Idaho
OH Idaho. What a year.
Look at Idaho’s post-draft roster. Big names. And this was after landing Cooper Flagg as the 1st 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 14th, 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 (2nd 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 2nd 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 12th place finish for Juan. It was a ‘nice’ roster. Nothing special, I guess. Best category was 7th and worst was 13th. 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 10th or 11th battle. This was the #1 3-point shooting team in the JBL. Unfortunately, the next best categories were a couple of 7th 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 1st 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 3rd 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 9th 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 8th place finish from Cali. Last year was 10th and the rookie year for Wemby saw Cali finish 2nd. 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 2nd in points (and likely would have been 1st if it wasn’t for Lavine’s injury). 3rd in blocks. 6th in 3%. The issues – LAST in ATO and 11th 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 14th, 14h, 11th, and 14th. So making the jump to 7th 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 6th 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 (2nd 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 6th 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 2nd 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 4th (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 1st 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 (11th) and FG% (9th) 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 (2nd 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 1st in two categories (steals and FG%) and 2nd 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 2nd 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 2nd 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 3rd 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.
