Week 2 Random Thoughts

• The 3-headed center model in Golden is disappointing so far – Sharpe, CMB and Beringer is not good enough
• Ajay Mitchell surely can’t keep this up
• How about Yaxel? Can he be ROY?
• Sabonis has been amazing. But will any NBA team trade for that contract?  Sabonis once went for $76. This is a bargain price
• What’s up with Gobert? Atrocious start.
• Draymond is washed.
• Derik Queen is fun. Wish he played more.
• Kuminga off to a hot start. His ATO is 15:1?
• Josh Giddey is ice cold.
• Surely Okongwu, Reed, Buzelis, and Braun can be better than this
• Cooper is the real deal.
• Is this a high-water mark for Ham?
• Cedric Coward, hellooo. Not sure he’ll shoot 73% from deep though.
• Nice shooting Toumani
• Acuff’s shooting is something else
• Brussels found a gem in Trevon Brazile
• Boozer averaging 15 and 10 while shooting 28/26.  Watch out when the shots start to fall
• Brussels has LaMelo on his roster?  Doesn’t look right.
• Big Maple ramping up slowly
• Wemby being Wemby
• I loved Zubac coming into the auction. Injuries suck.
• Andrew Wiggins – what are you doing.
• Same for you Miles.
• And Rui, everyone’s deep sleeper, all you had to do was hit your shots. 26% and 31% is not what we had in mind
• Everything is rosy in the Wack
• The big 4 are all that and a bag of chips
• Timelord (and all Blazers) have been amazing
• My Precious – what a start.
• So Risacher is a stocks guy now?
• I’ve always been a big fan of Matisse. He just needed more minutes and to stay healthy
• Dayton off to a near perfect start
• Ty Jerome for All-NBA – can he keep it up
• Paul Reed and Jalen Smith – what a duo
• KAT’s been the only good Knick
• Poeltl is done.
• The Kawhi injury puts a dent in French’s momentum
• Love Kyshawn
• Desmond Bane? What are you doing? We know the shooting will come around
• Mikal Bridges – maybe take a night off – see if that helps. 5ppg and shooting 27/25
• Embiid is playing 36 minutes a night
• Vooch is washed
• PG13 rejuvenated in Boston
• Franz has yet another chance to be the guy in Orlando. Yet we know how this will go
• Auto-draft Juan working out as expected. But the names are good.
• Juan de Fuca Blazers is working out though (Avdija, Morant, Lillard)
• RJ and Walter are his usual Raptors
• James Harden off to a slow start shooting 33/29
• Tyler Herro and Zach LaVine can still play
• Ace Bailey is a pleasant surprise considering all the names in Utah
• Laura has been very disappointing so far
• Losing Antman is a crusher for the Doctor
• Has Wendell Carter ever played this well?
• Somehow, we still want more from SGA
• Kel’el Ware, that’s not good enough for your price tag (see CMB, Poeltl, and others)
• Trey Murphy where are you?
• OG?  Calling all Knicks not named KAT to step up their game
• The Moose and Jabari are fun
• So Zion is a shooting guard for rebounding, a steals monster, and shoots like a 7’0 center. Got it.
• Is the Mobley breakout happening? 18 and 8 is currently 20 and 10.

Final thought – injuries are a killer!

JBL 36 Season Preview

 The draft is over. The season has begun.  And JBL 36 is underway. 

 

It should be noted that our auction took 2 hours and 30 minutes this year with 2 breaks (15 minutes) – so we can speed through when motivated.

Also, Juan de Fuca showed up at 3:30pm for a 2:00pm start time – thinking the draft started at 5pm? Either way, he was 90 minutes off.

And the whole Anthony Black salary situation for Bangkok caused some momentary issues. Not as many issues as the Kok leaving a bunch of money on the table. Almost $30 bucks just sitting there begging to be spent. But I digress, and in future auctions, I will ensure that no player is in an Injured Reserve spot – which doesn’t exist for auction day.

 

OK, let’s get on with this annual tradition.

 

This draft was lacking star power as only Giannis went over $60 bucks. That meant that a lot of the middle-class was fetching high dollars. And with Juan de Fuca on auto-pilot, there were no bargains until later in the draft.

 

So, let’s look at our teams. I will use the Week 1 standings as my guide and work from 14^th up to 1^st.

 

That means that I get to start in Bangkok. Can’t remember the last time the Kok was in 14^th after week 1. And it’s been a busy and hectic week for the former champ. Multiple free agents in; Scottie B traded away, and high-priced big man (Duren) already on the injured list. I get the Scottie B trade for multiple assets to improve the depth. But is this a Luka scenario? Could he have gotten more if the rest of the JBL knew Scottie was available? Bangkok will have to grind this season and that’s usually the best and most fun part of the JBL. There’s only one way to go for the Kok. Up.

 

Our auto-draft team Juan de Fuca is up next, and they’ve already been gut-punched as well as Paolo, AJ, and Ingram all have injuries already. Some crafty FA signings should help but Juan is feeling the full wrath of Cautious Carl or Anxious Andy or whichever auto-drafter bot did this to them. The team can score and should be good in ATO as they are loaded at the Guard spots. But there a lot of brittle players in that lineup currently. Will be interesting to see how many of the auto-drafted players Juan decides to turn over during the season.

