Deadline Wimper...

The 21st JBL Keeper Trade Deadline day was about as exciting as a Titanic 2 movie would be. Only French and Idaho hooked up on a deal. All was quiet elsewhere in the league. Boring!

I'm on holidays this week (Spring Break) so I thought I would take a couple of minutes to break down last week's activities.

Idaho got St. Patty's day rolling with the acquisition of Ricky Rubio from Juan for Carlos Boozer. This must have been a difficult decision for Juan to make as Rubio is a wicked keeper for next season. However, they did the right thing and went for the big man Booz to help them in their quest for the title. Win first - keepers second.

Idaho and French hooked up on an 11th hour monster deal with French getting Rondo, Anderson, and Gerald Wallace for Bynum, Devin Harris, and Markieff Morris. That deal put French way over the salary cap and he had to make some additional moves. Early this morning French acquired Mike Conley from Yuma for Steve Nash. Nice to see Yuma still reads trade offers. And then French called up Trevor Ariza from his farm team (also known as Brussels) and demoted S-Jax and Caron Butler. That's French and Brussels 8th trade this season. I remember when everyone thought Trev and I were 'convenient' trade partners. For the record - Trev and I have zero deals this season. I think that notion can be laid to rest. And hey, I'm not against French and Brussels making deals - if no one else is active in the trade market - why not make a deal? Good on ya.

So, what does this all mean for French? I think it means he's the favorite to win it all. Yes, I realize he has no blocks at all and will lose 13 points in that category. However, he now has the highest scoring team in the JBL and should be able to move up in this category. I would say his minimum gain would be 40 points and he could gain 100 points. He will be 1st in ATO (another 13 points). He should also lead the league in steals now and can gain 65 points in that category. When it's all said and done French should be approaching the 1100 point plateau. I mean, just read his lineup, it's crazy good. If he does win the title - do we give Brussels an assist? And I'm sure French knows he's short on blocks so I would expect Chris Kaman to get called up shortly. We should all be so lucky to have a farm team....

Idaho has sold the farm and now has 4 potential keepers for next season - Bynum, Rubio, Harden, and Jordan. He's also at $167 bucks and has this week to acquire some salary and get to the salary cap floor. This is a new rule provision (10.09) in the JBL Constitution (still being worked on) and I would expect Idaho to sign Andrew Bogut and his $47 dollar price tag to get up to the floor. Idaho is currently 7th (which means 3 keepers) so the rest of us will already get a shot at one of those guys for next year. In my opinion that would be Harden as the other 3 guys are more valuable at their current price. Where it gets interesting is that Idaho has 714 points and Montreal, currently in 9th, has 603 points. Can Idaho be at risk of falling to 9th and only being able to protect 2 players? If that's the case - looks like DeAndre Jordan would become available to the rest of us at Auction too. So...we'll watch the Idaho squad and see what happens. I will say this - Idaho did a good job at getting guys for next season. He has the top center keeper and probably the best PG option. Great work Tuna.

So where was everyone else on this final day to get keepers for next season? I know I only had a couple of offers from Bangkok (not good ones I might add) and one from Montreal (decent but not earth shattering). I had a couple of feelers from Idaho - but nothing major. And I admit, I didn't make very many offers as 4 other teams are in title contention. So, that only left 8 teams in play. I guess the days of the JBL keeper trade deadline being a busy one are gone. We're all old and in bed by 10pm. Or, we're disinterested and just don't care. Or maybe I'm overselling the day? Maybe this pool is just that...a pool. It's not considered by many a Dynasty league where one season rolls to the next. It's just another fantasy pool that 5-6 guys pay attention to and the others are there for draft night and along for the ride.

