JBL 32 - Year in Review

Another JBL season completed. Another French Lick title. 5 in total now. 5 in the last 9 years. The other 4 years French finished 2nd. I know I say it all the time, but this is getting to a bit ridiculous isn't it? 9 years in a row of either 1st or 2nd place? Dynasty.

My year in review won't be as comprehensive as in years past but it is a tradition that must be upheld.

I'm starting with one of our expansion teams, the Happy Valley Vandalizers. I will say nothing about this team name. That horse has left the barn already. I shall just refer to them as Happy. Simply, this franchise struggled across the board. If we only did points, they were 4th in that category. They had scorers in Tatum Randle, Kuzma, Clarkson, Keldon Johnson and on and on. Everywhere else, shocking. Last (15th) in 4 categories and 14th in another. And it wasn't like they were close in steals or blocks. They were miles behind. Hopefully they will learn from their 1st year and come back stronger in year 2. And while their place in the standings wasn't pretty - trading away their rookie pick was an absolute disaster. While it's still a lottery ticket, it's the Wenbanyama sweepstakes! Brussels has the right to pick swap with Happy so we will have to see how the balls bounce this summer.  So no keepers for Happy and they don't have either of their rookie picks so no 'plus one' for them either. Happy will be starting from scratch.

Arctic pulled off a final day miracle and climbed out of the basement and into 14th. There are a couple of positives to take away from this season for Arctic. They will have 1 keeper spot and their prized rookie (Jaden Ivey) available to them for next season. Will it be Kyrie for $27? Will it be Jalen Green for $20 in year 3 of his rookie deal? Regardless of who they bring back, they should try to employ less 'jackers' next season. Having Dillon Brooks (32%), RJ Barrett (31%),  Dennis Smith (19%), and even Jalen Green (33%) all chucking shots from anywhere and everywhere is a recipe for disaster for anyone's percentages. The 3-headed Center monster of Gobert, Allen, and Adebayo to start the year didn't quite work as planned. I blame Gobert. He's hurt Minny and now Arctic. Mange merde Rudy.

In 13th is our other expansion squad, Dayton. They were doing alright halfway through the season and were fighting for top 8 for a long time. Then injuries struck (lost Cade after 12 games and Vassell went down too). And ultimately, his obsession with LaMelo made him cash in a lot of chips to acquire the kid. LaMelo played in only 14 games before going down with injury for the season. Dayton played almost 70 fewer man games than the top teams. Can't win with that many injuries. All that said, Dayton was playing the long game from the start. He drafted Chet Holmgren knowing he would miss the season. He cashed in all hope of a top 8 finish to acquire Ball. So it will be LaMelo and Chet and 13 lottery balls to start his 2nd campaign. Not a bad core to begin Season #2.

Idaho finished 12th. Not top 8 as he told us. That's odd. An Idaho prediction didn't come to fruition? Oh well. This was another team struck hard by injuries throughout the season. He sold the farm to get KAT but only got 14 games from him. Brandon Ingram only played 45 games in Idaho. Idaho can look forward though to JBL 33 as he does have 2 keepers plus Keegan Murray coming back. We all remember the deal that netted him Paolo Banchero but handed Jaren Jackson Jr to French Lick. 4 years of Paolo over 2 years of JJJ?? A word to the wise, if French wants to make a trade, you should problem question it right away since, well, you know, he wins every frikkin' year!!  Who gets the other keeper spot is still up for grabs but we all hope for a more competitive Idaho squad as that keeps the JBL entertained all year long. When Idaho is a contender, we get 500+ trade offers while this year I barely cracked 100 from him. Come on Idaho, get it together!

Norfolk finished 11th this year. A much better showing after his last place finish the season before. Norfolk was one of the top scoring teams for a long part of the season but faded away in the 2nd half of the year. No team played fewer man games than Norfolk. Again, loads of scoring with his Fantasy MVP Donovan Mitchell leading the way. Add in DeRozan, Jerami Grant, Jimmy Butler and the always injured Kevin Durant and you can see why they were doing so well at times. However, this squad was last in rebounds and 13th in blocks. When James Wiseman and Zach Collins are 2 of your best rebounders, trouble is brewing. The good news for Norfolk is he can build on this success with his rookie Benedict Mathurin coming back plus 2 more keepers. Norfolk also didn't make a single trade. Not one. I think you have to take some chances in the trade market to try and build the squad. The other thing I will note is that Norfolk was 10th going into the final day and dropped to 11th. Just keeping this in case the lottery ball Gods fall a certain way. 