 

Bellingham went with a 4-headed monster model and drafted Cooper, Jalen Johnson, Curry, and Don Mitchell. That’s 75% of the entire budget right there. As we know, to be successful in stars and scrubs, you need your big guys to be awesome, and you need great role players. Are the role guys good enough on this squad? Time will tell. And Ham does have a cornerstone in Darius Acuff who is averaging 22ppg already while taking the most shots EVER in their first 3 NBA games. Ham is building something…

 

Doctor Norfolk is up next and employed a similar model. He has 5 players at more than $10 bucks and those 5 guys eat up 85% of the JBL budget.  3 of those guys were keepers and while I loved SGA and Clingan I’m not sure I’m sold on Kel’el Ware for $43 just yet. Would he have not gone for less than that at auction? We will never know. The week 2 lineup already features 3 FA’s so the Doc needs to keep working the edges for success in JBL 36.

 

The Arctic is another team that went for 3 big names – Giannis, Gobert, and Sabonis. And we all know that I love a good trio of big men. So far, so good in the frozen tundra. It’s too bad Yves Missi got hurt as he was looking solid early but Arctic has the backup plan and employs the Dairy Queen. He has oodles of potential and love his long-term value. I strongly feel this is a “left hand side of the leaderboard” team in the long run.

 

What’s French Lick doing down here? Weird. Odd. Rare.  Don’t worry, it won’t be long before the Legends climb the leaderboard. Highest priced guy? Keeper Tyrese Maxey at $44. 2^nd highest paid guy?  Keeper Kawhi Leonard at $31.  That means this French squad is DEEP. He has 3 bench guys and Claxton on IR and those guys will all likely be part of his active roster in the long run. French spent $21 on Mikal Bridges. That’s not working out so far. But he has the luxury of just benching him if he chooses. This is a title contending roster. Strong in every category. French will be in the mix (as always).

 

Brussels is rolling the clock back and going with the punt-points model. This methodology brought Brussels their one and only JBL title a few years back. This team is HUGE and should win rebounds easily. He has 5 guys averaging over 9 rebounds a game already and that doesn’t include Milk Chamberlain (8 rebs/game). The key for this squad, like most, will be health. Edey and Kessler combined for less than 20 games last year. Can Brussels medical staff get them to 120 games this year? And having the Thompson twins. Fun. Yes, this team is a title contender.  All day, every day.

 

Idaho drafted the most Idaho team ever. If the JBL was just about points scored, Idaho would have multiple titles already. Idaho went with a balanced money approach and has 8 players making between $20 and $40 bucks. The high-priced guy is Jaren Jackson Jr this year at $40.  The wildcard again will be Joel Embiid ($21). How many games can Idaho coax out of the big fella? If it’s 50+ the Ho could be onto something. And did Idaho create a time machine for PG13? Paul has been on fire to start the year. The FG% could be rough with all these jackers but let’s see if Idaho can bounce back after a disastrous 25/26 JBL campaign. I won’t go any deeper on analysis of this roster as most of these guys will be traded before Christmas. 

 

The Maui Ribs (aka the ‘AI team’) can score. A lot. Of the 4 guards in Maui’s lineup for week 2, Tyler Herro is the lowest scoring one at 24ppg.  And the Ribs still have Coby White to come. Maui will need big years from Bam, AD and Lauri as well but the main question marks will be around that crew of forwards (Bailey, Kuzma, Jones Jr, Eason, Toppin).  Are they good enough to support the Ribs in the standings?  So far, so good in sunny Maui. At some point, moving one of the stud guards for some forward help should be in the cards.

 

Cali sits in 5^th place in week 1. Almost everyone’s titles favourite thanks to Wemby and yet another solid auction performance. This is a deep and big team. As per usual, the only likely weakness is ATO.  This is a roster of just good all-round guys to support Wemby and his ridiculous stat-set. NAW, Naz, Allen, and Zubac are big time assets. Add in quality depth and a top rookie pick and this is certainly Cali’s best title chance in the Wemby-era. A top title contender in my books.

 

Grumpy old Seoul sits in 4^th place after week 1 and now adds Scottie Barnes to the mix. Another deep team with the top salaried dude being Evan Mobley for $51. Is this the year he finally becomes more than 18 and 8 and a boatload of potential? So far this year he’s averaging 19 and 9. Can Zion grab any rebounds? Does Trey Murphy have more to give? Can OG return to his NBA Finals form? Can Keyonte and VJ continue to take steps?  This is a very strong team and we know trader Phil will be in action throughout the year.  

 

The defending champ Golden’s draft plans went awry when CMB came to town. The classic ‘let’s bid him up’ tactic backfired a bit. It stings even more that he sucks.  A poorly managed auction plan and some early season disappointments have me wondering about this roster.  Ryan Rollins – you should be better. Alex Sarr? Will you ever touch the ball or block a shot? And my guy, J-Dub, I will miss you. 5 years together and a JBL title. You were a Golden guy from the get-go when we acquired you from Seoul. Get well soon. This squad likely doesn’t have enough rebounding or 3pt shooting to be a contender just yet, but the year is still young. And oh, how about the next Golden boy, Yaxel? I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. 

