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Inspired by this post at Bright Side: http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2011/ ... ght-lineup

For the purposes of this post, please do me a favor. Assume the trade deadline has already passed, and THIS is the team that's stuck together for another 49 games. Don't suggest trades. Don't talk about next summer or the draft. Take the day off from wishing the team was comprised of something else.

Talk about what can WORK for this team, this season. Hunker down, don't look around the league. Just look at this current team as if you're Gentry. What should he do, right now with what he has?

NO ROSTERBATION! NO TRADES! How would you play our CURRENT ROSTER?

I'll copy/paste my post to start things off

Nash/Dragic
Dudley/Carter
Hill/Chilldress
Frye/Warrick
Gortat/Lopez

Ever since we got Dudley, every lineup with him in it has performed better than every lineup without him in it. Jared Dudley is money, and at this point I consider him to be one of our best contributers. I would honestly consider benching Hill in favor of Dudley and keeping Carter in the lineup, just to add more spacing, but Hill plays like crap off the bench.

Dudley/Hill are okay defenders(I was going to say “good” but not anymore…), Frye/Gortat are okay defenders. Frye and Dudley can stretch the floor.

As far as our bench goes, Dragic and Warrick had chemistry going before they both regressed. I’d give them another shot. Carter can be a secondary scorer off the bench if we struggle to score points. Chilldress’s tenacity and ability to crash the glass is needed a hell of a lot more than Air France’s tendency to jack up shots like there’s no tomorrow.

That would be my lineup.

Nash/Dragic
VC/Dudley
Pietrus/Hill/chilldress
Hakim/frye
gortat/lopez

I put VC to start because goran confidence needs to return. VC doesnt really mesh well with what the suns are trying to do. Pietrus over hill because Hill cant shoot 3s worth crap!. Hakim ovr frye because channing helps goran.

I personally think that the suns should trade pietrus, hakim, and lopez for a Legit starting PF. If only!

Nash
Dragic
Dudley
Warrick
Frye

At least that unit can score.

Backing them up...
Hill
Chilly
VC
Gortat
ROLO

No more PT for Pietrus, less for VC and Gortat.

It's sad that I am actually hoping that VC needs some surgery or something. I don't hate the guy and I don't think he's horrible, I just hate that our overstocked wing situation is leading to so many different lineups. That said, he's the most likely of our wings to need to sit out, and if he were to do that, we may have a chance at a set rotation.

Nash/Dragic
Dudley/Pietrus (or Carter)
Hill/Childress
Frye/Warrick
Gortat/Lopez

However, if we were to go with your lineup and just bench Pietrus with VC at backup SG, I wouldn't mind that either. I do like Dudley in the starting lineup. VC just isn't bringing it like a SG needs to on our team. We've seen how good Dudley can be in the starting lineup. Then we keep starting Frye at the PF for spacing and start Gortat for obvious reasons. Our bench develops some chemistry and gets back to showing heart, hustle and camaraderie. They (except Warrick) are good enough defensively to keep us in games or even in some cases bring us back into a game. Childress, finally given consistent minutes, shows us how good he is and how stupid it was to bench him.

Nash
Dudley
Hill
Frye
Gortat

Bench: VC/Childress/Lopez/Pietrus

I'd consider giving a DNP to Dragic.

Nash
Dragic
Dudley
Warrick
Frye

At least that unit can score.

Backing them up...
Hill
Chilly
VC
Gortat
ROLO

Before you discount my post, this seems less ridiculous then starting Chilly at C. They've never tried these rotations before either.
No more PT for Pietrus, less for VC and Gortat.

Nash (25) / Dragic (23)
Wince (20) / Dudley (20) / Pietrus (8)
Hill (23) / JChill (15) / Pietrus (10)
Gortat (16) / Frye (16) / Warrick (10) / JChill (6)
RoLo (16) / Gortat (16) / Frye (16)

This is assuming we're going to contend, miraculously, next year. Save some fuel for Hill and Nash. At the same time we'll be developing mostly our youngsters.
We're so deep if any player complains about PT (Pietrus in this case) his minutes can be distributed to someone else. He'll automatically get a DNP.

Nash(34)/Dragic(14)
Carter(28)/Pietrus(20)
Hill(24)/Duds(24)
Frye(24)/Warrick(24)
Gortat(30)/Rolo(18)

I posted my lineup here : viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1081711

Gortat - Lopez
Frye - Warrick or Childress (depends if we have to go smaller)
Hill - Dudley
Pietrus - Carter
Nash - Dragic.

