Rick Carlisle still working on playing rotation for most of

[HMFFL]

Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle’s substitution pattern would seem to invite unhappiness.

Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry and Josh Howard (when healthy) know they are going to play a lot. Each of them average more than 35 minutes a game.

For everyone else, however, it’s a little like Deal or No Deal. A total guessing game.

Take J.J. Barea, for instance. In the first 13 games of the season, he never played more than 16 minutes. But in the past five games, he has played 21, 25, 25, 31 and 21 minutes, respectively.

Part of the reason is Howard is still sidelined with a sore ankle. Part of it is because Barea has played so well.

"But when J-Ho gets back," Barea said after scoring 22 points in the Mavericks’ 100-98 victory over Atlanta on Saturday night, "I know my minutes are going to go down."

His teammates know all too well. Consider DeSagana Diop. In his past four games, he has played 3, 23, 8 and 21 minutes, respectively.

Gerald Green has started 10 games, but his average of 12.4 minutes per game ranks 13th on the 14-man roster.

In the first 10 games of the season, Shawne Williams did not play in nine games and played three minutes in the other one.

Antoine Wright was the starting shooting guard on opening night, but in the second game of the season, he did not play.

"That was tough," Wright said. "That was hard for me. But we have veteran guys on the team. [Jerry Stackhouse] and some of those guys talked to me and just said to stay in it and keep working and good things will happen."

And that’s Carlisle’s selling point. Good things have happened — specifically nine victories in the past 10 games to turn a 2-7 record into 11-8.

"Sometimes I feel like for us to win and if I don’t get to play, I’m cool with it as long as we win," said Williams, who averages 14.9 minutes per game. "It’s a decision a coach has to make. He’s got a lot of pressure on him to make those decisions."

Link

[JES12]

Shortly after the trade deadline, we need to get a 8-9 man rotation set.

[italy_23]

I still would like to see a 3 for 1 or 3 for 2 kind of deal