Your 2015 FUNBA CHAMPIONS the Calgary SHARPSHOOTERS!

Ok, so here is my long promised, poorly delivered FUNBA recap.

- First off, I wanted to note that if we were using the same format for determining a champion as we do in the FUNHL, it would be the Thunderbay Murderball's title as they scored the highest total number of points, whereas Brian won a series of HTH competitions to take it all.

Which isn't to detract from the fantastic season the Sharpshooters had at all, they were full marks in defeating two excellent teams in the playoffs (the Skywalkers and the Goodfellas). What's more, they didn't just beat these two teams in the last two rounds they crushed them in a pair of week+ long matchups that each ended in lopsided Sharpshooter victories.

Congrats to Brian, the third champion crowned in the FUNBA!

Other notes:

- So far, half the league has gone to their team page and indicated their 'keepers' (Brian, me, Darrell, and Bob). If the rest of you could please go in and input your keepers we can avoid some of the issues we struggled with this year.

- As of yet it won't let me set the date for the next draft. I will however be more dilligent in pre-warning everyone that it is coming up. Note, the NBA season roughly correllates to the NHL season. If you are prepping your draft list for hockey, take two minutes to check your FUNBA stuff as well.

- Bob made a staggering 47 changes (waiver drops/adds) to his roster over the season. Some things, never change.

- There were exactly zero trades this season. I have to believe that is going to be as bad as it gets, because mathematically it couldn't be any worse.

- As I expected, the changes I made to scoring for blocks was all but invisible over the course of the season. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary though was super sophmore Anthony Davis who would seemingly threaten to hit double digits in blocks nearly every game.

- Here are my favourite 8 players of the year, and why;

#8 Blake Griffin - PF LAC / Murderball

What you don't see is that Griffin has evolved into much more than just a one-dimmensional dunk machine (that would be DeAndre Jordan, his front-court partner in crime), and added some veteran moves to defense, footwork, passing, and shooting from deep. When Paul was out, Griffin carried the mail.

Fun fact, the Thunderbay Murderball had the highest scoring team in the league, but had exactly zero players in the top 10 in scoring. Griffin was the closest.

#7 Anthony Davis - C NO / Flatlanders

Make no mistake, Davis is much, much, much more than a big dunking machine. He has the superior size, length (his arms are seemingly 5x as long as the comparatively short-limbed Griffin), he's an elite defensive player at his position, a bona-fide rim-protector, and shot-blocking dynamo.

He's a true 'C' in a league with fewer and fewer of them. At some point he's going to start destroying the league offensively as much as he already does with his rebounds and blocks. Future MVP.

#6 LeBron James SF Cle / Skywalkers

IMO, still easily the best basketball player alive. He can not only play all five positions at an All-Star level, what is more, he can GUARD all five positions at an All-Star level. He has point guard skills in a power forwards body. The love child of Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, he has the best combination of size, speed, efficiency, defensce, and...well everything. If not for a two week 'rest' in the beginning of the season, and a ton of chemistry issues with hs new team mates, LeBron would be league MVP. Again. He'll be the playoffs MVP though, so he's got that going for him.

Take note in the highlights of how many of them are thread-the-needle-no-look assists, or chase down blocks. He can do whatever wants.

#5 John Wall - PG Wsh / Goodfellas

The former 1st overall pick has matured into the all-round offensive force he was envisioned to be on draft day. Big (for a PG), strong, fast, and posssessing an arsenal of offensive skills, Wall is the quick strike PG all teams crave to have to run their offense.

#4 Russell Westbrook - PG OKC / Pirates

Westbrook has long been the poster child for a kind of warp-speed point guard who is even better at scoring than at creating assists. Always considered to be the 'second banana' to Kevin Durant, an injury to Durant put Westbrook in the spotlight as he tried to will his team to remain in playoff contention despite missing a league MVP caliber running mate. All he did was EXPLODE and for a month and a half put up numbers that were simply staggering, averaging over 30pts, 10rebs, and 10assists to single-handedly keep his team with the best in the loaded Western conference.

Above are the highlights from his 54pt game, but it is worth noting that Indiana has one of the best rim protectors in the league in the giant 7'2" Roy Hibbert, but Westbrook simply gets to the rim at will against him (and everyone else).

#3 Chris Paul - PG LAC / BallBearings

I love Chris Paul. He's not the best offensive PG (Westbrook), nor the best passing PG (Rondo), but he is without a doubt the most complete PG in the league.

One way that his greatness can be assessed outside of his 'counting' stats, is to look at the work Kirk Goldsberry has done on assessing how players perform defensively

The chart on Paul is mind-blowing (especially when you compare him to James 'the Matador' Harden). Injuries and bad teams have allowed Paul's greatness to go overlooked but the facts are the facts, he was the 2nd highest scoring player in the FUNBA.

#2 Steph Curry - PG/SG GS / Chumfeeders

Here's the thing, if a Golden State game is on TV, watch it. You'll be viewing the greatest shooter in NBA history (by a wide margin) in his prime. He's utterly unique, and watching him is watching sports history get written.

#1 James Harden - SG Hou / Sharpshooters

Fear. The. Beard.

Harden's game is tailor made for the modern NBA. He has two fantastic skills, he can reliably gun from anywhere - but especially for 3, and he gets to the rim at will where he draws a ton of fouls whenever he doesn't outright score. In the 'real world' Harden wouldn't be in my top 5 (see the chart comparing his defense to Chris Paul again), because guys who are that casual on defense (bordering on comatose) don't make for the greatest champions.

But man, can Harden ever score.

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Thanks to everyone for participating again this year, I hope to have everything ironed out for the league's mechanics in the next few days. If you have adjustments you would like me to consider, just drop me a line and let me know.

And somebody buy Brian a drink. Dude sweated out this season like a sunbaked wolly mammoth with malaria. He should get some alcoholic love from the rest of us.