As always, here’s my JBL Year in Review.
14th place – Norfolk n Chance
No one lived up to their team’s name more than the Doctor this season. Disaster. Period. Of course, it didn’t help that he drafted Steven Adams who was lost for the season before it even began. Then the Doctor moved his prized rookie Ausar Thompson for gangster Ja Morant. Again, didn’t work out so well. And finally, to make matters even worse, he traded for Zach LaVine who then immediately got hurt and was lost for the season.
Even a dynamic duo of Jokic (easily team MVP) and Tatum couldn’t save this team from the toilet bowl.
The only saving grace is that the Doctor gets a clean slate for 24/25 while also having 14 lottery balls (13.3% chance at #1 overall rookie pick).
Keep the faith Norfolk. Onwards and upwards. The grass might be greener. Use whatever motivational quotes you want here Norfolk. It can only get better.
13th place – Maui Ribs
Maui’s season was destroyed by injuries (and wildfires). Embiid played just 36 JBL games for Maui. Mobley played 49, Bane just 41, CP3 58, and Jacquez Jr just 44. It’s hard to do well when your studs miss so much time. The 13th place finish means some hard decisions around the 1 keeper and 1 ‘Plus One’ keeper spots.
Clearly, Evan Mobley should be back but that means Coby White’s breakout (and Maui MVP) season is lost. White finished at 19-5-5 and shot 37.7% from deep. And is it Jeremy Sochan or Jaime Jacquez Jr for the plus one keeper spot?
Despite the 13th place finish, Maui did finish 1st in ATO and set the JBL record for the best ATO of all-time.
Small victories Maui. Better luck next season.
12th place – Chilliwack Offs
On paper, you would think this team would have been much better. Klay, Zion, Garland, Cade, Beal, Simons, Wiggins, Poeltl, Brook, etc. All of that added up to 12th place. And for the longest time, it was the basement.
Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis were the anchors of this squad playing 79 & 82 games respectively. The Wack was top 6 in three categories but horrible in the other four categories. I imagine Brook will be back as a keeper for next season.
I’ll give the Wack MVP to Brook because of his ‘availability’, his cheap salary and the massive amount of blocks. I’m not sure who the 2nd keeper will be for this squad. It’s slim pickings from this group.
The Wack does have 12 lottery balls in this year’s rookie draft but is already rumored to be open to moving his rookie pick (or if he wasn’t, we all think he is now). You’re welcome.
Back to the drawing board for the Wack this offseason.
11th place – Golden Showers
The worst team finish since the JBL 20 Vegas Gay Love (Rudy & Kevin) debacle (12th place). Every trade Golden made was a disaster. And that’s not a good thing considering Golden made 10 deals this past year. Team MVP goes to Jalen Williams who will back next season. Jalen Johnson was a great $1-dollar draft pick and will also be returning. The rest of the roster was mostly garbage.
The only saving grace is having 5 draft picks (2 firsts, 3 seconds) in apparently the worst NBA draft in the last 25 years. Note the sarcasm. Golden will essentially have 28 balls in this lottery (26.7% chance at #1 overall).
Knowing that, I expect to get picks 7 and 9 as a result.
10th place – Dayton Yer Daughters
Dayton climbs another rung in the JBL standings ladder. While not much better than last season, he now can claim to have finished better than 3 former JBL champs this season. LaMelo will be back but I’m told is on thin ice after only managing 20 games this season and missing most of last season as well. Malik Monk could be the 2nd keeper for the squad but that could change. The star ‘plus one’ keeper is of course Chet Holmgren. We should note that Chet did play all 82 games after missing the entire season last year. Kudos to Chet.
Dayton’s MVP is obviously AD and that’s just for playing 76 games alone!! Never mind that he averaged 25 and 12 with 1.2 steals and 2.3 blocks while shooting 53%. Stud. How much will he go for auction next year knowing that he just played the most NBA games in his 12 year NBA career? Buyer beware.
9th place – Arctic Circle Jerks
It feels like this Arctic squad was better than a 9th place team. Curry, Giannis, Kyrie and Markkanen. Studs. Add in the trio of RJ, Brooks, and Dort for some Canadian flair. How about Hartenstein’s breakout season? Very impressive and he may have earned himself an extension in the frozen tundra. I’m not sure Ivey or Giddey progressed as much as hoped but I could see both being on Arctic’s radar in the future. Steals (11th) and ATO (13th) were the biggest challenges this season while the team managed to finish 3rd in FG%.