Just going back to Bangkok's offers for a second. I just saw Idaho give up Rondo, Anderson, and Wallace for Andrew Bynum. The Bangkok offer to Golden was a 3 for 2 deal where he wanted to acquire Gortat and Jack. He was offering 3 players. The best of those players was Tony Parker and the other 2 probably aren't worth mentioning - but I will. Let's just say one guy's season average is 9ppg and 4reb and the other guy averages 6ppg. I could have found similar players on the waiver wire. So, Bangkok's offer was essentially Tony Parker for Marcin Gortat and Jarrett Jack? If that was the attempt to get trade negotiations underway - it didn't work. Sorry. Had you started with Howard and Parker for Gortat and Jack - we would have been cooking.

So - it's week 13 and there are actually only 6 weeks left in the JBL season. You'll see an additional column has been added on the roster screen. The column is 'KEEPER' and that status will either be 'Y' or 'NO'. Any roster moves from today on will result in the player losing keeper status. Of course, guys in the final year of their contract will also have a status of NO. And finally, Wilson Chandler has the status of 'NOT YET'. Because Chandler was signed as a JBL Free Agent he must play 20 NBA games to be eligible for protection (Rule 5.10). Now, that being said, he just signed with Denver and they have 21 games remaining. If he plays in 20 games - Chandler will be eligible for protection.

Our next major date is the standard TRADE DEADLINE. This is Sunday, April 1st. So yes, as we've seen this morning, trades are still permitted up until midnight of April 1st. Free Agents can still be signed up until the end of the season.

Good luck to all. We have 5 title contenders in my opinion. We have a Toilet Bowl dog fight between Maui and Brussels. We have an Arctic battling to get into 10th for the extra keeper spot (since he's loaded with cheap talent). We have the Idaho free-fall watch on to see if his team falters after being gutted. And we have 5 title contenders. One of those 5 teams isn't going to win; is going to finish out of the money; and only get 3 keepers. Welcome to 5th place. Triple kick to the nuts. Another 3 owners are going to be extremely disappointed because they have very good teams and they are going to come up short. Go back over the past seasons and find me one where there are 5 teams in contention. You won't find one. We have the makings of the greatest stretch drive we've ever seen in the JBL. Hang on for the ride.

Week 11 Roundup...

Well, here we are at the end of week 11. The Wack is back in 1st place and we are just 7 days away from the keeper deadline (March 18th). What's cool about the deadline this year is that we are actually following the NBA trade deadline (March 15th). Usually, in years gone by - the keepers are locked and loaded by the All-Star break (Feb 20ish). So, we'll actually be able to react to some of the moves that the NBA teams make...

So, I thought I would just quickly ramble on about a few things from week 11 and looking forward to the home stretch. Let's start with the NBA and JBL keeper trade deadlines. There will likely be a number of NBA/JBL players who's stock will skyrocket if they get traded by the 15th. Here are just a few that I think will likely be moved by the NBA trade deadline on Thursday.

• Roddy Beaubois - I'll start with my own team because I'm really hoping the Mavs give up on the kid and they move him on somewhere so he can get 35 minutes and see what he can do.
• Chris Kaman - will the Hornets trade him? Will that hurt or help his value? He's been doing very well for Brussels as of late
• Stephen Jackson - French is holding on to him in hopes he gets moved. He's had a horrible season and a trade could make him somewhat valuable again - although those %'s are pretty scary.
• Kirk Hinrich - Maui has him and I'm sure Trev hopes he gets moved to a team where he can start and play a lot of minutes. Although, check out his line tonight. Not too shabby.
• Ramon Sessions - Arctic hopes he gets moved out from behind Kyrie in Cleveland. Arctic always seems to have Sessions. Maybe he'll end up with the Lakers?
• Boris Diaw - Big Mac had a wicked start to the season and now can't get off the bench for a 5-34 team. No, seriously, he can't get off the bench. He's huge. No way he can play.
• Jose Calderon - will the Raps trade him? His ATO is off the charts. Will Bayless becomes the starter? Will Calderon be able to duplicate his amazing numbers on another team?
• Michael Beasley - clearly the T-Pups don't need him. Until Rubio got hurt I was thinking they could make the playoffs. Now, they should move Beez and reload for next season.
• The Wizards - what will they do? They are a bunch of malcontents. Blatche must go. You have to move either Crawford or Young. McGee only likes playing sometimes. The Wiz could make some changes and that could mean for some new rotations. Stay tuned.
• Jamal Crawford - Nate's about to get fired and Crawford will surely opt out of his contract this summer. So...you might as well get something for him. I'm sure the Clippers would like a shooting guard for the playoff drive. And gee, the Blazers could use a PG - how about Bledsoe?
• OJ Mayo - will the Grizz finally move him? He's been rumored to be leaving forever. It actually seems like he could be a 16-18ppg guy with minutes but you know you're in trouble when you can't beat out Tony Allen for playing time.

