The Rotation

sixerswillrule · Post #1 » by **sixerswillrule** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:39 am

How do you guys see the rotation playing out come the start of the season? I realize that there is still plenty of time to go until then with things possibly changing, but it doesn't hurt to speculate. I really don't think that any free agent additions from this point on, such as a big man or SF, will be apart of the regular crew. If a trade is made, that is a different story. It looks like the main group for this season is set. But who gets the playing time, that is the question. Will it be a 9 or 10 man rotation? Do you see both Rush and Green getting significant minutes, or will they by competing with one another? More minutes for Speights or Evans? Will Young play exclusively at SF? Can or should Brand be playing heavy(36+) minutes coming off the injury? Less minutes for Miller with Williams slowly being groomed as a PG? For now, this is how I see it happening, at least to start the year...

(Minutes)
PG: Miller(34), Lou(14)
SG: Iggy(18), Lou(12), Green(12), Rush(6)
SF: Young(22), Iggy(20), Rush(6)
PF: Brand(26), Evans(10), Speights(6), Young(6)
C: Sammy(32), Brand(10), Speights(6)

Of course, this is all assuming that Iguodala re-signs. Anyways, what are your thoughts?

Post #2 » by **tk76** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:45 am

Looks about right. I would think maybe Evan's gets 5 more minutes. I also see Iguodala logging more minutes at SG, with maybe Young not playing PF and logging 30+ min at SF.

I also think there will eb some time with Speights/Brand together and I don't know who you would call the center.

sixerswillrule · Post #3 » by **sixerswillrule** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 1:05 am

I just can't see Thad playing no more minutes at PF, considering that he played there at least 2/3 of the time last season. This seems even more likely after the injury to Smith.

freshie2 · Post #4 » by **freshie2** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 1:42 am

I don't think Brand plays that much @ center...maybe not any at all depending on who they sign.

sixerswillrule · Post #5 » by **sixerswillrule** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 2:11 am

Brand is more than capable of playing some center. It is unlikely that whoever we sign will be in the regular rotation, because then that means either Evans or Speights is out of the rotation. There is simply not enough minutes to go around.

jmon · Post #6 » by **jmon** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 5:23 am

freshie2 wrote:I don't think Brand plays that much @ center...maybe not any at all depending on who they sign.

He did play a majority of his minutes one season there(at the 5).

LieCheatSteal · Post #7 » by **LieCheatSteal** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:33 pm

I can see Speights picking up Last year's Jason Smith minutes at backup C and Evans caddying for Brand most of the time. I don't see Lou playing SG; he'll predominantly play PG (his long term future with this team will be PG anyways; what with the SG log jam this team has (Iggy/Green/Rush). Green will be backup SG and Rush will be backup SF.

Anything about a 3rd PG?

Skates · Post #8 » by **Skates** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:48 pm

LieCheatSteal wrote:I can see Speights picking up Last year's Jason Smith minutes at backup C and Evans caddying for Brand most of the time. I don't see Lou playing SG; he'll predominantly play PG (his long term future with this team will be PG anyways; what with the SG log jam this team has (Iggy/Green/Rush). Green will be backup SG and Rush will be backup SF.

Anything about a 3rd PG?

Royal Ivey is the third point guard, but I think he may get more playing time than that. Stefanski mentioned Ivey as the perfect complement to Lou W. in the backcourt. I am assuming this is because he can handle the ball, play physical, pressure defense and doesn't worry about scoring. My hope is that Mo mixes and matches Ivey, Green and Rush depending on match-ups. I do see Rush getting some time at SF, it is the one spot where the team is thin.

Post #9 » by **tk76** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:07 pm

My guess is that at PG they will go with Miller, Lou and Ivey. If one of the 1st 2 has to miss substantial time then they will sign an older vet like Ollie or Cassell if they are still avalable.

UptownPhilly · Post #10 » by **UptownPhilly** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:57 pm

I wouldn't be surprised if Green starts at SG, and Iguodala at SF, with young getting around 22-25 mpg off the bench.

jmon · Post #11 » by **jmon** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:00 pm

Roletagg wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if Green starts at SG, and Iguodala at SF, with young getting around 22-25 mpg off the bench.

I would, but I wouldn't only be surprised by Young's minutes. He was playing 30 mins/game down the stretch. I see little reason as to why Young would have those minutes cut. he will be above Spights in the rotation at the 4 if need be.

Skates · Post #12 » by **Skates** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:02 pm

Roletagg wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if Green starts at SG, and Iguodala at SF, with young getting around 22-25 mpg off the bench.

I don't think Stefanski is a big WG fan. Whenever he speaks of the team's future, good young players, cornerstones, etc he rarely ever mentions WG by name, but is pretty loose with praise for most of the other core guys. Ed talks up Lou as a SG and says he will compete there, says Ivey is a good complement ot Lou and signs rush who can fill the shooter role that Green might otherwise hold. I think Mo likes WG more than Ed does, but if WG is the starter without an spate of injuries occurring first I would be very surprised.

jmon · Post #13 » by **jmon** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:04 pm

PG: Miller(25), Williams(16), Ivey(7)
SG: Green(20), Miller(10), Williams(10), Iguodala(8)
SF: Iguodala(30), Young(18)
PF: Brand(25), Young(11), Evans(12)
C: Dalembert(31), Brand(12), Evans(5)

Something like that is reasonable to me as a possibility. Do I like it? Nope. Could Cheeks go to a 8 1/2 man rotation as shown here to start the year? Why not?

jmon · Post #14 » by **jmon** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:09 pm

Skates wrote:I don't think Stefanski is a big WG fan. Whenever he speaks of the team's future, good young players, cornerstones, etc he rarely ever mentions WG by name, but is pretty loose with praise for most of the other core guys. Ed talks up Lou as a SG and says he will compete there, says Ivey is a good complement ot Lou and signs rush who can fill the shooter role that Green might otherwise hold. I think Mo likes WG more than Ed does, but if WG is the starter without an spate of injuries occurring first I would be very surprised.