MVP goes to Giannis for 73 games played and the 30 and 11.5 while shooting 61% and getting over a steal and block per game. He’s a monster. Arctic has no rookie picks in the upcoming draft (Golden thanks you) so will be relying on another strong draft night performance as well as Markkanen and Hartenstein as likely keepers.
8th place – Idaho Udapimps
Idaho peaked too early. Simple as that. In Week 3, Idaho was in last place with 218 points. 3 weeks later he was in 8th place with 691 points. Another 3 weeks and he was up to 6th and 852 points. And by Week 11, January 2024, he was in 3rd place at 902 points. And then his team went into cruise control and never could get over the hump. Idaho made 8 trades this year. He did well in many of them acquiring some big names along the way. So much emphasis on scoring had Idaho finishing 2nd in scoring but 12th in steals and 12th in blocks. His once 1st place 3PT% also fell off to finish 8th (this trend will repeat for another team later on).
Idaho has some great options for keepers as Ant Edwards and Paolo Banchero should be locks to be back. For the 3rd spot, is it someone like Sexton (for $14) or should James Harden (for $27) get a look? What about Corey Kispert for $6? Lots of decisions for Idaho this offseason. Idaho’s draft night pick swap trade with Golden looms larger than it did 3 months ago. Idaho will have 8 balls in the hopper now (which Golden could claim if Idaho strikes gold).
7th place – Bellingham N Eggers
The Eggers were 1st place in 3%, 3rd in scoring, and 5th in steals. However, it was the ‘Bigs’ categories where Ham fell short – 11th in rebounds, 11th in blocks and 12th in FG% (this despite trading for Gobert half way through the season). The dynamic duo of Luka and KD certainly led this team in many ways this season. Add in very positive years from Naz Reid, Brandon Miller, and CJ McCollum and you can see why this team hung around all year.
MVP has to go to Luka for this squad since he was 34-9-10 while shooting 49/38 – damn impressive. As mentioned, rebounds were an issue all year as after Gobert and Luka, it was KD’s 6.6 rebounds a game as the next best on the squad. A little more balance in the big man stats and this squad could continue to rise in the JBL standings.
Not sure who the keepers will be for this squad beyond the obvious Plus One in Brandon Miller. Does Shaeden Sharpe at $9 make sense? What about Naz Reid for $12? DeAndre Hunter for $8? CJ for $24? Lots of options really. Or does Ham bring back a big name like Luka or Gobert?
6th place – Juan de Fuca Yo Mamas
Juan set the all-time scoring record in the JBL with 15,862 points scored this season. The old record was 15,610 set by Bangkok back in 2009/10. Juan was also 1st in steals this year. Unfortunately, 10th, 10th, 11th and 14th in four other categories did not get them enough points to scare the top 4 money spots. Losing Scottie Barnes was a big blow for the squad certainly, but this team did manage to hang around all year.
MVP goes to De’Aaron Fox for his 26-5-5 season with 2 steals a game. While the Kings may have fallen off, Fox remained a stud. Juan was deep this year as guys like DeRozan, Wagner, Jaylen Brown, Kuzma, and Capela all played big roles. I loved what Aaron Nesmith brought to the table as a role player too.
I think Juan has the most 3 obvious locks for keepers in Scottie B, Wagner and Ausar. A nice little trio for them to start off 24/25.
5th place – Brussels Muscles
This is the 2nd year in a row that Brussels entered the final day of the season in the top 4 and ultimately ended up in 5th place. This one might sting a little bit more as Brussels has 5 excellent keepers but now only has 4 spots available. Between Sengun, Scoot, Amen, Kessler and Lively – one must go. Not an easy decision. And if there is a coin flip involved, we should livestream that event.
The ‘punt points’ model that Brussels won his 1st JBL title was employed here again this year. It almost worked too as this squad was top 6 in FIVE JBL categories. Being 14th in scoring though meant they needed to be better than 10th in rebounding. For most of the year, Brussels had 5 centers on the roster and it was always interesting to see which 3 he would start week to week. Some weeks he was right and sometimes not so much.
My MVP for this squad is Alpi Sengun. He’s not even 22 yet and putting up insane numbers.
