Jubas, hungry...

We said previously that the Fat Jubas would need a doctor and some point guards who can pass. Well, with a 2-1 record, how's their team shaping up now? For one, there have been no major injuries, and the big three of Wade, McGrady and Jermaine O'Neal have stayed healthy and that's great to hear for Jubas fans.

PTS, AST, REB: We thought that the Jubas would be hurting in the AST department with only Tony Parker and Leandro Barbosa as point guards -- neither of which are known for their passing. Well, it seems like the AST problem won't be a big deal after all -- the Jubas rank 4th in the league -- since Parker, Barbosa, Wade, and McGrady all average close to six assists per game. Nobody expected Barbosa to drop dimes like this, and he's helped push the team's passing numbers above respectability. And since Barbosa is scoring like a madman (20 a game), he allows the Jubas to rank 5th overall in PTS despite some sub-par early season performances. A slight disappointment here is Jermaine O'Neal, who's only averaging 16 ppg -- he's usually above 20. But at least Jermaine is holding it down in REB for the team, but he's only averaging 8 per game, and nobody else on this roster is a strong rebounder, leaving the team at 9th in REB.

Maggette and Zaza Pachulia, are strangely, nearly the same players fantasy wise -- 15 pts, 7 reb, with Zaza having great FG% and Maggette better FT%. Of course, Maggette looks a hundred times cooler and has a lot more street cred -- and arguably a better command of the English language since he attend Duke, if only for a bit.

STL, BLK, 3PT: Where Jermaine excels so far in this early season is blocks, he's killing with over 3.7 BLK a game, and if he keeps that up, who cares about the lower scoring output. With Darko (2 BLK a game) and O'Neal playing great help defense around the rim, the Jubas are easily ranked 2nd in the league for BLKs. They're also close to the top tier in STL, ranking 7th in the league -- which can be a bit misleading because just about a dozen steals separate the top five STL teams in the league. Barbosa, Wade, and McGrady are all ballhawks and Parker and Igoudala aren't half bad either. The Jubas do have a definite lack of outside shooting -- they're 10th in 3PT -- and only Barbosa (2.7 per) and McGrady (1.3) have the eagle eye from afar. Nobody else on this team averages even half a three per game.

FG%, FT%, TO: With a diverse cast of characters on the roster, Eric-L has kept an alert eye on maintaining his percentages. He's about middle of road in both categories (7th and 8th respectively). There are no terrible shooters on this team (maybe Darko's 48.1 FT%, but I doubt he gets to the line that much) so those numbers should hold steady. Tony Parker has definitely dropped down from his otherworldly 54.8 FG% of last year -- probably because he shoots more -- though he still contributes a sterling 49.7%. Where this team is absolutely horrific is in turnovers. They're second-to-last in TO since even their bigs turn over the ball quite a lot, while their primary ball handlers (Wade and McGrady) try to do so much that they can't help but have few flubs. But you gotta take the good with the bad right?

Bench: The bench here is mostly that, a bench. Primoz Brezec has barely played, Al Jefferson is hurt, Tyrus Thomas is tantalizing but not quite here yet, and Josh Howard has been good, but also injured -- pressing last round pick LaMarcus Aldridge into service. Aldridge has been useful, but he's still young and earning steady playing time. Once Howard returns, he'll add some nice all-around numbers to the mix. As for the last bench spot, it's been the Carlos Arroyo show early on, but after a spirited first two weeks, Jameer Nelson has re-asserted himself as the point guard on the Magic and Arroyo is back to limited minutes. But the dude sure can play can't he? Watch out if he starts to get minutes again.

Overall, the Fat Jubas are performing at about the rate we expected, and actually, probably a bit better because nobody saw the explosion that was Leandro Barbosa. He's single handedly pushing the team above and beyond in PTS, AST and 3PT -- if he maintain that, the Jubas are in great shape. Wade and McGrady are superior all around players, and there are nice specialist pieces here. This team can hang with most of the big boys in key categories like PTS, AST and the %s, while dominating in BLK. They'll have to try squeezing out wins in REB and/or STL and that might involve some nifty match up work -- which won't happen until the bench gets healthy. They are tremendously weak in TO and 3PT, but few teams are great all-around. Maybe Eric-L will move to give his team some added strength in one of his middle of the pack categories (he's one of the few teams to not made any waiver moves yet), we'll just have to see won't we?