RealGM

I know, most of us think we should dump guys and suck (I Agree!)

But let's say they want to win games, and sneak into the playoffs. What should be our rotation? We're a semi-talented squad, but we have terrible 1st quarters so a more balanced starting lineup might help

Starters Ayo/Lavine/Matas/PWill/Vuc
More defense and shots early for Lavine/Vuc makes sense

Main bench CWhite/Giddy/Smith
These guys play at least 24 min each, but mostly against other benches

Deep bench
Ball/Terry/Phillips-all these guys can play spot minutes and not hurt us

That's actually 11 guys who are all legit NBA players (plus Carter/Duarte are ok)-lots of depth.

Starters are -3 points per 100.

Our first somewhat common lineup that's actually positive is
Ayo / Giddey / Lavine / Pwill / Vuc (+8 points per 100).

And Coby leading the bench guys works well, you have a self sufficient scorer + 4 defenders / C&S guys. The bench of
Coby / Terry / THT / Buzelis / Smith (+17 points per 100) does a good job of bum slaying opposing benches.

The other lineup that's a positive is
Ayo / Giddey / Lavine / Phillips / Vuc (+8 points per 100). Almost the same with Phillips replacing PWill. When Buzelis gets a reliable C&S 3, he's probably even better next to Vuc.

I think most people aren't shocked, we had a lot of discussion pre-season that the starting lineup doesn't make sense in terms of how many guys need the ball and how few defenders there are (just Pat) and it would be better to put Ayo to start. But it wasn't going to happen politically, and we need to lose anyway.

I think this starting lineup would probably be the best to win games:

Ball
Coby
Zach
Patrick
Smith

Ayo in place of Ball would be a similar improvement.

League Circles wrote:I think this starting lineup would probably be the best to win games:

Ball
Coby
Zach
Patrick
Smith

Ayo in place of Ball would be a similar improvement.

I think it would be:

Ball
Zach
Pat
Smith
Vuc

pipfan wrote:Starters Ayo/Lavine/Matas/PWill/Vuc

I love Matas. I think he's arguably the second most talented youngster we have had since the Dynasty. He's the only untouchable player on the roster.

But if the task is to create a hypothetical rotation which has the highest likelihood to win games starting tonight, I'm not sure Matas would be in it at all. He'd likely be a situational player at best. Pat, Craig, Phillips, Smith and Vuc would all be above him in a lineup looking for night to night consistency and wins today. And then you have the glut of guards in Giddey, Ayo, White, Lavine and Ball getting the rest. Even worse for Matas, Giddey and Ball could both be used to eat into whatever minutes would otherwise be there for him at the 3.

I don't give a damn about winning now though, except that I fear winning too much, so none of that matters to my preferences in real life.

But returning to the task:

Ayo/Giddey/Ball/White
Lavine/White/Ayo
Pat/Giddey/Ball
Smith/Craig/Pat/Phillips
Vuc/Smith

That is what it would look like to me. Not what I want, but what I would do if I were trying to win night in, night out starting right now.

DuckIII wrote:

pipfan wrote:Starters Ayo/Lavine/Matas/PWill/Vuc

I love Matas. I think he's arguably the second most talented youngster we have had since the Dynasty. He's the only untouchable player on the roster.

But if the task is to create a hypothetical rotation which has the highest likelihood to win games starting tonight, I'm not sure Matas would be in it at all. He'd likely be a situational player at best. Pat, Craig, Phillips, Smith and Vuc would all be above him in a lineup looking for night to night consistency and wins today. And then you have the glut of guards in Giddey, Ayo, White, Lavine and Ball getting the rest. Even worse for Matas, Giddey and Ball could both be used to eat into whatever minutes would otherwise be there for him at the 3.

I don't give a damn about winning now though, except that I fear winning too much, so none of that matters to my preferences in real life.

But returning to the task:

Ayo/Ball/White
Lavine/White/Ayo
Pat/Ball/Ayo
Smith/Craig/Pat/Phillips
Vuc/Smith

That is what it would look like to me. Not what I want, but what I would do if I were trying to win night in, night out starting right now.