I think that's the more balanced starting lineup we should use. The way I see it is that it gives Nash the room to lead this team correctly and have some flow in offense. Frye and Pietrus can stretch the floor so the pick & roll Nash-Gortat could be run effectively with more space to operate it.

Lopez isn't in good shape (doesn't mean we have to trade him) and Carter doesn't fit at all. I mean he isn't bad or good, it's worse he is useless in this team because like Hedo he needs the ball to create his own shot, get in the flow. The problem is we need a spot up shooter on the wing, Pietrus can do that while Carter absolutely can't.

Hill could have more space to get into the lane and attack the rim because Frye doesn't take his space ont the paint.

I liked the Childress at center lineup in last nights game...

C-Childress
PF-Hill
SF-Peitrus
SG-Carter
PG-Nash

Unfortunately our small lineup got killed by their small plus amare lineup. I will continue to advocate more usage of the twin towers lineup for now for the better defensive presence that it gives us. We'll pay a price for it in the short -term, but longer term I think it will pay off for us.

On Offense use Gortat for the PNR (but slap-him hard across the face every time he misses wide open ones like last night), with Robin working more on his shot (which for now is still very shaky, but looks like has the potential for being developed) For this to work, we need to bring Hill off the bench so we have 3 3pt shooters out there along with the bigs. I would bring Frye in first, then Hill, to make sure we have our strong 3pt shooters in the lineup. I would stick them in a matchup 3-2 zone with Pietrus at the top and the bigs at the 2nd hash mark on the key. The positioning of the bigs is key as most rebounds we are losing seem to be bouncing into dead space around that area. that the offenses are filling. The matchup is important so we can box-out on the boards.

Nash/ Dragic
Carter/ Dudley
Pietrus/ Hill
Lopez/ Warrick
Gortat/ Frye

rsavaj wrote:Inspired by this post at Bright Side: http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2011/ ... ght-lineup

For the purposes of this post, please do me a favor. Assume the trade deadline has already passed, and THIS is the team that's stuck together for another 49 games. Don't suggest trades. Don't talk about next summer or the draft. Take the day off from wishing the team was comprised of something else.

Talk about what can WORK for this team, this season. Hunker down, don't look around the league. Just look at this current team as if you're Gentry. What should he do, right now with what he has?

NO ROSTERBATION! NO TRADES! How would you play our CURRENT ROSTER?

I'll copy/paste my post to start things off

Nash/Dragic
Dudley/Carter
Hill/Chilldress
Frye/Warrick
Gortat/Lopez

Ever since we got Dudley, every lineup with him in it has performed better than every lineup without him in it. Jared Dudley is money, and at this point I consider him to be one of our best contributers. I would honestly consider benching Hill in favor of Dudley and keeping Carter in the lineup, just to add more spacing, but Hill plays like crap off the bench.

Dudley/Hill are okay defenders(I was going to say “good” but not anymore…), Frye/Gortat are okay defenders. Frye and Dudley can stretch the floor.

As far as our bench goes, Dragic and Warrick had chemistry going before they both regressed. I’d give them another shot. Carter can be a secondary scorer off the bench if we struggle to score points. Chilldress’s tenacity and ability to crash the glass is needed a hell of a lot more than Air France’s tendency to jack up shots like there’s no tomorrow.

That would be my lineup.

Agreed.

And if Frye doesn't hit his first three shots, off to the bench he goes. Frye's effectiveness will be obvious very early on. No need to waste valuable three point looks on someone who's gonna miss, if he's off that night.

Nash / Dudley / Hill / Frye / Gorpez

Dragic / Pietrus / Vince / Childress / Frotat

Warrick

I'd go with:

PG: Nash(30)/Dragic(18)
SG: VC(25)/Pietrus(10)/Duds(9)/Dragic(4)
SF: Pietrus(14)/Duds(19)/Hill(15)
PF: Childress(16)/Frye(26)/Lopez(6)
C: Gortat(30)/Lopez(18)

I admit I'm overcomplicating it a bit by slotting minutes at multiple positions but I thought about it both by player and by position. Hear me out.

Starting: Nash obviously, VC is a smart player and starting him may help keep his head in the game, Pietrus starting gives a similar role to Hill but with better shooting and possibly better man defense, Childress is a joke at Center but has shown he can play PF with lots of hustle, and Gortat for the dirty work.