 

The Wack waited almost 2 hours to draft his first player at auction, but once he got going he’s done very well gathering the role players to support the Fantastic Four.  Precious, Risacher, Bey, Thybulle, and Timelord are all doing their thing.  This team is in 2^nd place after week 1 and that factors in maybe one of the worst games ever from the Joker. If the big 4 stay healthy this team can contend for a title. Could the stars and scrubs method finally pay dividends for the Wack?  If it doesn’t, it’s nice to know all 4 of the big guys (Joker, Luka, Cade, Austin) will ALL be returning to Auction next year.  Good for us and good for Benny. He will finally get to participate in the auction from the outset. 

 

And our 1^st place team after week 1 is the youngster, Dayton. Not just in 1^st place – they are in 1^st place by 250 points!  It’s not close right now. This is the team to beat gentlemen. Strong across all categories. Always helps when you have a cheap star point guard as a keeper. And I mean Ty Jerome for $6 bucks. No one is talking about him, it’s all about Hali-this and Hali-that, but Ty is the MVP! KD is doing KD things. Aging like fine wine. Claxton is injured, Dayton has Jalen Smith.  Duren is injured, Dayton has Paul Reed. Kon and Coby are injured, Dayton has Grayson Allen. Dejounte back to his old self. Everything is coming up roses so far in Dayton. Dayton has sprinted out to the early lead and now the pack will have to do our best to reel him in. 

 

So, there you have it, the pre-season/week 1 rankings.  It’s Dayton and a bunch of chasers right now. Good luck to all

 

 

 

JBL 36 offseason ranks (pre-draft)

 Pre-Season Rankings 2026

 

With the rookie draft now complete, let’s have a look at the Top 5 JBL teams heading into JBL 36. This is mostly based on how much value their keepers/rookies have (JBL salary)  compared to their market value. 

 

Brussels Muscles

Timbo has a very strong quartet in Kessler, Edey, Amen, and Boozer. All of them are undervalued at their current JBL salary. The question on the 2 big men will always be can they stay healthy? Last year, Edey played just 11 games and Kessler only 5 games. The JBL lottery Gods shined on Timbo and got him the 2^nd overall pick which landed him ROY favourite Boozer. Things are starting out very rosy in Brussels for JBL 36.

 

Austin Powers/Cali

Year 4 of the Wemby project. The cupboard is stocked!  Wemby, NAW, Ayo, Naz, and a top rookie in Peterson.  Cali/Austin has never been set up for success as much as this year. Can their draft keep them as contenders? Will the location situation (Cali v Austin) be a distraction?  Oh wait, it’s fantasy hoops, they should be OK.  Pressure mounts in Austin/Cali as the Wemby-window nears its peak.

 

Dayton Yer Daughters

The prodigy continues to climb the power rankings each year.  Tyrese is the cheap superstar and Dayton’s loaded with fantastic values in Chet, Kon, and Ty Jerome.  On top of that he landed the 5^th overall pick at pick 11 in our draft. Could Keaton Wagler be a contributor from day one?  Dayton enters a 2-year title window with Tyrese at the helm to pull off the unthinkable.

 

Seoul Brothers

No rookie picks, no problem. Seoul did his business last year and brings back a ton of valued keepers. Trey Murphy, Moussa, VJ, Keyonte, and Jabari are all underpriced compared to what they would go for at Auction. And we know Seoul’s track record in the JBL, he knows how to assemble a winner.  Look out league, Seoul is raring to go.

 

French Lick Legends

The 5-time champs already have 6 players on their roster, including top rookie Caleb Wilson. He already has the stars – Maxey, Tatum, Kawhi and can now focus on balancing out the roster in the JBL auction. French has really been in a slump as of late, finishing 3^rd last year, 6^th the year before, and 4^th just 3 years ago. This comes after a 9-year run of 5 titles and 4 2^nd place finishes.

JBL Rookie Draft 2026

 2026 JBL Rookie Draft results:

 

First Round
1. Juan de Fuca - $15 - AJ Dybantsa
2. Brussels - $12 - Cameron Boozer
3. French - $10 - Caleb Wilson
4. Cali - $9 - Darryn Peterson
5. Bellingham - $8 - Darius Acuff
6. Norfolk - $7 - Hannes Steinbach
7. Golden - $6 - Yaxel Lendeborg
8. Maui - $5 - Morez Johnson Jr
9. Arctic - $4 - Mikel Brown Jr
10. Golden - $3 - Brayden Burries
11. Dayton - $2 - Keaton Wagler
12. Ham - $1 - Cameron Carr
13. Ham - $1 - Kingston Flemings
14. Ham - $1 - Aday Mara

Second Round
15. Idaho $1 - Nate Ament
16. Chilliwack $1 - Allen Graves
17. Bangkok $1 - Zuby Ejiofor
18. Dayton $1 - Chris Cenac
19. Idaho $1 - PASS
20. Arctic $1 - Karim Lopez
21. Maui $1 - PASS
22. Golden $1 - Sergio de Larrea
23. Norfolk $1 - PASS
24. Bellingham $1 - PASS
25. Cali $1 - PASS
26. French $1 - PASS
27. Brussels $1 - Trevon Brazile
28. Juan de Fuca $1 - Ebuka Okorie

 

Golden traded Payton Pritchard and pick #15 to Idaho for picks #7 and #10.