4th place – French Lick Legends
4th place? Say what? The 9-year run of 5 titles and 4 2nd place finishes is over. Holy cow. Amazing. Did we figure out French’s kryptonite? Doing an auction in a room with other JBL owners; having the World Series game on; having his 2 boys running around; with pizza and beer galore? Is that all it takes to stop the mighty French? OK, let’s do that again.
So what happened? Why the fall from grace? This team was 12th in rebounds and French is usually one of the best rebounding teams. In fact, did you know that French is the record holder for the top 3 rebounding performances in JBL history?
That said, I’m going to bet that French wasn’t thrilled with Mikal Bridges’ performance. Decent numbers but not outstanding. Is JJJ living up to the hype? 32% from downtown doesn’t help.
Derrick White is my MVP from this roster. A $9 dollar keeper that put up 15-4-5 with 74 steals and 87 blocks while shooting 46/40 and a 3.366 ATO. Yummy. He will be back in French next season. But who else will be joining him? Did Keyonte George earn the Plus One keeper spot? Surely DiVincenzo will be back for $7 bucks. Another JJJ year for $20 bucks? Booker for $39? French has some options, as always.
I will say it’s nice to see the top 2 streak come to and end. This might mean he’s mortal after all.
3rd place – Bangkok Fighters
One of the offseason favourites. A pre and post auction favourite. A team that was in 1st from week 11 to week 22. Everything seemed aligned to see the Kok hoist his first ever JBL title. So, what went wrong? Well, lucky for you guys, I’ve taken the time to dive deeper on this.
In Period 17 (Feb 12-18), the Kok was at 1081 points. This is driven mostly by being 1st in three categories (3PT%, ATO and FG%). Kok was also 3rd in rebounds, 7th in points and steals and 8th in steals. By the end of the season, the biggest drop off was in 3PT% where they were now 9th place and in ATO where they finished 4th. That’s a 143 point drop in those 2 categories alone!
So, what the heck happened in 3PT%? The Kok was at 38.4% in mid-February and they finished at 36.8%. Looking at the last month or so of the season shows that there were some prime offenders here. Haliburton shot 34.5% on 8 attempts and GG Jackson shot 35% on 8 attempts in their last 15 games. Even Avdija (33%) and SGA (23%) were culprits on their 4 attempts per game. A collective collapse in 3%.
Of course, the ifs and buts and what ifs are always there. If the Kok had Mark Williams or Julius Randle for more time they would have likely been a lot better in some areas too.
I’ve got SGA as the MVP of this roster as his all-round game is something else.
As often discussed, having Ant, Hailburton, Murray, McDaniels and Williams as keepers makes a big difference to start the year. Great keepers and rookies who can contribute (Coulibaly) right away does wonders. Adding SGA and Sabonis as cornerstones really allowed this team to contend all season. Kok did a great job at finding quality role players as well this season. Jalen Smith (10-5, 43% from deep), Simone Fontecchio (14ppg on 47/42 with Kok), Taylor Hendricks, and Terrence Mann provided some quality games over the year. In the end, it was the 3PT% that killed the Kok’s chances. I blame Tyrese.
Kok’s keepers for next season will look a lot different than this past year as he will have younger and cheaper talents on his roster. Is it Avdija, Kuminga, Coulibaly and Bad Back Williams? Will he also protect SGA or Sabonis? Or both?
2nd place – Cali Fornication
It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen this kind of impact from rookie. I don’t need to say anything about how good Wembanyama was for Cali. I will say that it’s a bit ironic that it was Bangkok who drew Cali’s ping pong ball which starts Cali down a potential dynasty path here. Wemby’s stats are off the charts good. Like Olajuwon good. Insane. Cali’s title window is officially open for the next 4 years.
That said, let’s look at some of the other names that Cali drafted this season.
Lebron James – 71 games, 26-7-8 on 54/41 (best ever 3% in his career) and loads of steals and blocks.
Paul George - 74 games, 22-5-4 on 47/41 with 1.5 steals
Jarrett Allen – 77 games, 16-10 on 63% and 1 block
Herb Jones – 73 games, 11ppg on 50/42 with 104 steals and 62 blocks
Donovan Mitchell – 49 games, 28-5-6 on 47/37 and 1.88 stls
Where am I going with all this? Well Cali drafted a REALLY good squad. I didn’t even mention guys like Ayton, Quickley, Jabari, KCP, D-Lo, etc. This was a talented and deep team and then he gets a Unicorn season from Wemby (who says he was about 15% of how good he can be) so we can see why Cali was the 2nd best team in the JBL this year.