Cali moved into 10th on the final day of the season. These Cali boys were BIG and finished 2nd in rebounding. And considering Cali couldn't score - maybe they should have contacted Norfolk about a trade. Oh well, too late now. Cali featured Vucevic, Porzingis, Valanciunas and others to lead the rebound line. They got a great year from likely 6th man of the year Quickley. Loved the KCP and Powell draft picks as they provided good depth. Another team that didn't make a single trade this year. Jabari Smith, after being placed on the JBL trade block very early in the season, had a decent year and now that Silas has been fired in Houston, maybe he'll have a chance to improve next year. It will be Jabari and 2 keepers for Cali next season. Can they build off this season and look to move up the ladder in 23/24?

Congrats to the highest scoring team in the JBL, Bellingham & Eggers. That only got them 9th though and it shows just how tough it is to build a balanced team across all 7 categories. While they were 1st in scoring, their next best category was 6th in steals and then 8th in ATO. Nothing else was in the top 10. Only made the 1 trade this year - acquiring Bam Adebayo and Hamidou Diallo for Anthony Davis and Kenyon Martin. I think we can say that Bangkok won that deal quite handily, especially after Diallo went down with injury. This team will be able to bring back 2 keepers (they don't have their rookie pick, Johnny Davis, for obvious reasons) and will have to find someone to pair with Kawhi and his $12 dollar final year salary. Is it Dinwiddie for $15? Or maybe someone else. 

The Seoul Brothers ended up in 8th place. A terribly disappointing season for this franchise. Top 10 in every category except for rebounding. Quick, who played the most man games for Seoul this season? Did Tobias Harris come to mind? No? Me neither. But 74 games in Seoul led the way. Trader Phil made 8 deals this season. The whole Zion experiment failed miserably. Only 18 games for Seoul this season. I think Ja Morant was in and out Seoul at least a couple times this year. Bradley Beal was acquired, traded away, acquired again and then ultimately rage dropped. We know Nic Claxton will be one of his 3 keepers but who will the other two be? Ja Morant? Brunzy? Zion? So with all the craziness, injuries, trades, adds and drops, the squad finished 8th and we're calling it a horrible season in Seoul. My point? It's OK to make trades and try things in the JBL.

The JBL 31 champs ended up in 7th place this season. Early season injury struggles had the Ribs in the 10-13 range for a long time. Then came the Dayton lifeline and the reality that Maui had too many good keepers and too few spots to keep them. We all know how difficult it is to trade with Maui but when Myles Turner, Marcus Smart and Kevin Huerter were on the table it was hard to pass up. Maui gained about 200 points within weeks and a top 8 spot was secured long ago. Ultimately, injuries struck this team down and they were one of the lowest man games in the league. Only Bruce Brown and Evan Mobley eclipsed 70 games for Maui. Maui has a strong core available for next season. They have their rookie Jeremy Sochan available and then will have to decide who gets the other 3 spots. Embiid, Bane, Mobley, Aaron Gordon and even Huerter could be options for the Ribs. 

Our 6th place team was the Juan de Fuca No Stocks. 13th in steals and 14th in blocks. That's all that held this team back from a potential top 4 finish. Juan made 2 trades this year - both with Idaho. Always nice to see. Who led Juan in blocks this season? If you said Santi Aldama with 43 I'd give you a medal. Sabonis (39) and Royce O'Neale (38) were 2nd and 3rd. That kinda says it all. Lots of talent on this squad led by the Kings duo of Sabonis and Fox. Juan will have a tough decision to narrow down his keepers to just 3 players. Jamal Murray, Bobby Portis, Franz Wagner, Anfernee Simons, and even Sabonis and Fox could be options to come back. A very impressive year from Juan that's for sure. 

What a disastrous final day in Brussels. Dropping to 5th is heartbreaking considering they had been in the top 4 for most of the season. Brussels showed that scoring isn't important at all as they finished dead last in that category. Top 6 in every other category though including 1st in blocks and FG%. 6 trades this year for Brussels but one could go down in history. Imagine if the pick swap with Happy Valley nets them Victor Wenbanyama? Franchise defining moment. This squad is also primed for another strong campaign next year as Walker Kessler and 3 others will be back. Expect Sengun and Markkanen to be back. The other spot is likely for Fultz, Murphy or Okongwu.  Depending on how the lottery balls shake out this summer this could be the team to beat in 23/24.