 

Thoughts:

• Top 4 were always the top 4 in some order
• Norfolk loves his rookie big men. Worked out well with Clingan a couple years ago. Could Steinback start?
• Golden wanted some rebuilding blocks – Yaxel and Burries could be good (in hindsight, I might regret not taking Wagler)
• This draft felt like a very strong top 11 – after that, it was murky. There will be others who “hit” but they might take time.
• And someone will surprise us – could it be Cam Carr? Okorie? Ament?
• My favourite 2^nd rounder – Allen Graves
• My surprised he didn’t get picked – Meleek Thomas

JBL 35 - Golden's 12th title

Golden is back baby!!

But before I brag and boast about the year that was...we first have to go through all the other teams. The highs, the lows, the what the?  And for some teams, the more things change, the more things stay the same. OK, let's get right into it.

As always, we move from worst to first...

Idaho

OH Idaho. What a year. 

Look at Idaho’s post-draft roster. Big names. And this was after landing Cooper Flagg as the 1^st overall rookie pick and having Evan Mobley as a stellar keeper.. 

He added Trae Young, Paolo Banchero. Lauri Markkanen, Anthony Davis, Lebron James, and Paul George. And then he had all these young breakout candidates oozing with potential – Keyonte George, Jonathan Kuminga, and Jalen Green was now in Phoenix.

Idaho felt so good about this roster he sold Flagg very early on and acquired Bam Adebayo and Kristaps Porzingis to go ALL IN. The stars were aligned. This was Idaho’s year. Until it wasn’t. Which was about week 3. Think of a type of injury. Any kind. Idaho players had that. All of them. Everyone got hurt.

 

As the trade deadline approached, Idaho re-acquired Flagg in hopes he could climb from the basement and keep him for next season. It didn’t work, for Idaho. For the rest of us, because Idaho finished 14^th, Mr. Flagg will be back in the auction. Bless you Idaho for your sacrifice. 

 

I don’t have much more I can say about this squad or year in Idaho. It didn’t go well. It was a ‘gap year’ for Idaho. Idaho used the fewest amount of players this season with just 23 guys coming or going. Also the lowest number of man games played in the JBL at 751 (this was almost 200 games less than the top team). Again, ownership appeared to be checked out for quite some time in this tumultuous season. Idaho will have Egor Demin has their lone Plus1 keeper. That’s it. They will also have 14 lottery balls and 1 more from Golden in the pot in hopes of winning back-to-back lotteries in possibly the deepest NBA draft in years.

 

 

Bellingham

 

As mentioned in the JBL 35 preview, Ham went for the big risk/reward guys in Embiid and Morant. Unfortunately, Embiid managed just 30 games for Ham and Morant just 19 games. When your big guys don’t play, things usually don’t go that well.  Ham was loaded with nice role players but didn’t have any ‘stars’.  Ham was a great 3% team this year, but all the other categories just didn’t work out. Ham also only used 24 players (2^nd lowest total). Does that mean there could have been some more maneuvering along the way? Perhaps. I’m not sure even Milwaukee would be thrilled if Bobby Portis (67) is your games played leader, but here we are.  Again, solid role guys like Buzelis, Hart, Brandon Miller, Bridges, and Garland all contributed. But not enough. 

Maybe Ham should follow Norfolk’s model and splurge on some big names next year. Look at what SGA and Brunson did for Norfolk this year.  Ham played the 2^nd fewest number of man-games in the JBL this season. Hard to accumulate stats when your guys don’t play.

 

Ham appears to be set to build around Ace Bailey and Cedric Coward for next season. Or maybe it’s Dejounte or B-Mill that are the keeper targets. Or some combination of 2 players anyways.

 

The biggest success for Ham this year – securing 4 future rookie picks!   Ham has their own pick (13 balls), Wack’s (3 balls – from the Embiid trade), Seoul’s pick (2 balls – from the Bridges/Allen swap), and Bangkok’s pick (5 balls - from the Buzelis trade). All told, that’s 23 balls in the bucket (22% chance at No. 1).

 

 

Juan de Fuca

 

A 12^th place finish for Juan. It was a ‘nice’ roster. Nothing special, I guess. Best category was 7^th and worst was 13^th. Everything else in the middle was just ‘meh’. It had the names (Fox, Siakam, Booker, Ingram) but it also had some disappointing names. I’m sure more was expected from Risacher. Simons? Hunter? Mathurin? All had average years. Even when Juan tried to upgrade the roster and traded for Michael Porter Jr – he turned into a pumpkin and played just 14 games in Juan and shot 41/26. Yuck.

Juan could always score and got good years in that area from Ingram, Siakam, Booker, and Fox. 

 

Who will be the keepers from this squad?? Is it Andrew Wiggins?  Dylan Harper looks like he could be the real deal, but the Spurs will need to figure out how to get him more minutes. Cause Harper was 12-4-4 and shot 51% in just 22 minutes a game. Future stud. I'm a big fan. 

I just don't have much to say about Juan on their 25th anniversary since winning their lone title all those years ago. 

All that said, after another disappointing season, Juan fired the 3rd head of the monster (Brett Favre). I'm not sure this person even existed or what value he brought to the table but its nice to see Juan shake up the front office. 

