RealGM

A couple of pieces about the Pacers rotation.

First, Mike Wells talks about O'Brien's take on the rotations:

http://www.indystar.com/article/2009101 ... 8/SPORTS04

Second, EightPointsNineSeconds looks at how teams (and the Pacers) used their depth last year:

http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2 ... -in-coach/

Hmmm, interesting. We do appear to be a deep team. I wonder if McBob will get some PT while Hansbrough is out? I hope he has and can continue to improve enough that he takes some minutes away from other guys (just because that would mean he has improved enough to play, not because I particularly like him...) Also I did notice that in the article 9 players were listed. So if we go to 8, who is the one left out? Solomon?

And obviously it isn't smart to play 10 guys just to play them; They must be effective. When we are healthy I can see 10 guys that are very capable of contributing some useful minutes.

Are the Pacers really that "deep," or is there just not a lot of difference between the starters and the guys behind them? (except for Granger and maybe Murphy).

I hope lots of guys get regular playing time, but what I really want is to see Hibbert, Rush, and Hansbrough get as many minutes as they deserve. They're the future, and the future seems more promising than the present.

Yeah, it's really Granger then a big drop off. What you need when you get out of the top 6 players are guys who, first and foremost, aren't going to **** things up. Maybe they can occasionally provide a spark, but mostly you want to get them on the floor so your main guys can get a rest, but get them off before they get exploited.

This is actually true for almost all teams...the main difference being the top of the teams. In other words, Player #8 is going to be less susceptible to being exploited if they're playing with really good Players #1 or #2. The better the top of the lineup, the more you can mix in the fringe players.

Look at Cleveland. Their #8's were guys like Wally Sczerbiak and Booby Gibson. Mo Williams, who is a wonderful 4 or 5, was their #2. If LeBron weren't such a dominant #1, that team would be a complete disaster.

Danny is a #2-3 with the potential of being a #1. Murphy, Ford, Hibbert, and Rush all max out around #5...Foster's a solid #6. That's pretty weak. I think we'll see Rush and Hibbert get as many minutes as they can handle...Hansbrough will get less, if he gets healthy. SJones will get spot minutes, I can easily see guys like McBob, Price and Diener wearing suits a lot.

People clamoring for deeper rotations usually are fans of mediocre-to-bad teams and are dissatisfied with the players that are playing...they want "something better," but often confuse that with just "something else." It's why people begged for Ike and Shawne to get burn, moving over to Diener, and now sitting with guys like McBob and Price. A lot of people would like to see players overachieve their expectations, even if that level of performance is lower than what gets turned in by guys like Troy and TJ.

^That sizes it up pretty well.

If the Pacers are ever going to compete for a championship, the starting five needs to get a lot better. I'm holding out hope that some guys now on the roster might develop at least into #3/#4 types, or else that the team will be able to acquire those guys over the next few years.

Once a good starting five is in place, I might allow myself to be enthusiastic about our roster's depth.

This roster has a lot of solid bench players. As alluded to, starting 5 is going to have to better. If Rush makes another huge jump in his game, we might be getting somewhere.

If you think about it, was Reggie ever REALLY a #1? We do need upgrades at some key positions, though. Doesn't mean we need to get new players, just means the ones we have now need to improve.

I think those guys (Rush and hopefully Hibbert) can max out above a #5. Well they definitely CAN, but it will be interesting to see if they do. When we first got Granger it was the same thing.

And yeah, Reggie wasn't really ever really a #1. We weren't weak at any starting positions, though. We were good defensively and had a couple guys who could come off the bench without hurting us, most of the time.

I'm hoping that there is little reason to give McRoberts, Price, Diener and Jones significant minutes this year. We have enough dual position players, that if they perform at a certain level, then we should hopefully be able to keep a consistent 8-10 man rotation.

Whats the status of Dunleavy? He will surely create a deeper team eh?