I'm sure there are plenty more but we'll leave at that for now...

Now, onto the week that was....week 11.

Juan was dealt a crushing blow when Rubio tore his ACL. Although, their FG% will likely go up as a result - but they lose a lot of steals with Ricky going down for the year.

Kevin Love averaged 33 and 16 this week. Holy cow.

I think we can officially say that Josh Smith is a top 10 Fantasy player overall. He's even become the go-to-guy at the end of games for the Hawks. Guys a stud.

I'm starting to think that Stephon Curry will be retired in under 3 years. Seriously, the guy cannot stay healthy. It's unbelievable. How many times has he sprained his ankle since he came in the league? 50?

Will Brussels be able to get out of the basement? He's not that far behind the Maui squad. He has to be playing for pride right? He certainly doesn't want to have the honour of finishing last in the JBL standings. Although, the baseball pool draft is this Friday so I'm thinking Timmy will be focusing on that. What Timmy should be doing is grabbing one super duper keeper and trying to get to 12th. Or, he should be acquiring another rookie pick from a contending team. Although, that would be hard to do with his salary at $205. Would a team like Juan De Fuca, who just lost Rubio, be willing to trade their lottery pick for Mo Williams? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Will Yuma and MBB do anything by the trade deadline? Pat and Bob have both been very quiet this season. I think I saw one offer from Pat this year and I can't recall getting any trade offers from Bob. Although, Idaho and French both mentioned trade offers - so, it's nice to know they are alive. Yuma has potential keepers in Conley, Humphries and Jennings so maybe he won't be that active at the deadline. MBB doesn't have any rock star keepers - but he does have the biggest chip of them all to play. Lebron! Will he move him for keepers? Can he get Bynum and Lawson out of French? Would French do that? Or maybe Bob is considering protecting Lebron for $77 bucks. We'll see...

And what will Montreal do? They are in the top 8 - which means 3 keepers - although if they fell to 9th or 10th they would only be able to protect 2 guys. The Poutang is loaded with good values (Kyrie, Lin, Gasol, Batum, Udoh) so maybe they tries to leverage a couple of those guys to secure a top 8 spot.

And what will the current top 4 teams do? Seoul doesn't have much in terms of cheap talent that he could leverage to make a final push. I think Woo's team is what it is. And I will say this...it's still a scary team. Currently at 898 points, Seoul could easily get over 1000 points on the season. He has room to move in a lot of the categories and has filled his team with stat stuffers.

Juan is currently at 913 and they too could get over 1000 points for the season. Juan could also leverage the injured Ricky Rubio in a trade and push for top spot. Wouldn't a team like Yuma or MBB or Arctic all want a piece of Rubio for next year? He's an awesome keeper. Juan will use Corey Maggette (JBL bench player of the week) as a replacement in an attempt to track down the Wack and Golden in scoring. That's 40 points right there.

Golden is at 977 and could move some in FG% and blocks maybe. Golden is planning on going with a foreign keeper lineup for next season with Gortat, Pekovic, Ilyasova, and Biyombo. Now, that could change on a couple of fronts. Right now, Biyombo is listed as a F/C. Will he be just a Center next season because he's getting the starts there currently? If he is, he's stuck behind Eastern Promises and I should try to leverage him in a deal. Anyone have any foreigners who can block shots for cheap?? Also, what if Bangkok came a knocking with a Dwight Howard for Marcin Gortat trade offer? That might change everything. What I will likely try to do at the deadline is acquire another PG as my ATO is slipping with the trade of Lowry a couple weeks back.