 

 

Arctic

 

The punt-points Arctic squad battled forever with Maui in the epic 10^th or 11^th battle. This was the #1 3-point shooting team in the JBL. Unfortunately, the next best categories were a couple of 7^th place ranks in steals and ATO (thanks to guys like Cason, Podz, Harden, etc). As with all JBL teams, injuries played a big factor for this squad. Man-games lost for Hartenstein, Poeltl, George, Grant, and Vooch all impacted Arctic’s ability to climb the ranks. Arctic played the 4th fewest man-games (864) this year. Although the gap isn’t quite as large as where Ham and Idaho finished.

Did you know Podz managed to play all 82 this year? 

Did you know Cason Wallace led the league in total steals (150) by narrowly beating our my boy Dyson (149) and Ausar (145)?

 

Who are the keepers in the frozen tundra?  Is it Podz? Who are the options? Should it be a clean slate?

 

Arctic’s best move was keeping his rookie picks for a change.  Arctic has traded their 1^st round pick in 4 of the past 5 years.  Finally, they will have a decent chance at getting a top rookie to build around.

 

 

Maui

 

They shall be called the Maui Kings.  The Ribs had Sabonis, DeRozan, Precious, and Raynaud this season. Domantas only managed 15 games in Maui before the sunset and beaches had him relaxing. Losing your stud (and only) rebounder was a huge loss and led to the Ribs last place rank in this category.  On the other end, Maui led the JBL in ATO this season.  Did you know Maui holds the all-time best ATO season in JBL history. While this year didn’t reach the top 5 all time, it’s always a category Maui excels in apparently.

 

The star of the Maui show was Canadian Jamal Murray. His best season ever and at just $40 dollars, I would imagine Maui will strongly consider just bringing him back for $45.  The other pleasant surprise was the FA signing Maxime Raynaud. When Sabonis went down, Maui was quick to grab Raynaud for just $4 bucks and he played 55 games for them. He averaged 14 and 8 and shot 57%.  If the Kings move Sabonis this summer, I would think Raynaud is a lock to be back on the beaches as well.

Not sure Maui's rookie pick Tre Johnson will be back as the Plus1. He had an average year and now with the Wizards bringing in Trae and AD, I'm not sure how much upside Johnson has now. 

 

Maui said he had a strong feeling about the #10 ball coming out of the hat first in the lottery. Let’s see if Maui can see the future…

 

 

Brussels

 

It’s starting to sound like a broken record here but Walker Kessler (5) and Zach Edey (10) combined to play just 15 games in Brussels this season. That’s a problem when it comes to rebounds, blocks, and FG%.  Add in Jaren Jackson Jr (48) and the breakout artist known as Peyton Watson (42) and there’s another big handful of missed games. Overall, Brussels played the 3^rd fewest games and missed a big number from big-time guys sooooo….

 

The annual tradition of Brussels spending all his FA money way too early continued. Brussels had to trot out the same guys for several weeks to end the season despite many of them being injuxred.

 

There was a lot of good in Brussels this year – but not enough man-games with the right guys and categories to get out of that 9^th place finish. The Brussels Rockets were great – Amen, Sengun and Sheppard.

 

Sengun’s 5-year stint in Brussels is over (or could be over) as he returns to the auction next season. Kessler can be protected as the Plus1 and that gives Brussels 2 more guys to bring back. I imagine Amen (for $25) and Watson (for $6) will be the leading the candidates. What about Coulibaly or Edey as dark horses to be keepers. I guess we shall see..

 

 

Cali

 

Year 3 of the Wemby campaign and we have an 8^th place finish from Cali. Last year was 10^th and the rookie year for Wemby saw Cali finish 2^nd.  Needless to say, the results haven’t quite lived up to expectations. Borderline disappointing at this stage?

 

The Cali Wolves (Antman, Naz, Randle) all put up big numbers. Breakout star NAW was fantastic in ATL and put up 21ppg on 46/41 shooting. He has to be a sure thing as far as Cali keepers go. Jaylen Brown played like the MVP for a lot of the season and even under the radar Saddiq Bey put up some amazing numbers (18 and 6 on 46/37). All of those guys had great years and I haven’t even mentioned the Wemby numbers. 25ppg. 11.5 rebs. 51/35 shooting. 3.1 blocks (197 total).

 

Cali was 2^nd in points (and likely would have been 1^st if it wasn’t for Lavine’s injury). 3^rd in blocks. 6^th in 3%.  The issues – LAST in ATO and 11^th in FG%. It’s starting to seem like it’s harder and harder to outright tank a category these days. More on this later.

 

I’ll give some love to the role guys in Cali too. Ayo Dosunmu (15ppg on 52/44 shooting). He was great. Late season Will Riley played 20 games and averaged 17-3-3. 

 

On the flip side, did we need 26 games of Jarred Vanderbilt averaging 4 and 4 while shooting 47/24?  26 games of Kevin Huerter averaging 8.6ppg on 43/27?   Cali did use 30 players this season so there was a lot of activity on the waiver wire.

 

Cali has NAW and Wemby coming back for sure – but that still leaves 2 more spots. Next year is Season 4 of the Wemby experiment and time is running out in the Cali title window here. Pressure is mounting.

