

 

So I’m going back to my pie-in-the-sky JBL ideas. Maybe one day we can do our AGM at a restaurant or a backyard patio again like we did many years ago. Would be great to see the JBL gang all together again.

 

1)    Expansion. I’d love to see the JBL go to 15 teams. Whether it’s my son Ryan, a colleague at my work, or I’m told we have other interested parties who want to join – I’m fine with expansion. Currently, with 14 teams and 16 players per team, the JBL uses 224 NBA players on JBL rosters. Adding a 15^th team pushes that total to 240 – another 16 players. Everyone says that weakens the FA pool. OK. Fair enough. But I would also say there are a handful of guys that SHOULD have been drafted on JBL auction night as they all go for BIG bucks when the first night of Free Agency comes around. Adding another team, to me, just means all those early free agents get drafted at auction. A quick review indicates that our opening night of Free Agency saw 14 players signed (almost another full JBL roster) and included guys like Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Brunson, Coby White, Cody Martin, Jarred Vanderbilt and others. The 2^nd night of free agency saw Lu Dort, Ant Simons, Alex Caruso and Kevin Love all signed as Free Agents. So, initially, there are good players that don’t get drafted at Auction. I think the pool is deep enough to support a 15^th team.

 

2)    Expanded rosters. Currently, it’s 12 starters, 3 bench and 1 injured reserve spot. While I had previously been on the 15 total players bandwagon I’m now on the 16 players total bandwagon. Get rid of IR and just have 12 starters and 4 bench players. Doesn’t matter if they are injured or not. Just give JBL teams more depth and options. And currently, 11 of 14 teams have 16 players on their roster anyway.

 

3)    I’m also a big fan of adding a 2^nd round to the JBL rookie draft. All 2^nd round picks would be $1 dollar. Teams could have the option to ‘PASS’ if they didn’t like the looks of anyone. Currently, there are 17 NBA rookies on JBL rosters and 26 rookies have spent time on JBL rosters this season so we do like our rookies and taking chances on them. So why not add this option at the start of the season? At the end of every JBL auction teams are scrambling for $1 dollar players to take fliers on. Having a 2^nd rookie pick already on JBL rosters reduces our auction time and let’s teams take fliers on players early on in the season. A 2 round rookie draft could mean up to 28 rookies get drafted. Of course, teams could pass if they want to and many teams don’t put much stock into rookies but it could be another trade options for teams. While a 2^nd rookie pick isn’t for everyone, I think it would add a little bit of strategy and fun for those owners who like to take chances on the young guys. If you don't want a 2nd rookie - you don't have to draft one. Simple as that. 

 

I’ve got some other ones but these are relatively easy in my mind….

 

That’s it for this week. Short and sweet.