Hahahahaha. Giddey getting DNPs

Chi town wrote:

DuckIII wrote:

pipfan wrote:Starters Ayo/Lavine/Matas/PWill/Vuc

I love Matas. I think he's arguably the second most talented youngster we have had since the Dynasty. He's the only untouchable player on the roster.

But if the task is to create a hypothetical rotation which has the highest likelihood to win games starting tonight, I'm not sure Matas would be in it at all. He'd likely be a situational player at best. Pat, Craig, Phillips, Smith and Vuc would all be above him in a lineup looking for night to night consistency and wins today. And then you have the glut of guards in Giddey, Ayo, White, Lavine and Ball getting the rest. Even worse for Matas, Giddey and Ball could both be used to eat into whatever minutes would otherwise be there for him at the 3.

I don't give a damn about winning now though, except that I fear winning too much, so none of that matters to my preferences in real life.

But returning to the task:

Ayo/Ball/White
Lavine/White/Ayo
Pat/Ball/Ayo
Smith/Craig/Pat/Phillips
Vuc/Smith

That is what it would look like to me. Not what I want, but what I would do if I were trying to win night in, night out starting right now.

Hahahahaha. Giddey getting DNPs

Unintentional. I had him in the rotation in the paragraph above and had a brain fart when I listed it out. Fixed. Further reinforces that there isn’t room for Matas in a win now rotation.

DuckIII wrote:

Chi town wrote:

DuckIII wrote:
I love Matas. I think he's arguably the second most talented youngster we have had since the Dynasty. He's the only untouchable player on the roster.

But if the task is to create a hypothetical rotation which has the highest likelihood to win games starting tonight, I'm not sure Matas would be in it at all. He'd likely be a situational player at best. Pat, Craig, Phillips, Smith and Vuc would all be above him in a lineup looking for night to night consistency and wins today. And then you have the glut of guards in Giddey, Ayo, White, Lavine and Ball getting the rest. Even worse for Matas, Giddey and Ball could both be used to eat into whatever minutes would otherwise be there for him at the 3.

I don't give a damn about winning now though, except that I fear winning too much, so none of that matters to my preferences in real life.

But returning to the task:

Ayo/Ball/White
Lavine/White/Ayo
Pat/Ball/Ayo
Smith/Craig/Pat/Phillips
Vuc/Smith

That is what it would look like to me. Not what I want, but what I would do if I were trying to win night in, night out starting right now.

Hahahahaha. Giddey getting DNPs

Unintentional. I had him in the rotation in the paragraph above and had a brain fart when I listed it out. Fixed. Further reinforces that there isn’t room for Matas in a win now rotation.

Which proves the point that so many are freaking out about… we are indeed tanking.

Craig would get most of those bench mins and Buz wouldn’t see the floor.

Ball/Ayo
Lavine/Coby
Craig/THT
Williams/Phillips
Vucevic/Smith

That starting lineup I don't think has played any minutes together - that one for me is just pure speculation.

After that, due to our roster construction, you know the bench unit will have Jalen Smith at center so it becomes a questions of "what lineup works best with Jalen Smith?"

It's limited minutes but the Ayo/Coby/THT/Phillips/Smith lineup is currently the leading answer.

Replacing Ayo with Giddey and keeping the rest as also been a positive lineup

The Jaen Smith lineup with the most minutes and a positive rating is: White/THT/Terry/Buzelis/Smith which I could see an argument for as you'd naturally want to play Matas.

Though this hypothetical is about winning, not developing.

The real eye-opening thing is that if you want to win some combination of Ayo, Giddey, and Matas are not playing.

Chi town wrote:

DuckIII wrote:

Chi town wrote:

Hahahahaha. Giddey getting DNPs

Unintentional. I had him in the rotation in the paragraph above and had a brain fart when I listed it out. Fixed. Further reinforces that there isn’t room for Matas in a win now rotation.

Which proves the point that so many are freaking out about… we are indeed tanking.

Craig would get most of those bench mins and Buz wouldn’t see the floor.

Playing Matas over Craig isn’t tanking. It’s balancing winning with development. It’s not a coincidence he sat the second half of a competitive game against the Celtics.