 

 

Norfolk

 

What a year for the Doctor.  First, let’s start with some facts.  Norfolk was ‘team of the week’ 4 times. Norfolk led the JBL standings at the end of week 1, 5, and 10 before Golden took over in week 11 and never looked back.  This was Norfolk’s best finish in the last 5 years as he was coming off years of 14^th, 14h, 11^th, and 14^th.  So making the jump to 7^th was a strong move. Well done Doc.

 

Coming into the season, Norfolk had Donovan Clingan. That was it. His rookie pick Khalam Maluach was a non-factor so the Doctor was starting with 1 player.

 

The draft couldn’t have gone much better. First player nominated, Jalen Brunson, Norfolk snapped him up. MVP SGA? Norfolk grabbed him too. Fantasy stalwart Derrick White, yup, Norfolk.  And they just kept adding from there. Ware, Queta, Norm, PJ, and Westy were all on board for the Norfolk hot start in the first half of the season. Over time though, some of the hot starts tapered off. Ware went from 30+ minutes to seldom used. Westy had an up and down season. PJ got hurt and missed some games. Norm Powell was the man and then all the injured Heat guys returned. Max Christie looked like a Klay Thompson reincarnated but then reality crept in. And on and on.

Norfolk used the waiver wire well and employed 27 guys over the season. Some great FA finds in Naji Marshall, Scoot Henderson, and late season gem Brice Sensabaugh really helped.

 

My favourite trio in Norfolk though were those 3 bigs. Clingan, Queta and Ware were dynamite for most of the season. Clingan and Queta are easy protections in my books. The Ware hype was real as he went for $38 bucks at auction and for the most part he lived up to the billing. Mostly. Often. Sometimes.  

 

Great year overall in Norfolk. The Doctor needs to think wisely about those other keeper spots as Norfolk could be building something here.

 

 

Dayton

 

On the final day, young Dayton worked his way into 6^th spot. Sure, it cost him 1 lottery ball (let’s see how that plays out) but it kept his streak alive of 4 years in a row of moving up in the standings.

 

This was a very good Dayton squad. They won the weekly period 5 times (tied with the Wack and trailing only Golden’s 7 times).

 

This was a very deep (and old) team.  Curry, Butler, LeBron, Chet, Kon, Avdija, Zubac, Herro, Camara, and others led the way. Then the injury bug found its way to Dayton. Butler only played 38 games. Zubac only 42. Herro 33. Curry 42.  Who would have guessed that LeBron’s 58 games for Dayton would exceed them all?  You can’t miss that many games from your ‘big guys’ and compete. Just can’t.

 

Kon Knueppel was obviously a HUGE surprise for Dayton and will be a mainstay on this roster for years to come. Chet has one more year on his rookie contract. And I’d expect that guy Tyrese Haliburton to be the headline keeper for next year.  So, who gets the other keeper spot? Ty Jerome?? Only if Memphis cleans up their PG situation. What about Derik Queen? He was a very quiet 12 and 7 on 47% with almost 1 steal and 1 block per game.  Could Herro be an option again? Can his health be trusted? Have to see what the summer brings.  But it appears Dayton is loaded with talent going into next year.

 

Dayton was our busiest team. 44 players used this season which included 14 guys who played 5 or less games in Dayton. If you didn’t perform, you were gone. Don’t mind that approach at all.

 

 

Bangkok

 

Our defending champs’ season didn’t go quite to plan.  When your main stud, Giannis, only plays 33 games for you, it’s going to be challenging. That said, Bangkok did lead the JBL standings at the end of 5 different weeks (2^nd most behind Golden). Oddly enough, Kok never won a week outright, but the overall performance was clearly quite good, especially early in the season when Giannis was alive and kicking.

 

Scottie Barnes, Okongwu, Giddey, and Mikal Bridges all played big roles in keeping Bangkok near the top of the standings. Likely 6^th man of the year, Jaime Jacquez Jr, was great, averaging 15-5-5 and shooting 51%. Breakout and Kok fave Anthony Black was solid with 15-4-4 and 1.4 steals. He struggled more in the 2^nd half and missed 20+ games.  The JBL’s top shot blocking team relied on several swatters including Yves Missi, Onyeka, Scottie, Clowney, and surprising Dylan Cardwell.

 

I would be remiss to not mention Kok’s trade with Golden.  Payton Pritchard for Christian Braun. Pay-Pay had only played 11 games in Bangkok when he was offered up in trade. He started poorly and was averaging 15ppg while shooting 43/26. After acquiring Braun, unfortunately Christian sprained his ankle and missed a lot of time. In the end, Braun did pick it up and averaged 13 and 5 and shot 55%.  As for Pritchard, he averaged almost 18ppg in Golden with a 4.00 ATO and shot 48/40. Yes, Golden liked those numbers.

 

As for the underachievers, I’m sure Kok wanted more from Herb Jones. 9ppg. 39/31 shooting. Sure, the steals are nice. But we always want more from Herbie. Once the pride and joy of Bangkok, Bilal Coulibaly was shipped out of town. Patience had run out. And Washington is changing their approach. While Bilal might have been a core piece, now he’ll be one of many on a potentially deep Wizards team next season.

 

Bangkok was very busy on the wire and thru trades using 40 players this season. Some nice waiver wire finds for different periods of time in Mamukelashvili, Cam Spencer, Dylan Cardwell, O-Max Prosper, AJ Green, and Oscar Tshiebwe, just to name a few. And just like Dayton, Kok had 13 guys play 5 of less games in Bangkok before moving on. If you can’t cut it in Championsville, you are OUT!