The coaching staff chooses who plays and who doesn't. Management chooses who is on the team and who isn't. Does Pat Gillick's opinion on who should start matter that much? No. Charlie runs the team. Same goes for Ed and Mo. Mo runs the team. Mo is not a puppet coach at all.

Post #15 » by **tk76** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:14 pm

Ed has already impacted Mo's rotations. In the case of both Thad and Carney Ed made a public statement about expecting them to get more time, and the next week they were getting heavy minutes.

I'm not saying its a unilateral decision from Ed- but Mo has admitted that Ed encouraged him to make minutes for certain players, and was told that he would not take to blame if it cost them wins.

jmon · Post #16 » by **jmon** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:59 pm

tk76 wrote:Ed has already impacted Mo's rotations. In the case of both Thad and Carney Ed made a public statement about expecting them to get more time, and the next week they were getting heavy minutes.

I'm not saying its a unilateral decision from Ed- but Mo has admitted that Ed encouraged him to make minutes for certain players, and was told that he would not take to blame if it cost them wins.

Ed made a recommendation as a GM to play the young guys more so he could see what they had to see what to do with the personnel. Cheeks reluctantly said he would do it. Then once Korver was traded, the minutes were there to play around with and so he started doing whatever he wanted again because the team was winning.

Ed's real impact was trading Korver, a great move.

Now that this is an established team attempting to contend, I highly doubt Cheeks will be acting on any recommendations form Ed unless he agrees.

geiger · Post #17 » by **geiger** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:36 am

Last season was a special case, as Jmon said. A new GM comes to a new team, with a critical off-season coming up and decides to free up some salary and asks the coach, who at that time was a lame duck, to play the young players so the GM can evaluate them.

Now we have no cap space and he did his evaluating. The team made the playoffs and the coach got a new contract. I'm pretty sure Ed is going to let Mo play whomever Mo wants to play. It's clear that like most coaches, Mo is more comfortable with veterans because he knows what he'll get from them on nightly basis. At the same time, he probably has a much greater comfort level with Lou Williams after 3 years of coaching him and making him his pet project, and Young gave him some confidence last season. With Smith injured, he'll probably be forced into playing Speights some, but with Evans still here, it might not be much if Dalembert is healthy - maybe 8 to 10 minutes a game - at least at first. There will be a battle for playing time between Green and Rush, but since both are veteran players at this point, Cheeks will go with the hot hand most of the time and the guy who plays best will get on the floor.

I'm not so sure Young is ready to start and play 35 minutes a game as a 20 year old second year player. He should get more time than he did last season, but even that's not guaranteed. He played out of position a lot at PF, and he did fairly well, but now he has to show he has SF skills since PF minutes are mostly spoken for. His summer league showing was inconclusive. He struggled defensively, shooting, pulling up, passing, driving to his right, and with the 3. He'll have to do at least some of those things if he is going to play in the 35 minute range.

sixerswillrule · Post #18 » by **sixerswillrule** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:53 am

There is no way that Young will be playing that many minutes. With Williams, Green, and Rush all getting time at SG, Iguodala will still be playing a good amount at SF. Young should be the starter, but will be playing no more than 30 minutes per game. Most likely in the 26-28 range.

arjwdotcom · Post #19 » by **arjwdotcom** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:44 pm

sixerswillrule wrote:(Minutes)
PG: Miller(34), Lou(14)
SG: Iggy(18), Lou(12), Green(12), Rush(6)
SF: Young(22), Iggy(20), Rush(6)
PF: Brand(26), Evans(10), Speights(6), Young(6)
C: Sammy(32), Brand(10), Speights(6)

This rotation you have here is unrealistic. At the most this is what it would look like in the first 2-3 weeks, but after that all solid playoff teams settle on nothing more than a 9 man rotation.

Counting Iggy, you can expect to see your main guards be Miller and Iggy starting, with Green and Williams playing the signifiant minutes depending on matchup. If Young starts, then he and Rush will hold down things, with Rush getting little to no burn as Iggy will probably slide to the 3 before Rush gets plugged in as a 3.

In terms of bigs, Brand and Sammy getting main minutes with Evans backing up both of them. Considering that Brand and Evans aren't as foul prone and tend to bring it quite often, you'd only see Young move to the 4 or Speights get in at the 4/5 only if matchups and foul trouble are an issue. Don't expect the rookie to make a major impact in minutes unless the Sixers are running away with the season or there is a major injury and he shows that despite his youth that he can brawl down low with vets. Normally speaking, that doesn't happen. His minutes shouldn't even factor into the rotation.

That all being said, this is more realistic

Starters: Miller, Iggy, Young, Brand, Dalembert
Top Reserves: Williams, Green, Evans

Rush and Ivey would be situational guards; Speights will ride the back of the bench.

Philly_King · Post #20 » by **Philly_King** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:27 pm

^^ Rush is by far our best 3 point shooter so I would think he will be used a fair bit off the bench because he brings something to the table no one else on the team does(as well). He will share minutes with Green but IMO Rush may very well have the edge there due to his shooting and ability to spread the court. You can never count Mo giving Green a lot of minutes though, as we have learned over the years.