The Rotation: Who Starts, and Who is 6th Man?

[Soulyss]

what would make most sense if CJ as 6th man, or rather, that option would make 2nd most sense after trading CJ

but it will be the same starters as last season, Dame-CJ-Powell-RoCo-Nurkic and Nance will likely be 6th man. It's pretty pathetic that after all the noise Dame made about the roster being inadequate, the Blazers have exchanged Kanter, Melo, Jones, & Giles for Zeller, Nance, Snell, and McLemore. If there's any real upgrade there it's not a significant one. Nance over Melo would essentially be the upgrade, and that's basically an upgrade of role players

Statistically that three guard lineup was one of the best in the NBA and outplayed mostly lineups. While I would like to see better balance on the roster and find CJ/Norm basically redundant, that lineup isn't the problem and there is zero chance CJ doesn't start.

[Soulyss]

The starters will be: Dame, CJ, Norm, RoCo, Nurk
1st subs, 6-minute mark: CJ->Nance, RoCo slides to SF, Norm to SG. (Dame, Norm, Roco, Nance, Nurk)
2nd subs, 10-minute mark: Norm->Simons, Roco->Little, Nurk->Zeller (Dame, Simons, Little, Nance, Zeller)
3rd subs, 12-minute mark: CJ->Dame (CJ, Simons, Little, Nance, Zeller)
4th subs, 16-minute mark: Norm->Simons, Roco->Nance (CJ, Norm, Little, Roco, Zeller)
5th subs, 18 minute mark: Dame->CJ, Nurk->Zeller (Dame, Norm, Little, RoCo, Nurk)
6th subs, 20 minute mark: CJ->Little (Dame, CJ, Norm, Roco, Nurk)

That is what a half might look like.

Generally that gets you Dame, CJ, Roco in the 30+ minutes a night. Nance, Norm, Nurk in the high 20's, Little, Simons, and Zeller in the teens, and a few minutes sprinkled through the rest of the bench.

[Wizenheimer]

what would make most sense if CJ as 6th man, or rather, that option would make 2nd most sense after trading CJ

but it will be the same starters as last season, Dame-CJ-Powell-RoCo-Nurkic and Nance will likely be 6th man. It's pretty pathetic that after all the noise Dame made about the roster being inadequate, the Blazers have exchanged Kanter, Melo, Jones, & Giles for Zeller, Nance, Snell, and McLemore. If there's any real upgrade there it's not a significant one. Nance over Melo would essentially be the upgrade, and that's basically an upgrade of role players

Statistically that three guard lineup was one of the best in the NBA and outplayed mostly lineups. While I would like to see better balance on the roster and find CJ/Norm basically redundant, that lineup isn't the problem and there is zero chance CJ doesn't start.

I keep seeing that stat repeated ad nauseum.

I know this, when Portland traded for Powell, the Blazers ranked 29th in defense. And after 27 games of Powell (third of the season), Portland still ranked 29th in defense. And then, in the playoffs, that stat gave way to the Blazers losing game 6, at home, to a Denver team missing their 2nd best player plus their 6th man. And in that 6th game, Stotts finally gave up on trying to defend Porter with Powell and switched Dame onto him

so maybe that smaller sample size net rating wasn't as relevant as many want to believe

and/or maybe, a 3 guard lineup that doesn't have at least one 6'5-6'7 guard, but does have two minus defenders is fundamentally flawed

[Sinobas]

A 3 guard rotation with CJ coming off the bench would be better than our 3 guard lineup I think. But I don't think Billups would do it.

Why would Billups want to start 3 small guards? I assume Billups will be about defense? No disrespect to our guards, but I want the taller/longer lineup playing together most of the game. But I give respect to CJ as the starter over Norman Powell...

Dame / CJ / RoCo / Nance / Nurkic

Because when you bring certain players off the bench it makes them angry, which can lower their trade value etc and cause discontent in the locker room. Most NBA players get their pride hurt if they lose their starting job.