Off the bench Frye ends up with the bulk of minutes at the PF spot while I give Lopez a solid role which beats playing 1 minute per game. I try to get Dragic and Duds back into it by giving them consistent minutes, and if anything they could pick up a few more minutes as time went on.

Because we're not contending I cut back Nash and Hill's minutes to let the younger guys, and the guys who are competing for PT, more of a chance to showcase for the rest of the season.

Total minutes
Nash 30
Dragic 22
VC 25
Pietrus 24
Duds 28
Hill 15
Childress 16
Frye 26
Lopez 24
Gortat 30

Left out of the rotation
Warrick - one dimensional, but he could take some of Chill's minutes at PF if Chill doesn't work out like I want him to
Lawal - injury
Siler and Dowdell - lol

Thanks for starting this thread and nice ground rules. I'm gonna make the assumption that we will waive Carter next year and want to play the younger guys. Here's my 9-man rotation

Nash (30 min) / Dragic (18 min)
Dudley (35 min) / Dragic (13 min)
Pietrus (24 min) / Childress (24 min)
Frye (24 min) / Hill (24 min)
Gortat (30 min) / Lopez (18 min)

Starting line up works the Pick-n-roll with Nash/Gortat or Pick-n-pop with Nash/Frye. Four three point shooters in Nash, Dudly, Pietrus, and Frye. Defensively the weakest spot is Nash followed by Frye.

The bench could be a defensive juggernaut (when Nash is resting and Dudley plays with them). Hill would likely be the primary scorer. This unit will have to score off steals and quality defensive stops with fast-breaks.

The mop-up crew

Vince
Hakim
Dowdell
Siler

Taylor
Dupree
Smith/Braxton
Taurasi/Swanier
Johson/Bonner

... would probably win more games for Gentry.

Starters:

Nash (28 min)
Dudley (30 min)
Hill (24 min)
Frye (25 min)
Gortat (33 min)

Bench:

Dragic (20 min)
Carter (18 min) / Pietris (10 min)
Childress (15 min) / Pietris (10 min)
Warrick (20 min)
Lopez (15 min)

Well I thought of this for a bit, Nash, Dudley, Chilldress, Warrick, Gortat to start. Have those four guys let Nash create shots for them. Let Nash open the thre for Dudley, let Nash pick and roll with Warrick and Gortat, and let Nash run backdoor cuts for Chilldress, also that drive handoff. The second unit would be Goran, Pietrus, Hill, Frye and Lopez. Let Carter have his surgery, because his effort sucks. It gives Goran season starters to help his confidence.

If they're going to run/outscore teams

Gortat
Frye
Hill
VC
Nash
------
Dragic
Dudley
Pietrus
Warrick
Lopez

Dragic (28)/Nash (33)
Dudley (35)/Carter (25)
Hill (32)/Childress (17)
Frye (29)/Childress (17)
Gortat (35)/Lopez (20)

I know the Dragic starting over Nash move is drastic (lol I can almost say "no pun intended") but it would be nice to see how well Dragic does getting to start off the game with other starters without feeling like the pressure of being the only PG of the night. I know the Suns sucked balls in the couple games when Nash was injured but its good for evaluating if he has any potential of being a starting PG in the future. Nash still gets more minutes, tho.

Dudley and Hill have been the strongest, most consecutive and all-around most consistent players of the season. So they deserve to start (and Hill sucks off the bench). Carter's play hasnt been passionate and it works because it provides some needed offense off the bench.

Everytime I see Childress in the game, he affects it in a positive way. He deserves more playing time than Pietrus and Warrick. It would be nice if he had a 3pt shot, but if he can provide good energy and rebounding that would be more valuable for the Suns. He also could fill in minutes at the PF.

Frye spreading the floor is essential to run our offense; and Gortat is a much needed rebounder and inside presence. Lopez is playing like crap, but I think Gentry should allow him to get good, consistent minutes without worrying about making mistakes, and hopefully within the next 20 games he can be the same player for us that he was last year.

My lineup is only 9 players because a 10 man rotation looks to hurt the team more than help, right now. A group just needs to find a rhythm and identity. I'm also down for an 8 man rotation if it means more minutes for Dragic and Childress, if we can swap VC for a high energy, tough PF and/or draft picks and/or expiring if it is for our future benefit.

I didnt include Michuck Pietrus because he has very low bball IQ. and his defense isnt better than Childress'. Warrick isnt in the rotation because he has a limited offensive game with an unsatisfactory FT% and is about as strong as a limp penis.