Golden getting 4th place was a bit surprising considering how the final day of games was going. Although, Golden had been a member of the top 4 for quite some time leading up to the final week. It all appeared to be lost and a 5th place finish awaited until Kris Dunn and Kelly Olynyk's final game performances that catapulted Golden into 4th. For starters, KO was not going to play. But he did and he shot 9/13. Kris Dunn was 11/18 in the game as well. Ultimately, Golden's FG% was 48.8422 and Maui's was 48.8363. Had Golden missed 2 more shots - Brussels would have finished 4th. 

Golden was strong across most categories but struggled in blocks and ATO to end the season. The role players, as with all great JBL teams, played a significant part of the success this past season. Olynyk was fantastic. Dunn, in his 18 games in Golden averaged 14-5-6 with 1+ steals and shot 55/50.  It was a deep squad that overachieved considering the trades to acquire Duren and Jalen Williams many months ago.  Golden has rookie starlet Tari Eason coming back (and he'll have a new coach in Houston) as well as 4 other spots to fill. Golden sold the farm for Jalen Duren so he will be back (and he'll have a new coach in Detroit); Thunder faves Josh Giddey and Jalen Williams (thanks Seoul) will also be back as well as Darius Garland for one more go around. 

Bangkok started the final day of the season in 5th place but made major moves to climb all the way to 3rd place. The final day saw the Kok climb 20 points in scoring; 13 points in steals (18 steals on Sunday) and 13 points in blocks (14 blocks final day). Young stars Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton are the cornerstones of the franchise. Kok isn't afraid to swing for the fences either acquiring Anthony Davis and Stephen Curry during the season. AD's run in Bangkok was very impressive but it was Kenyon Martin Jr that won that trade as KJ averaged 15 and 6 and shot 60% in his 30 games in Kokville. They also got key contributions from other role players (or maybe burgeoning stars) like Jaden McDaniels and super-backup Drew Eubanks as well as Jonny Kuminga, Josh Green, and Herb Jones. To be successful in the JBL you need your core star players but you also need to discover those outstanding role players and Kok's been doing that very well the past couple of seasons. Bangkok will be fully loaded for next season with rookie pick Mark Williams back along with 4 others. I'd expect Tyrese, Ant, and Scottie Barnes for sure. Who gets the 4th spot is still up for debate. Regardless of who it is, the Kok is primed for another title run next season already. 

Chilliwack ended up in 2nd place and threw everything they had at making the title run. In the end, it came up short, but credit to them for pushing all their chips in and really going for it. This team was loaded with fantasy talent and might have 3 All NBA players (Luka, SGA, Pascal) when it's all said and done. Injuries to Capela and Andrew Wiggins (only 36 games) really hurt this squad in the long run.  I don't really have much else to analyze with this bunch. Super talented team that racked up 1090 points. Many JBL years, that total wins. And it might not be close. But now we all have to deal with the French-factor and that means that 1090 just simply isn't good enough. Outside of maybe DPOY Brook Lopez, I'm not sure who else is a surefire lock to be back as a Wack keeper. Maybe Zubac? Maybe Wiggins? Maybe Conley?

And finally we have our 5-time champs French Lick. 1st place again. 1202 points. We knew they were going to win the title since about January 15th when they took over the lead (by 100+ points) and never looked back. What impresses me about this year's French squad is that he went about it slightly differently than years gone by. French drafting Jokic for massive dollars was very surprising. He rarely throws all his eggs into one basket. For many of us, that plan fails, but not for French. French was top 4 in 6 categories and 12th in scoring. Another team that didn't care about scoring and perfected all the rest. So French drafts Joker and then surrounds him with stud role players and blossoming stars. French paid $30 for the Suns 4th option Mikal Bridges. Then he gets traded to Brooklyn and averaged 27ppg. He leveraged his star rookie Paolo to get a BIGGER star in Jaren Jackson Jr. (21-7-3 in his 29 French games). But it's not those guys that won French the title - it's the Josh Hart's, Kyle Anderson's, Al Horford, Derrick White, De'Anthony Melton, Jarred Vanderbilt's of the world. Those role players are better than our role players. And you can't tell me he's simply having some good luck in knowing which guys to grab each and every year for the last 9 years. A couple years is lucky - 9 years running is knowledge, skill and research. Is there a silver lining for the rest of the JBL heading into next season? Maybe. French doesn't have many surefire value keepers. Yes, thanks to Idaho, Jaren Jackson will be back in French for WAY under value but after that, I'm not sure who has that extreme savings. Regardless, French is the favourite for next year. I don't care who he keeps, protects, what rookie pick he gets or if he auto-pilots the auction. French is the favourite. Period.

OK, that's it for another year in the JBL. As always, you guys make it fun. We chat hoops all the time. Ryan and I get to watch games together. The JBL is a pretty cool place be live in....