re: TDBBL Week 11: The Champ Continues to Roll

i kind of echo karma's sentiments yesterday. selling out, while sometimes necessary, sucks. i'm happy to have a mediocre team

and i was not really able to chime in about the philosophical "selling out" debate, but the only reason i've been able to keep KD while staying good the past 1.5 years was b/c of acquiring other guys. there is a lot of luck involved, but there is skill, too

picking up young guys who are breaking out is the easiest way to do it. i picked up klay thompson 2 years ago during the middle of the year as a FA, sat on him, and kept him (even though people thought it was stupid). he was a top-50 guy the next year and a big trading piece

similar thing happened last year with other guys like beal, larry sanders, etc. this isn't me bragging about me...i'm just saying that it is possible to discovery keepers off the waiver wire, and obviously i recall my examples the best

3 years ago i traded, basically, amare for greg monroe. monroe was emerging and amare was fading, and people didn't realize it yet. as gyno put it, amare was the "name" guy so people thought it was stupid. but i didn't get stuck with a non-keeper and recycled my options.

i fricked this up this year. the turner/griffin trade was a big + for karma. such is life

of course you can also build a great squad around solid keepers with great drafting. look at the guys matt got in the draft: hawes, jackson, leonard, mayo, boozer, and he's sitting on rondo.

and in terms of studs, 4 of the top 7 guys have been dealt this year. 5/10. 7/14. etc