This team was also very healthy for the most part with 5 guys playing over 70 JBL teams for Cali. Games played and availability is often required for JBL success. That said, Cali played the 3rd LEAST number of man-games this season.
Usually, we talk about a strong crop of keepers for a JBL team. For Cali, he’s got Wemby and 4 other guys. Whether it's Quickley or Allen or Lebron or whoever. It's Wemby's team now and we're all just living in it.
Well done Cali on the most successful year in your JBL history.
1st place – Seoul Brothers
This is JBL title number 6 for Seoul. This was an extremely well-balanced team as they were top 6 in EVERY category. 1132 points is very impressive.
How did Seoul do it? Well, a decent draft, some outstanding FA signings and numerous crafty trades got the job done. Jalen Brunson led the way with 28ppg on 48/41 shooting and 2.790 ATO. To support Brunzy, Seoul had guys like Vucevic, Porzingis, Gafford, Dejounte (multiple times), Rozier, etc throughout the year doing their thing.
A couple of key acquisitions in my mind was signing Free Agent old man Grayson Allen for $6 bucks (dropped by Norfolk) and signing free agent Alex Caruso for $2 bucks (dropped by Dayton). They are the ultimate role players for JBL rosters. We talk about these types of guys every year. You gotta have them on your team.
While Cali’s team was primarily built through the draft, Seoul’s roster was greatly enhanced via trades. Seoul made 15 trades this season. More than any other JBL team. Let’s look at some of them.
Seoul gets John Collins, Dejounte Murray, Kristaps Porzingis
Brussels gets Zion, Claxton, Tyus Jones, Fultz
As mentioned, Dejounte and Porzingis played key roles for Seoul this season.
Seoul gets Daniel Gafford
Wack gets Valanciunas and Klay
I’ll bet many of us thought the Wack was getting the better of this deal. But Gafford turned out to be a star for Seoul and will likely be a keeper for them.
Seoul turned Dejounte and John Collins into Anthony Edwards, Khris Middleton and Biyombo (from Bangkok)
Seoul then turned Anthony Edwards into KAT (from Idaho) and essentially turned KAT into Bam Adebayo (from Golden).
Seoul turned Bojan Bogdanovic into Draymond Green.
Seoul turned Fultz into Trey Murphy. (not Golden’s best work)
Seoul turned Dejounte into Jamal Murray.
Did you know that Seoul and Bangkok completed 5 separate trades this past season? Did you also know that Seoul and Kok traded Dejounte Murray back and forth 3 times? Anyways...
Morale of the story.
Building a JBL winner via trades is possible.
Building a JBL winner via keepers and the rookie draft.
Also, clearly possible.
Well done Seoul on JBL Title #6.
I will leave you all with some random thoughts and stats from JBL 33.
• Juan de Fuca played the most man games at 925
• Brussels played the least number of man games at 852
• Seoul was the best team in a Period 6 times (Weeks 16, 17, 20, 22, 23, 25)
• Idaho won 4 weeks, Bangkok and French won 3 weeks each
• 29 NBA rookies appeared on JBL rosters this season
• Buddy Hield played in 84 NBA games this season
• 17 NBA players played in all 82 (or 84) games
• The gap between 1st place Boston and 2nd place New York was 14 wins
• The gap between 1st place OKC and 10th place Sacramento was 11 wins
• 13 different Trail Blazers spent time on JBL rosters (most of any team)
• 7 JBL teams spent all of their FA money
• The average number of players used per JBL team was 31 players
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• Golden employed the most players (44) with Brussels (41), Bangkok (40) and Seoul (40) next
• Maui used just 20 players last season with Bellingham (22) and Cali (24) close behind
• Maui was the only JBL team not to make a trade this year
• Xavier Tillman was signed as a free agent by Idaho for $110 FA dollars. He played 3 games for Idaho.
Gentlemen – that’s it for me for another season. I’m looking forward to the NBA playoffs, the NBA lottery, our JBL lottery, the NBA draft, and the offseason banter. Thanks to all of you for making the JBL so much fun each year.
Long live the JBL.
