Breaking down rotations for the remainder of this season

[OldSchoolNoBull]

So, I thought we could use a thread to discuss what the optimal rotations should look like for the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs once everyone is back. I know that means we'll probably end up talking about Mirotic more than many others, but this is about the rotations for the whole team, and that's why I didn't put this in the Mirotic thread. I also know there is a thread about rotations on the front page, but that's about what the rotations should be next season, whereas this is about what they should be for the remainder of this season.

You can approach this any way you like, but I'm going to do a full quarter-by-quarter minute breakdown.

My goals are thus:

1. Keep everyone's minutes reasonable. Jimmy will be the only one playing 'superstar' minutes.

2. Reward Mirotic for his stellar play and the way he's stepped up during this sudden rash of injuries and roster depletion, but do so while playing more at his natural position of PF than at SF(although he simply has to play some SF if he is to get the minutes he deserves). Given his recent play and the desirability of keeping Noah and Gasol's minutes around 30, it will be unconscionable if he goes back to 12mpg once Taj gets back.

3. Keep Taj an integral part of the rotation. Rewarding Mirotic doesn't mean you have to marginalize Taj.

4. Keep MDJ's minutes under 30/Try to limit the amount of time Noah and MDJ are on the court together. MDJ is no Spring chicken, and I think we can all agree he shouldn't be playing more than 30mpg, and I've got him under that. Noah and MDJ together have proven to be a formidable obstacle on the offensive end in terms of volume. They just don't score much. However, unless you just cut one of their minutes or take MDJ out of the starting lineup(and we all know that Thibs isn't going to change the starting five, and I want to keep this as realistic as possible), there's no real way around it. I've limited their time together to the beginning of the first and third quarters - that's more or less the way it actually is, anyway.

5. Keep Kirk away from SG. I just don't want to see him there at the expense of Snell or at the expense of the portion of Mirotic's minutes spent at SF. This has the added benefit of automatically limiting his minutes as well.

6. Keep giving Snell a regular 20+mpg off the bench. This rewards him for his improvement over the course of this season, gives him solid PT without relying on him more than we should at this point, keeps MDJ's minutes below 30, and keeps Jimmy from crossing from 'superstar' minutes over to 'all of the' minutes.

7. Keep Rose's minutes a shade under 'superstar' minutes, just given his injury history.

8. Have a decent amount of shooting on the court as much as possible.

So here is the depth chart I came up with:

NOTE: Everywhere I've said 'Brooks', you can take that as 'Brooks or Hinrich or Moore depending on game situation and matchups and who's playing better'. I just decided to go with Brooks by default, mainly because I think that smallball lineup works better with him than with Hinrich, unless you really need a defensive stop with that lineup.

Noah(30)/Gasol(6)/Taj(12)
Gasol(24)/Taj(6)/Mirotic(18)
MDJ(26)/Snell(14)/Mirotic(8)
Jimmy(38)/Snell(10)
Rose(34)/Brooks(14)
Situational only: McDermott, Nazr, Bairstow

And the breakdown by total minutes:

Jimmy: 38
Rose: 34
Noah, Gasol: 30
MDJ, Mirotic: 26
Snell: 24
Taj: 18
Brooks/Hinrich/Moore: 14

Quarter by Quarter:

1Q 12:00
Noah/Gasol/MDJ/Jimmy/Rose
1Q 4:00
Gasol/Taj/Mirotic/Jimmy/Rose
1Q 2:00
Gasol/Taj/Mirotic/Jimmy/Brooks
--
2Q 12:00
Taj/Mirotic/MDJ/Snell/Brooks
2Q 7:00
Noah/Mirotic/Snell/Jimmy/Rose
2Q 3:00
Noah/Gasol/Snell/Jimmy/Rose
--
3Q 12:00
Noah/Gasol/MDJ/Jimmy/Rose
3Q 4:00
Gasol/Taj/Mirotic/Jimmy/Rose
3Q 2:00
Taj/Mirotic/Snell/Jimmy/Brooks
--
4Q 12:00
Taj/Mirotic/MDJ/Snell/Brooks
4Q 7:00
Noah/Mirotic/Snell/Jimmy/Rose
4Q 5:00
Noah/Gasol/Snell/Jimmy/Rose
4Q 2:00
Noah/Gasol/Mirotic/Jimmy/Rose

So, there are some trends here:

Gasol plays big in the first and third quarters and closes the halves.