Chilliwack is back over 1000 points and has a good lead in rebounding. His lead in blocks is evaporating a bit as Seoul inches closer. Also, it looks like Kyle Lowry has some sort of bacterial infection (it hurts when he pees maybe) so Benny will have to sub in the ever improving Evan Turner (see his line today?). The Wack also has a number of great potential keepers to leverage in trades (McGee, Turner, George, Chalmers, etc) if necessary.

So, this is it, the big week. This is where the teams can gather assets and prepare for next season and those title contenders can load up and go for the win. What category will you fall into? Will you sit back and wait for offers to come to you? Or will you be aggressive and make shit happen? Of the current top 4 teams I think Juan, Golden, and Chilliwack are best positioned to make a move. Seoul just doesn't have that super keeper to offer up. Juan can trade Rubio, Cousins, or Knight. Golden could offer up any one of his foreigners if it landed a big fish. And the Wack could leverage McGee/Turner/George to land some big names. It's gonna be a fun week. Enjoy!

French, Idaho and Golden...oh my.

Today is March 8th. The keeper trade deadline is Sunday, March 18th. Yet, it was a busy Thursday evening in the JBL and both French and Golden went Brian Burke and Mike Gillis and made their big splashes way before the deadline day.

French moved one of the top centre keepers in DeAndre Jordan. In return, French landed Chris Bosh and Devin Harris. From Idaho's perspective, this is clearly a move for 2012/13. Jordan is one of the top Centre keepers ($11 bucks in 2012/13). Jordan is shooting 65% and averaging 8ppg, 9reb, and has 91 blocks so far. Idaho seems locked into a top 8 spot but will have to work hard to hold onto that spot so he can keep 3 players for next season. Idaho gave up a lot of scoring in this deal. Idaho is building around Harden, Jordan, and now another new keeper that he acquired just hours later.

French gets Bosh (19 and 8) and another PG to shore up his ATO. This was a good move for French as he's currently 11th in scoring and could move up significantly with this move. I like this trade for both teams as Tuna has realized his Idaho squad isn't going to win the title so he may as well get some good keepers. French is hoping for a top 4 finish and acquired the scoring PF he so desperately wanted all along. And for keepers, French still has Bynum, Lawson, Teague, Aldridge, etc to consider for next season.

Shortly after this deal went down Idaho and Golden finally agreed to a deal that could have been done many trade offers earlier. All day Golden and Idaho went back and forth about Ilyasova and others. The whole push behind this deal was Golden. I wanted Ersan Ilyasova so I could have the opportunity to protect these 4 players for next season:

• Ersan Ilyasova $1 - 6'10, 235, Turkey, 24 years old
• Nikola Pekovic $7 - 6'11, 290, Montenegro, 26 years old
• Marcin Gortat $15 - 6'11, 240, Poland, 28 years old
• Bismack Biyombo $1 - 6'9, 230, Zaire, 19 years old (maybe)

Many (10+) different offers went back and forth during the day. I could almost tell that this Anderson for Ilyasova was where we would land ultimately - but we both wanted as much as we could from the deal.

Anderson and Ilyasova both have associated risks and similarities. Both are having breakout seasons. Both have unknowns surrounding whether they can keep it up. Will Anderson still put up 16 and 7 if Dwight leaves town? Would he still lead the NBA in 3 pointers made if D12 wasn't down low? Will Ersan keep getting extended minutes from Scott Skiles? What happens when Bogut comes back? Will Ersan even be a starter next year in Milwaukee if Bogut is healthy?

