Center Moves

In a quiet move, Fat Jubas and Funk Coalition exchanged a trio of big men: Brook Lopez and Marcin Gortat for Marc Gasol and Tyreke Evans.

GM Eric-L was sad to trade away a beloved Sun, but Gortat's low FT% was hurting the balanced Jubas. It was with the same heavy heart that Eric-L cast Lopez off, as Brook was the Jubas' second round pick in our 2009 keeper re-draft. A proper good bye party, complete with cupcakes, was planned for Lopez, but he was unable to attend due to injury.

Gortat started off the season white hot, but has cooled off due to disgruntlement with touches. He is now averaging 11.7 PTS, 8.3 REB, and 2.1 BLK on the season. Lopez, currently injured, has re-found his 2010 form, averaging 18.5 PTS, 6.8 REB, and 2.5 BLK. Gortat and Lopez combined for huge block numbers, which had been a key reason the Jubas were leading the league in that category. However, with Jonas Valanciunas emerging as a rotation player, and with Kevin Garnett still anchoring the front line, the two big bodies were deemed expendable.

What the Jubas get back in return is Marc Gasol, who is averaging 15.8 PTS, 7.3 REB, 1.4 BLK, and an astonishing 4.4 AST from the center position. He's also been lights out from the free throw line (89.7 FT%). As for Tyreke Evans, he of the PG/SG/SF designation, it's been an up and down career but over the past month, he's back to his rookie form, with 21.4 PTS, 4.8 REB, 4.4 AST, 1.4 STL, and even 1.0 3PT on a blistering 52.0 FG%. That likely won't last, but Evans' flexibility fills a lead guard hole for the Jubas -- until Steve Nash comes back.

For Funk Coalition, they now sport four startable centers -- Dwight Howard and Nikola Vucevic -- and will look to play ultimate big ball. After a busy off-season, the Funk stumbled out of the gates with only one win in four tries, so impatient GM Jon is back to the drawing board with his roster. More moves are sure to follow.

One Month: Winners

It's already one month into our young season, and all the weird first few weeks jitters should be off. Let's take a look at some of the teams that are succeeding right out of the gate shall we?

NJ All-Stars (4-0)
Bombing away from everywhere, Eddie's team leads the league in 3PT, is second in PTS, and also an astonishing first in REB. From last year's semi-small ball team, the NJ All-Stars have transformed into a board cleaning monster. J.J. Hickson leads the way with 10.5 REB per, while Lebron James (8.8), Ryan Anderson (7.8), Andrei Kirilenko (7.9), and Luol Deng (7.5) snag a ton from the forward positions. And the outside shooting with Ryan Anderson, Paul George, and the sometimes healthy Kyle Lowry is just hard to beat. Really, if you look at the statistical strengths of NJ All-Stars, this is Ryan Anderson's team, not Lebron's! Eddie's team are feasting on a weak schedule early on -- their first four opponents have just three wins total -- but don't let that disguise the fact that his All-Stars are true contenders.

Chunky Monkeys (4-0)
Right behind the NJ All-Stars in the Thundercats division is the Monkeys, who have jetted off to a white hot start too. They feasted on a similarly weak schedule until WK4's quality win against Fat Jubas. The Monkeys play small ball to perfection, as they are first in PTS, STL, and FT%; second in AST; third in 3PT. Obviously James Harden's trade to Houston pumped this team's PTS up early on, but Jrue Holiday has emerged as a top fantasy talent behind 18.6 PTS, 9.2 AST, 1.4 3PT/STL. I mocked Byron Mullens during the draft but he's putting up 13.4 PTS, 8.3 REB, and 1.6 3PT per game. He really is a perfect small ball PF/C, just like Evan said. An early season trade for Wesley Matthews shored up the roster and now the Monkeys are ready to destroy all challengers. Yikes!

Fat Jubas (3-1)
Even without their leader, Steve Nash, the returning champs are leading the Silverhawks division and winning by shooting a high percentage, protecting the rim and taking care of the ball -- first in FG% and BLK, second in TO. Brook Lopez is back to the tune of 19.2 PTS along with 2.7 BLK, and he pairs with Marcin Gortat's 2.4 BLK to intimidate all shooters facing the Jubas. Nicolas Batum is having his breakout season and he's averaging ridiculous all around numbers of 17.8 PTS, 6.1 REB, 1.6 STL, 1.1 BLK, and 2.5 3PT, plus decent percentages. Batum is the new Matrix! There's a bit of depth problems here, as the backcourt is obviously weak without Nash -- Luke Ridnour and Alexey Shved are clearly not the answer -- but the Jubas have faced a tough schedule early on and have emerged unscathed so far during their championship defense.

LA Buffy (3-1)
Roger's team was left for dead by our prognosticators during pre-season but he has come charging out of the gate to lead the Transformers division. Much of that success can be pinned on the back of that young dog, Tim Duncan, who is averaging 18.7 PTS, 10.1 REB, and 2.3 BLK. Even with Duncan's notoriously poor FT shooting, Buffy is first in FT%, and fourth in REB and BLK. The new Buffy backcourt of Jeremy Lin, J.J. Redick, and Kirk Hinrich have been just useful enough but having Jameer Nelson back in the lineup post-injury will help a lot for the guard stats. With Andrew Bogut set to return soon/eventually, Buffy could be even stronger going forward.

Shifting Some Pieces

With feelers sent to the rest of the league earlier in the week, Chunky Monkeys finally landed the player they were looking for. Welcome, Wes Matthews, the team's new small forward! The full trade is Chunky Monkeys ship out Greivis Vasquez and a 2014 RD3 to Jedi Knights for Wesley Matthews and a 2014 RD6 in return.

Despite having a glut of premiere point guards entering the draft -- Chris Paul, Jrue Holiday and Goran Dragic -- the Monkeys picked up Greivis Vasquez in the draft and E'Twaun Moore from free agency and found themselves with too many guards.

After a quick round of proposals via email, the Monkeys got their man in Matthews. Despite picking up a gem at the SF spot with Al-Farouq Aminu, the Monkeys knew they needed depth at the position.  They got that and more with Matthews. Matthews will be the presumptive starter and is expected to contribute in threes, steals and overall scoring. More importantly, he'll now be the new anchor at the swing position for the new look Monkeys.

As for Greivis, his hot start has now likely earned him a starting slot with the Jedi Knights alongside Mo Williams. Analysts at ESPN thought it was a win win for both teams. "Vazquez will now have a chance to be the undisputed starting point guard for his team. He was never going to have that chance with the Monkeys. For the Monkeys, we anticipate that Wes will be a really strong player in the Monkey's rotation. Similar to James Harden, we expect to him provide strong scoring, three pointers while shoring up the steals category for the already small-ball minded Monkeys", said ESPN analyst Ric Bucher.