Mirotic comes in first as a SF in both halves before moving to PF. In the second half, he moves to PF sooner so that he can close the game, the idea being to have your five best players on the floor at the end if possible.

The smallball bench mob lineup with Taj/Mirotic in the frontcourt with MDJ/Snell/Brooks on the perimeter closes the first and third quarters and opens the second and fourth quarters in order to provide the necessary rest for Noah, Gasol, Jimmy, and Rose so that they can finish the halves strong.

If there's one regret I have about this rotation, it's about the relative lack of the Noah/Mirotic C-PF pairing, as I think they work well together, but it's just hard to fit everything into one rotation. As it is, they do get about 8mpg together, but Mirotic is at SF for some of that.

A couple of final notes here:

If you're a fan of turtleball, you probably don't love this rotation, because there's very little of it here. I just felt that it benefits us to have more balanced units on the floor.

I like McDermott, and I think and hope he can still be a player in this league, and I think he should have a more regular role next season, but I think it's probably too late for him to have a regular role on this team during this home stretch and the upcoming playoff run. He should still get burn during blowouts, but not much more than that. The team will have a limited amount of time to gel once everyone gets back and we shouldn't be trying to inject new players into the rotation anymore at that point.

It goes without saying that game situations dictate the adjustments that need to be made. If a playoff game is close and going down to the wire, of course Rose is going to play more and Brooks is going to play less, and if you're in dire need of defense up front, then maybe you give Taj a few more minutes and Mirotic a few less. It's stating the obvious, but I felt like I still needed to say it.

That's about it, looking forward to your thoughts and your rotations!

[OldSchoolNoBull]

*bump*

Nothing?

[mj234eva]

Good work here.

Pretty close to what I'd like to see.

[coldfish]

*bump*

Nothing?

First off, kudos for doing the work. Its really easy to just say person X should play 32 minutes but to go through and try to figure everything out as to who plays when and for how long is kind of hard. Lots of issues to balance.

As far as the lack of replies, you have a lot of information there. Its hard to digest and you might be scaring guys off from even trying to do what you did. I'll look it over and give you a reply at some point because I think this is important. Everyone wants person X to get this amount of minutes but its really hard to balance all the different agendas.

Here is what people will complain about:
- Mirotic plays 14 minutes straight
- Jimmy plays 12 minutes straight twice
- The Taj/Mirotic/MDJ/Snell/Brooks lineup is in there for 5 minutes to start the 2nd and 4th. That's kind of ewwwww for a long stretch.
- No McDermott
- Rose plays 8 minutes with Mirotic. The Big Gun lineup of Rose / Jimmy / Mirotic + two bigs only plays 4 minutes together.

[DanTown8587]

My attempt at this has happened in some thread, so I'll break it out here

Starters
Rose - Butler - Dunleavy - Gasol - Noah

1Q
Starters
Rose - Butler - Dunleavy - Gasol - Noah
6:00 Rose - Butler - Dunleavy - Gibson - Gasol
4:00 Rose - Butler - Mirotic - Gibson - Gasol
2:00 Hinrich - Butler - Snell - Mirotic - Gibson

2Q
Brooks - Hinrich - Snell - Mirotic - Gibson
8:00 Brooks - Snell - Mirotic - Noah - Gasol
6:00 Rose - Butler - Mirotic - Noah - Gasol
3:00 Starters


3Q
Starters
6:00 Rose - Butler - Dunleavy - Mirotic - Gibson
3:00 Hinrich - Butler - Snell - Mirotic - Gibson