This is a bit of a risk for Golden giving up Anderson because he is the main reason that Golden is 4th in 3PT%. Can Golden stay in front of the other 4 teams that are just 1.0% behind him in that category? Why did I make this trade? Well, a couple of reasons. Number 1 - who wouldn't want 4 foreign keepers for cheap that are actually pretty impressive ballers right now? And number 2 - Ilyasova has been very hot over the last month of the NBA season. And number 3 - it's fun to trade to players and see how they do on your team. Here I am. battling the star studded Wack team for top spot and I'm still making roster moves. It's fun.

Check out Ryan Anderson's numbers over the last month.

16ppg, 8reb, 1.0stl, 44FG%, 41% from downtown. And for you tendex lovers - over his last 10 games his tendex is 19.1 and on the season it's 18.7. And, as mentioned, Anderson leads the NBA in 3-pointers made! I sure hope I don't miss his 3PT% as much as I think I will.

Check out Ersan Ilyasova's numbers over the last month.

17ppg, 11reb, 0.9blk, 52FG%, 43% from downtown. His tendex for last 10? 23.9. And on the season? 15.5. Both Ersan and Ryan are great potential keepers for next season.

Idaho now has James Harden, Ryan Anderson and DeAndre Jordan for a combined $31 dollars. His challenge will be to stay in 8th or higher and be able to keep all 3 guys.

Golden will potentially have his 4 foreigners for a combined $44 bucks if he can finish top 4. Sounds like the basis of a great theme team in Golden for 2012/13.

French, currently in 7th and just 120 points out of 4th, hopes he can move up in the standings and get into the money while also still being locked and loaded with cheap studs for next season. How about a combo of Bynum, Lawson and Teague for starters for just$51 bucks? I like that core group a lot.

So, the trades are underway...Idaho jumped early and has acquired Jordan and Anderson. There are lots of other good potential keepers out there for next season. Who will make the next move? Will we see the big flurry of deals in the next 10 days? Only time will tell....

More Golden Moves...

Despite countless offers from Idaho in Oregon I was actually able to make 2 trades before Sunday was finished.

The first move was Thornton for Dudley. The Kok gets scoring and steals and Golden gets FG%, 3PT% and ATO. Win-win.

The 2nd move, the one everyone is surely talking about, is the Brook Lopez for Nikola Pekovic trade. Lopez was injured Sunday afternoon while Deron was dropping 57. My infatuation with Pekovic remained and I looked at the Arctic roster. He has a number of keepers and is unlikely to be able to protect them all. So, I wanted to leverage Brook's abilities to see if I could get Pekovic. Why? Because Pekovic and Gortat as a Center combo is too good to pass up. Eastern Promises. The scariest Center tandem ever assembled in the JBL perhaps?

My trade offer to Arctic included 3 lines of comments surrounding the Lopez injury. I didn't know the extent of Lopez's injury at the time and neither did many news outlets. But I did tell Arctic about the injury in my offer, twice. Whether he was willing to accept the risk was up to him. I also mentioned my passion to pair Pekovic with Gortat and have this Eastern-block frontline.

When Arctic accepted the deal (7:50am this morning) there was still no word on the extent of Lopez's injury. Crikker's comments when he accepted the deal were...

"sure, Peko's all yours... I understand the lure of a foreign center combo... it makes me salivate as well"

So, this is probably a good example to bring up about Marko's point making trades involving injured parties. I informed Arctic of the injury. I didn't hide it. The risk is then transferred to the accepting team to do their due diligence. Unfortunately for Arctic, Lopez will be out 3 weeks or so due to the ankle sprain.

I'm sure many of you noticed how the JBL Gods handle these scenarios though right? Pekovic is in my active lineup and is now missing tonight's game due to injury. Funny how these things always seem to work out.

So, the Showers are now looking at a very foreign lineup for next season potentially. Gortat, Pekovic and Biyombo. Looks like a theme team is being assembled....