 

It certainly appears Scottie and Giddey will be back in Kokville next season. But who else will make the cut?  We’ll find out this summer.

 

 

Chilliwack

 

The Offs went for the stars and scrubs model. We know the big 3 of Jokic, Luka and Cade would be relied on heavily to chase the title. Benny might argue it was a big 3.5 or 4 if we included Austin Reaves. And it almost worked. For quite some time, the Offs were in the hunt. Ultimately, the injury bug hit the big boys and the Wack had to settle for 4^th (the final money spot, 4 lottery balls, and 4+1 keepers).

 

When I look at the man-games played for the Wack, I think if any of the big 3 had been near the top, we might have seen a different result. Instead, the top 4 guys for games played?? Keldon Johnson 79, Kyle Filipowski 73, Collin Gillespie 68, and Royce O’Neale 63. All great role players. But the Wack needed Joker 63, Luka, 62, and Cade 61 to get more games. Even Reaves only managed 51 games this season.

 

And what about all the other key role players that missed games due to injury? Oubre. Aldama. Sexton. His under-the-radar rebound man, Steven Adams.  All missed a big number of games. Once Adams went down for the season, the Wack attempted a smorgasbord of bigs to try and replicate the numbers. Jaylin Williams. Goga. Drumond. Murray-Boyles. Capela.  Meh. 

 

Wack took a big swing and traded their 1^st round pick for Joel Embiid. The Process only managed 3 games in the Wack.  Oh well.

 

The Wack was top 6 in five categories but it was the blocks (11^th) and FG% (9^th) that had him finishing with 936.50 points.

 

The Wack has some big offseason decisions ahead of him. There is no Plus1 keeper – so it’s 4 guys. Who will it be?  Is Joker back for $97? Luka for $79? Cade for $43?  Reaves has to be a lock at $22 regardless of whether he’s still a Laker or not. The Wack could do the unthinkable and bring all 4 of those guys back for $241 and leave himself just $19 bucks for the other 11 guys. I dare you. Do it. In that case, if our draft time was 5pm – Wack could show up around 7:30pm and be fine.

 

There are some cheaper options. Kelly Oubre for $6? Murray-Boyles for $13? Collin Gillespie for $11 or even Collin Sexton for $6.   But there are only 4 spots.  Tough decisions ahead.

 

 

French Lick

 

What a shocker. French was a contender. Again. A stacked team featuring Kawhi, Maxey, Bane, and everyone’s least favourite player – Rudy Gobert.   And then a plethora of solid role players including Jay Huff (2^nd in the total blocks this year), Tre Jones (14 and 5 with 55% shooting), Tobias Harris, Mark Williams, Aaron Gordon and on and on.   Even his 2 rookie picks (Kalkbrenner and Fears) managed to play 55 and 34 games respectively. This must be one of the few times that 2 JBL rookies have both lasted a full season on one team and contributed this much. Well done to French. Happy for you.

 

This was another well-balanced French roster that finished 1^st in two categories (steals and FG%) and 2^nd in Blocks. The other 4 categories were 7-7-8-9 so if they’d been able to push a couple spots higher in each they would have been right there.

 

I don’t feel like I need to spend much more time on French. Every year, same thing, a contender. Next year, a major contender as French will put the whole injured keeper policy to the test.  French now employs Jayson Tatum for next season at just $14 bucks. Bargain. We all could have drafted him. But we didn’t. Our loss.

 

I imagine the French keeper list includes some combination of Tatum, Kawhi, Maxey, Mark Williams, and one of his stellar rookies (the Big Kalk or Fears). Not a bad starting point for a perennial contender. At quick glance, I'm not sure many will have a better or deeper collection of keepers going into next seaosn. Good luck to us all next season.

 

 

Seoul

 

Our 2^nd place team and most volatile user in the chat room is coming off a season broken into 3 periods.  The first was a very short stint in what I call the ‘pre-Flagg’ Seoul team. Then was the ‘Flagg era’ and lastly was the ‘post-Flagg’ era. 

 

The initial move to acquire Flagg was sending Bam and Porzingis over to Idaho. I’ll admit, at the time, I thought that was way too much to give up for a young rookie. Then Flagg started to figure things out and Porzingis contracted whatever disease he had last year again was basically dead again. Flagg was showing that he could be an absolute fantasy stud.

 

But with Seoul hanging around the edge of contention, Seoul moved all his chips to the center of the table and went ALL IN.

 

The big Flagg trade came at the deadline and saw Seoul trade Cooper, Isaiah Stewart, and RJ Barrett to Idaho for Lauri Markkanen, Keyonte George, Evan Mobley, and Paolo Banchero.  Seoul’s expectations were now sky-high and the climb was on. For a good few weeks, Golden was crunching numbers looking at Seoul’s ceiling and Golden’s floor. Alas, the usual injury bug struck down Laura and Keyonte as the Jazz embarked on their annual tank. Paolo became the most hated man in Seoul (and Orlando) because of his high volume and low percentage shots.  Paolo might have single handedly tanked Seoul’s 3% down the stretch. Well, Paolo and Suggsy anyways.