4Q
Five guys NOT closing out game
9:00 Winning time five

Total minutes entering the 4th (either add 3 or 9)

Rose - 25
Hinrich - 9
Brooks - 6
Butler - 30
Dunleavy - 18
Snell - 11
Mirotic - 19
Gibson - 16
Gasol - 24
Noah - 24

[FreakMaster]

Whoa! This is a well thought out thread.
IMO's:
Start Rose but keep his mins between 20-29 pg. anymore and it takes away from his intensity. Plus A.B. is going to be a huge factor in the playoffs too.
Niko may not start, but make sure he's in there over 30 mpg. He plays best when he logs starters mins.
Noah's game is based on his high energy, but Noah hasn't played like the DPOY player of the past. Keep his mins in the mid to upper 20's.
Taj mid to upper 20's
Pau 35+ mins, but make sure Pau gets some games off before the playoffs begin. These next 3 games against the Knicks, Bucks and Pistons would be the perfect time to sit Pau out.
Kirk will play in the playoffs, and his experience will be helpful.
I'm concerned on how much Jimmy plays, and it would be beneficial if he plays no more than 35 mpg, while Snell and Moore are given spotty mins for offensive and defensive purposes.
Mike Dunleavy is a huge mystery. When he's "On" he's great for the team, but when he's "Off" he's a disaster.
Depth is the key for the Bulls if they are to win the Eastern Conference, and the more the Bulls rotates players, the better they'll be against an 8 man rotation as an opponent. Fresh, energetic legs will overcome Superstar talent every time.

[jmajew]

I like it...Only thing I see is Gibson may get even less playing time. Maybe only 14 mins a game like last night. I think Gasol will play 34 mins. It is crazy how far things have changed from when people were clamoring for Gibson to start with Noah and play 30 mins a game.

What's even crazier about all this is it really makes Gibson expendable for next year. This hurts his trade value a lot in my opinion because teams know that in order for us to improve marginally he will probably need to go. (Sorry side topic and not really important).

[[e]]

I like it...Only thing I see is Gibson may get even less playing time. Maybe only 14 mins a game like last night. I think Gasol will play 34 mins. It is crazy how far things have changed from when people were clamoring for Gibson to start with Noah and play 30 mins a game.

What's even crazier about all this is it really makes Gibson expendable for next year. This hurts his trade value a lot in my opinion because teams know that in order for us to improve marginally he will probably need to go. (Sorry side topic and not really important).

If his value is down, why trade him? It's not like he has to be moved in order to offer JB the max or anything. With Pau getting older and Jo's minute restrictions, Taj is a luxury. Niko can play the 3 or the 4. Sure it's crowded, but that's the price to pay for a potential Championship.

Ship Taj off without another big in the wings and what happens when Noah or Pau goes down? Then we're paper thin.

I won't do a huge breakdown for minutes, as my rotations would change based off matchups, but I do know I'd almost always close with...

Rose, Butler, Mirotic, Gasol, Noah.

Probably the best 5 players on the team with the exception of Taj, but you can't play him at the 3 like Niko.

Pg. Rose gets his 30 minutes. The remaining to Brooks or Kirk based on match up and the score. I'd tend to go towards Brooks if we're down or a quicker point is in, and Kirk if we're up or if a bigger point is in.

Sg. Butler takes what he can handle, 35ish. Snell fills the rest.

Sf. Mike starts, but I'd limit him to around 25. Mirotic takes bulk of backup minutes (15-20), with Snell filling in.

Pf. Jo takes 16. Taj takes 24. Niko remaining 8.

C. Pau takes 32. Jo takes remaining 16.

Butler 35+
Noah 32
Gasol 32
Rose 30
Mirotic 28
Dunleavy 25
Taj 24
Snell 16
Brooks/Hinrich 18

Of course, I know this won't happen. JB will be over 40 and Pau will probably be around 40 come playoffs too. I do think we will see that closing lineup though, which should kill considering the match up problems it creates.