Portland - Part 2

Saturday morning arrived early for me as I was on the pullout couch. Not the best sleep I've ever had. I also had concerns over where I had left my shoes for some reason. Our morning began around 10am when we headed downstairs to the Arcadian Gardens for a glance at the 'free' breakfast the Embassy was offering. Holy crapola. We found an omelet station and all the major food groups represented. It was like being at an all-inclusive resort. Needless to say - they didn't make any money off the 3 of us that morning. We put away a lot of bacon!

The rest of the day was spent touring the city - including a stop at the the mighty Dick's Sporting Goods. French and Idaho thought I was taking them to the American version of SportChek. Well, anyone who's been to Dick's, knows this is like comparing Chris Mullin to Andre Iguodala. It's not a good comparison. Dick's could be the greatest sporting store of all time!! We spent probably almost an hour soaking up the wicked tax free deals Dick's had to offer. And of course, you could hear us with our many off the cuff comments like, "God I love Dicks" and "Dicks are the best".

The afternoon brought us North Carolina vs. Duke from our room while we discussed a variety of trade offers involving, again, Devin Harris, Marcus Thornton, and Jason Terry. These went nowhere.

At 5pm we went back down to the Arcadian Gardens to continue with the awesome ritual of free binge drinking. We were able to put 4-5 drinks back in the hour we were there. At 6pm we strolled down to the MAX train (free I might add) and headed over to the Rose Garden for the 7pm tipoff between the Blazers and T-Wolves.

Our seats were in section 218. Club Level. The seats were given to me by a buddy of mine who has connections in the Beer Industry. Club Level seats means all your food is included with your ticket. I was thinking this meant I could get a hot dog, some nachos and a coke. Boy, was I wrong. The spread was amazing. Roast beef, shrimp cocktail, garlic mashed potatoes, tempura beans, pizza, ice cream, chocolate bars, licorice, etc. It was a frikkin' smorgasbord of items. Unreal. And the seats were amazing too. About 20 rows up, sideline, and level with the baseline. If you ever go to a Blazer game - its worth the money to get Club Level seats.

The game itself was very entertaining. The T-Wolves were amazing. 40 first quarter points. Love had a monster game. 42 and 10 I think. Wallace, Batum and Crawford also had monster games. Rubio had 10 assists in the 1st quarter and is waaaay better than I thought he ever would be. Martell Webster was re-energized and went for 20 and 8. Joel Pryzbilla received a standing ovation anytime he did anything. But that's not what the 3 of us were most impressed with. We all fell in love with one player. Nikola Pekovic. Dude is a monster. Huge. And scary looking too. From that 1st quarter onwards - we all knew we would be making Arctic an offer for this man. Even if he only had 9pts and 4rebs - we were all going after this beast. He's just fun to cheer for. (More on Pekovic later)

Sunday morning came early as we needed to get on the road by 8am. We were all still in a food coma but each of us did manage to get a dozen doughnuts from the world famous Voodoo Doughnuts at 7am. Left the Embassy Suites at 8:08am and arrived at the Truck Crossing at 12:39pm. One stop at Starbucks in Tumwater. So, anyone who says Portland is too far away - if you can go to Kelowna in 4.5 hours - you can go to Portland in the same amount of time.

Great trip. One of the best I've been on. I can't believe how much stuff we got for free. I highly recommend the Embassy Suites for all your hotel needs. Thank French and Idaho - I enjoyed it. Until next time.

Portland All-Inclusive - Part 1

Well, we've returned safely home from the beautiful city of Portland. What an adventure. Loved it. Of course, it would have been better if Brussels had come - but the 3 of us (Golden, Idaho, and French) had a blast.

The adventure started Friday morning around 8:30am with Tuna arriving on my doorstep so we could head off to Cloverdale to pick up Hildy on the way. I met French's wife and apologized for the years of inconvenience I have caused her since Hildy is constantly working on the JBL. I get that with most spouses - they don't like me because of what the JBL does to their hubbies. I get it. I understand. It's a curse.