I admit the Bulls doing a variety of minor things that are not consistent with winning. But these quarter measures are miles away from tanking.

To win with who is there now until trades start to happen I want to see

Lavine Matas
Williams Craig Phillips
Vucevic Smith
White Dosunmu
Giddey Ball


I see how Billy starts Ayo at the 4 and hate it but he's getting the best players on both ends to take the most minutes, he's playing the switching game
I still would go with the players at their traditional positions to start and substitute to match up and play the hottest hands

You can dream that playing defense is the way to win, sorry if you put guys who the defense can ignore you put too much pressure on Lavine, White and Vucevic to shoot too much because they know Ayo is at times reluctant to shoot, that Williams is almost surprised when the ball comes his way, Giddey is looking to pass, Craig is streaky and Lonzo is again getting his game back

DuckIII wrote:

pipfan wrote:Starters Ayo/Lavine/Matas/PWill/Vuc

I love Matas. I think he's arguably the second most talented youngster we have had since the Dynasty. He's the only untouchable player on the roster.

But if the task is to create a hypothetical rotation which has the highest likelihood to win games starting tonight, I'm not sure Matas would be in it at all. He'd likely be a situational player at best. Pat, Craig, Phillips, Smith and Vuc would all be above him in a lineup looking for night to night consistency and wins today. And then you have the glut of guards in Giddey, Ayo, White, Lavine and Ball getting the rest. Even worse for Matas, Giddey and Ball could both be used to eat into whatever minutes would otherwise be there for him at the 3.

I don't give a damn about winning now though, except that I fear winning too much, so none of that matters to my preferences in real life.

But returning to the task:

Ayo/Giddey/Ball/White
Lavine/White/Ayo
Pat/Giddey/Ball
Smith/Craig/Pat/Phillips
Vuc/Smith

That is what it would look like to me. Not what I want, but what I would do if I were trying to win night in, night out starting right now.

I see your point, but I think Matas with Lavine/Vuc/Ayo/PWill would fit. He can shoot open 3's, cut to the basket and help on defense. He wouldn't get any attention with the starters, and would help by adding much needed size/shot blocking

He wouldn't get more than 20 min/night and wouldn't finish games, but I think he'd help the lineup

n/a

pipfan wrote:

DuckIII wrote:

pipfan wrote:Starters Ayo/Lavine/Matas/PWill/Vuc

I love Matas. I think he's arguably the second most talented youngster we have had since the Dynasty. He's the only untouchable player on the roster.

But if the task is to create a hypothetical rotation which has the highest likelihood to win games starting tonight, I'm not sure Matas would be in it at all. He'd likely be a situational player at best. Pat, Craig, Phillips, Smith and Vuc would all be above him in a lineup looking for night to night consistency and wins today. And then you have the glut of guards in Giddey, Ayo, White, Lavine and Ball getting the rest. Even worse for Matas, Giddey and Ball could both be used to eat into whatever minutes would otherwise be there for him at the 3.

I don't give a damn about winning now though, except that I fear winning too much, so none of that matters to my preferences in real life.

But returning to the task:

Ayo/Giddey/Ball/White
Lavine/White/Ayo
Pat/Giddey/Ball
Smith/Craig/Pat/Phillips
Vuc/Smith

That is what it would look like to me. Not what I want, but what I would do if I were trying to win night in, night out starting right now.

I see your point, but I think Matas with Lavine/Vuc/Ayo/PWill would fit. He can shoot open 3's, cut to the basket and help on defense. He wouldn't get any attention with the starters, and would help by adding much needed size/shot blocking

He wouldn't get more than 20 min/night and wouldn't finish games, but I think he'd help the lineup

Buz might be able to shoot open 3s but he's done nothing to suggest he can consistently make open 3s.

Besides the odd weakside shot blocker, he's not helping defensively at this stage.

Want to see Zo Lavine Pat Buz Vuc before the trades to see how they play together.

Never gonna happen because of politics, but:

Starters: Ayo / Zach / Giddey / Craig / Vooch
Bench: Coby / THT / Lonzo / Pat / Smith
Deep bench: Carter / Duarte / Terry / Philips / Buzelis