 

Seoul used 30 players this year and had some very good moves. Signing Moussa was a stroke of luck and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back as a keeper next year.  Getting Jabari from Golden for Ajay was a good move too. More blocks and rebounds for Seoul and Jabari is just $1 dollar. Doesn’t hurt when the guy you trade away (Ajay) get hurts right away too. Trading Gafford for Sharpe was basically a wash.  Both missed time due to injury and both had their owners singing their praises in the chatroom.

 

When healthy, the Seoul Cavaliers had Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen and Jaylon Tyson just humming along. Tyson shot 45% from deep for Seoul. Amazing. But as the Cavs got injured or ice-cold, Seoul was greatly impacted. Trey Murphy was having a great year before he got hurt and missed the stretch drive. Suggs was up and down and missed a load of games too. Seoul was close to putting it altogether but close isn’t good enough. Now the question will be around the second thoughts of moving off a generational talent for a 2^nd place JBL finish. If Seoul had kept Flagg would they have finished top 4 and had all the great keepers below AND Cooper Flagg?? Not sure. We’ll never know.

 

Seoul has some very good keepers for next year.  Young VJ Edgecombe will be back and despite his 3^rd place ROY finish, he was very, very good. Keyonte will be back. So should Trey Murphy. What about Jabari (the one who got away) Smith. Not sure why I traded him. Oh right, I wanted more steals and thought Ajay Mitchell would get me those. And he might have if he didn’t miss all those games.

And finally, we move onto the now 12 time champions - Golden Showers.

GOLDEN

What can I say?  It's been a long time between titles in Golden. A long and agonizing wait. But this was the year. When it was summer, Golden was probably the favourite based on the keepers coming back. Then after the Auction, Golden was still a big favourite as I drafted the guys I wanted. And for once, the favourite came through.

As with any JBL title, you're going to need a little luck. And Golden got some. 8 core players ended up playing over 62 games each. Having your best guys healthy all season really does make a difference.

And man-games? Who played the most in the JBL? That's right. Golden. 920 games played. Next closest? Juan de Fuca at 898.

The year was not without challenges as 2 of my keepers failed to live up to expectations. Jalen Williams (30) and Alex Sarr (41) missed a LOT of games. Thankfully, I had some great depth to pick up the slack. And for those two, they will be back next year for redemption. 

Durant, KAT, and Duren were my big draft night acquisitions and they did what they needed to do. Getting 77 games from 37 year old KD was awesome. KAT had one his worst years ever form a 3% perspective, but he led the league in double-doubles and showed up. Duren broke out and averaged 20 and 10 while shooting 65%.  

Having a solid draft is always important but having Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels as keepers and on cheap contracts allowed me to bring in more big names. Johnson is likely an All-NBA player this year and Dyson continued to do his thing as a steals specialist (2.0 per game) while also averaging 12-7-6 and shooting 51%. 

I would say there were 4 others key moves over the course of the draft and season that really impacted the great result.

Drafting CJ McCollum for $13 bucks turned out to a good move after all.  He played 70+ games, shot 37% from deep, and was a steady guy in the lineup every week.

The next 3 moves were in-season...

Ryan Rollins. A $5 dollar free agent find. Just bloody lovely. 17-5-6 with 1.4 steals and shot 47% and 41% in Golden. It's very likely he will be back in Golden next year.

Payton Pritchard. As mentioned above, Pritchard landed in Golden via trade with Bangkok early in the season and he had a fabulous time here. Well done PayPay. 

Jrue Holiday. The moment at Auction when Golden landed LaMelo and Dayton landed Jrue - it was never an IF, it was a WHEN these 2 would be switching places. Jrue played 27 games in Golden and was a steady influence on my %'s. 

There many others who significantly contributed to the big year in Golden.  KyShawn George, Gui Santos, Jarace Walker and then Devin Vassell, Oso Ighodaro, Jabari, Ajay, and even Luke Kornet all spent some time contributing to a dominating season.

Across the 7 JBL categories, Golden finished 1-1-3-5-4-7-2 with the two 1st place finishes in PTS and REBS.   

Did you know that by finishing 1st in PTS got Golden 280 points in the standings.  Did you know Idaho finished with 298 total points across all 7 categories? Just saying. 

Golden finished 900 rebounds ahead of the 2nd best rebounding team (Seoul).  And Seoul finished 900 rebounds ahead of the 13th best rebounding team.  Golden didn't get any extra points for dominating rebounds, but it impressed me. 

I don't have much more to add. It was a great year in Golden. Great keepers. Fantastic draft.  Good in-season moves. And most of the guys stayed healthy. A perfect storm. 

Who's coming back to defend the title? It's very likely Rollins, Dyson, Sarr, J-Dub and my big man Duren. Certainly not bargain basement prices - but all good values to hopefully defend the title. 

Did you know that over the last 6 JBL seasons we've had 6 different champions? Will that trend continue or will Golden be able to grab lucky #13?  

Once the season is archived, the Commish (me) will drop any players from your rosters marked FINAL in their contract years. We'll have our JBL lottery this summer. Golden might even host a little JBL BBQ this summer. But for now, it's time to put JBL 35 to bed and start preparing for JBL 36. 

As always, a big THANK YOU to all of you for making the JBL (and the NBA) so much fun.  Without you, there is no JBL. So thank you again for your time, energy, and passion. 

Long live the JBL.