We crossed the border at 9:45 and arrived in Portland just before 3pm. Checked into the lovely Embassy Suites in downtown Portland and was told at the front desk that we could come down for a 'happy hour' from 5:30 to 7:30pm. We checked out our luxurious 2 bedroom suite and headed down to the Arcadian Gardens at 5:15pm to see what was going on. We learned that this was more than just a happy hour. It was a free-for-all of drinking. Complimentary drinks was the word. I was thinking beer and wine. Ummm. Nope. Whatever you want. The only rule - only one drink at a time. OK. That sounded logical. We saw one guy try to order a drink for himself and his buddy sitting over at the table. Umm. No. Can't do that. You could only carry one drink at a time. So, we figured this out pretty quick. One of us could order 3 drinks, carry our own back, and then send the other 2 back to bypass the lengthy lines to get the 2 drinks waiting at the bar. Cha-Ching. So, this 2 hour happy hour turned into 36 Vodka based nectar of the god libations. And the cost. Free. And these weren't 20% vodka 80% coke/cranberry - these were free pours that as the night went along seemed to get stronger and stronger. By 7:30 my head was spinning. We pounded back the booze while watching some NBA game that I can no longer remember. I left our bartender girl, who I nicknamed Chubby, a nice $20 dollar tip and told her we would see her the next night.

So, at 7:30 we left our free bar and headed off to Buffalo Wild Wings for a feast of little chicken wings. We ordered up 50 wingies and more drinks and watched the end of the Heat/Jazz game and the riveting Suns/Clippers game. This foggy dinner included Tuna announcing to the entire restaurant in a booming voice that Devin Harris was going to hit the game winner for the Jazz --- and then Devin made Tuna a God. He hit the shot!! We also took in our meal sitting next to Bartolo Colon. Yes, the fattest, most grotesque looking chubby man you could ever imagine. He had chicken wing sauce everywhere. Loved it. The only disappointing part of this meal was that we had to pay for it. Crazy I know.

We staggered back to the hotel room to continue our discussions about potential trades. Future hall of famers like Devin Harris, Marcus Thornton, and Caron Butler always appeared to be front and center of every discussion. Of course, Golden was the only one to bring his laptop. Idaho and French were stuck looking at 4" screens on their phones analyzing stats. And that's when it happened. Tuna sent his classic 2 for 1 offer (Devin and Danny Granger I believe) for Ty Lawson. In case you didn't know - we heard this a lot in PDX - Devin Harris was an All-Star like 2 years ago. This comment, was supposed to enhance Devin's value. So, while French laughed at this 2 for 1 offer involving a former all-star who now averages 10 and 5 on the season (but who had been on fire in his last ten games (11 and 5) - he immediately went to his JBL trade page to click reject. Unfortunately for him, there are some new ads on the left hand side of the mobile page and the accept button was moved over slightly to the right. So, French 'accepted' the deal. You should have seen the panic in his eyes. Oh my. He was running around the room like he had a corn dog up his corn hole and needed to get it out. Hilarious stuff. Tuna was disappointed that he didn't get Lawson but I think more depressed that he didn't trade Granger. I give the kid credit - he found a million and one ways to try and spin that Granger was still a Fantasy stud. The counter arguments always came back to his 39 and 36 %'s.

The night went on into the wee hours discussing many varieties of trades involving the same players but nothing really progressed over the night. We retired to our beds, drunk and full of chicken to contemplate more offers for Saturday and what the day would bring....

Some other highlights/low-lights from the 1st day...

• Chris Mullin's game being compared to Andre Iguodala's. (Golden was pretty smashed when I made this comment). However, upon reviewing Mullin's career numbers and a certain 5 year stretch - we all agreed Mullin must have been the greatest Fantasy player of all time. Of ALL TIME.
• Farts were at an all time low for a road trip I've been on. Very disappointing.
• A debate on who you would rather have on your fantasy team back in the day - Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman
• We agreed that Marcin Gortat is one ugly dude
• Despite Idaho's claims to the contrary - Danny Granger's FG% has gotten worse every season.

