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What do we see as the best starting lineup and minutes?

Lineup:
Booker/Payne/Goodwin
Beal/Lee
KD/Okogie/Camara
KBD/Yuta/Ish/Todd
Ayton/Eubanks/Metu

Healthy:
Booker: 36mins/Payne 14mins
Beal: 35mins/Goodwin 6mins
KD: 34mins/ Okogie 24mins
KBD 25mins/ Yuta 18mins
Ayton: 32mins/Eubanks 16mins

Starters only play 26-30 minutes as we easily win by double digits every game.

I thought we'd start a guy like Goodwin who's in there solely to play defense and shoot 3's but given the signing of wings/forwards, it does feel more like we're going to run the DB/BB back court and put another wing/forward out there at the 3 or 4 instead.

These are my playoff splits:

Goodwin 30
Beal 40
Booker 40
Durant 40
Ayton 36

Payne 18
Bates-Diop 8
Watanabe 16
Eubanks 12

Beal/Payne
Booker/Goodwin/Lee
Bates-Diop/Okogie
Durant/Watanabe/Camara/Todd
Ayton/Eubanks/Metu

Interesting battle for PG with Goodwin and Payne.

Honestly I think I'd give the 5th spot to Okogie, especially in the regular season. At least based on what the guys have done to this point. Goodwin could pop off in training camp and take it (I'd call that unlikely), but I think you need a POA defender in there so Booker/Beal dont have to do it for 82 games. KBD is ok on defense but not the same as Josh.

In the playoffs its tough...probably depends on matchups. Okogie **** the bed hard when the defense trapped Book/KD with his defender and he could not take advantage of the 4-on-3s. Honestly Yuta might be the best bet of someone who can do a little with the ball in his hands in that situation without being a total negative on defense. But if you design an offense certain ways you can try to cover up for those things (though I dont have a lot of confidence in Vogel there). KBD is a better bet for when you need size.

Goodwin is a wild card in all of it and I know theres excitement with him but not counting on anything crazy from him until I see it.

Still a bit worried about the team's defensive personnel as a whole but I do believe in Vogel getting a defense that is greater than the sum of its parts.

As far as minutes...Ayton/Eubanks get the C minutes. And I go KBD/Payne with Yuta/Lee either both getting time off the bench if you play 10 or just whichever one is shooting well. Probably need to stagger the big 3 a good bit to make sure you dont put too much on all the minimum guys.

I think there's going to be a lot of competition for minutes and they will try some different things early in the season. See what 4-5 guys step up after the 'core 4' and earn playoff opportunities.



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Any chance to get Thybulle still?

Otherwise hope Goodwin is better than Okogie.

A few players to fight for that 5th spot in first half of the season then I would play the one who fits the best with the big 4(yes, big 4, Blondy ). I trust Diop and Yuta more than Okogie, who in addition to being bad from 3, also hesitated while left open at FT line in the playoffs. Suns need to build identity, not mess with lineups during the playoffs. It's up to the rest of the league to adjust to Suns now.

Presumably KBD will be in the starting five.

Woj said that he signed with the Suns for the opportunity to be an starter on a contender and the player option next season.

With much more exposure on a contender he can get a nice deal next year. Win-win.

The finishing 5 matters more than the starting 5. That's something that I think will vary by matchup and who's got the hot hand and that night.

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If we cut Todd before the start of the season I think that we will sign a PG and C.

Book/Payne/?
Beal/Goodwin/Damion Lee
KBD/Okogie/ Wainright
KD/Watanabe/Metu
Ayton/Eubanks/?

* Two-way contracts
Saben Lee (PG)
Toumani Camara (SF/PF)
?

WeekapaugGroove wrote:I think there's going to be a lot of competition for minutes and they will try some different things early in the season. See what 4-5 guys step up after the 'core 4' and earn playoff opportunities.



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Yeah, there will be guys who play well for awhile and we will be thinking they are the guys to go with going forward, then someone else may step up while the guys who stepped up prior may not play as well.

Just like we saw with Okogie. He had like a 4 game stretch where he was playing great offensively and we were all thinking no way we will be able to keep him with the MLE.

It's hard for most all players to play at a high level consistently game in and game out, especially on both sides of the ball.

A bit surprised everyone has KBD starting over Yuta.

Starting line up:
Booker
Beal
KD
Yuta
Ayton

First guys off the bench :
Payne
Booker
KD
KBD
Eubanks

Second switch
Payne
Beal
Okogie
KBD
Ayton

Then back to the starting line-up.

With Lee and Goodwin playing some minutes in between.

This is more a conceptional rotation, I get that all players will atleast rest twice in a game.

Overall, we'll always have atleast two of Book/Beal/Durant/Ayton on the floor at (almost) all times.

Goodwin!

I think Vogel is going to tinker with the guys we've got early. We should be able to play big or small depending on the matchup.

Even our ‘small’ plays big

Frank Lee wrote:Even our ‘small’ plays big

But our 'big' plays small

MrMiyagi wrote:I think Vogel is going to tinker with the guys we've got early. We should be able to play big or small depending on the matchup.

Yeah I think the first couple months of the season is really going to be about figuring out what groups of players work together. They can play a lot of different styles and sized lineups.

Like I wouldn't even pay much attention to who the 5th starter is opening night because that guy could be out of the rotation by January.



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Drafting Ayton over Doncic and then watching Doncic become that alternate offensive creator we needed, but then Ishbia and Jones got KD, but there was zero depth. A lot of us had pretty low expectations this offseason but the FO did their work early and did it well. And now it looks like we don't even have to trade Ayton.

This is the team I was dreaming of for years. Years of talking about multiple creators, switchable players, defensive hustle guards, shooting all around. Definitely sounded like a broken record at one point.

This is the best team we've ever had and Booker is the best player we've ever had. Its time to make it happen. I cannot express how excited I am to watch this team. I really really hope all the additions works out.