Stay tuned for Part 2....

Summit Eve

OK, maybe it's not quite as popular as the other "Eve's" out there. Sure, it's not Christmas Eve or Adam and Eve...but hey, it's Portland Roadie Summit Eve. That's exciting in my books. The original 4 scheduled for this trip - Golden, Idaho, French and Brussels - has already been reduced to just 3 as Brussels has had to back out due to school commitments. Then he was back in. Then out. Then in again. Then out again. In again one final time. Only to be back out again. We hold out hope for a last minute substitution with Maui joining us - but alas, if it doesn't happen, we have one crazy 3-way situation to talk about for 48 hours.

The plan is for Tuna to arrive at Chez Edwards at 8am and get on the road to pick up Hildy on 176th on the way to border. Hopefully, a short border lineup awaits, and then it's cruising all the way to downtown Portland. Friday night will hopefully bring us a sports bar, tv's galore, chicken wings, and beer. Oh, and of course, there could be some trade discussions along the way. After all, it is a pretty lengthy drive.

So, let's look at the 3 team definitely on the trip. What do they need and what do they have to offer?

Let's start in Golden. The current 1st place squad has had a rough week so far - mostly due to the lack of man games compared to other teams. Golden is still struggling in FG% and ATO (8th in both) while they excel in PTS and STL's (1st in both). Golden has cheap assets that could be valued for potential keepers. Gortat, Anderson, Biyombo, Thomas, and Thornton could all be seen as potential keepers. Golden is always looking to tweak his lineup and could probably use another big man that blocks and one more PG for the back court. I see some very interesting PG's in both French and Idaho.

French Lick is currently 5th and his only real weak category is PTS (11th). He does everything else quite well (6-4-2-5-5-6). French has made some major moves in the past couple of weeks (gathering all of the best assets out of Brussels mostly) so it's unknown if he has the pieces to move up. He has plenty of great potential keepers on the roster - Lawson, Bynum, Jordan, Teague, Morris, Gooden and others. What a core to build around. However, looking at the keeper list - there are more assets there than even possible to protect so he may as well try to leverage some of them. I can see his PG's Teague and Nash being popular names mentioned in trades. He needs scoring and Golden is 1st in scoring and Idaho is 5th so we could be perfect trade partners in some areas.

Idaho is currently in 8th spot. He's in a bit of no man's land as he's 150 points out of 4th place and still 100 points up on 9th (where he would lose a keeper spot). So, what to do? Go for the money? Or maintain a 5th to 8th spot and get 3 keepers for next season? Who would his best keepers be? Ilyasova for $1 buck looks awesome. I love James Harden for $8. Ed Davis $6 has potential if Toronto gives him minutes. Klay Thompson $1 could be valuable if the Warriors finally trade Monta. Even a kid like Kemba Walker $10 could be worth a look. So, there is some cheap talent on board. Idaho is 11th in blocks; 9th in ATO; 7th in rebounding; and 7th in FG% - so there is room for improvement in most categories. Idaho also has a lot of established talent that will likely be the discussion of many potential trades. Rondo, Bosh, Wallace, and Boozer are all proven fantasy stars. One Idaho guy that will be brought up repeatedly will be Danny Granger. However, I don't see Granger moving to French or Golden at any point during this trip. Or for that matter - ever. Idaho will also need to realize that selling French or Golden on Klay Thompson's merits as a potential keeper is useless. We have good keepers already. We are both stocked with good keepers so any trades made will be 'now' trades.

So - it's clear that the Portland roadie teams have talent. They are in 1st, 5th and 8th. Can they find common ground to make a deal? Possibly. How many offers will be made/discussed before a deal is reached - I am going to guess 30+ before something is hammered out. I hope someone has printed off the teams' stats because Johnny don't trade without some numbers to support my cause.

Well, that's it for now JBL peeps. I'll try to post some photos or comments during our journey. Have a great weekend. Look for us in section 218 of the Blazer game on Saturday night!! Go Blazers!