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This is purely a question for NBA 2k16 purposes haha.

Does Cousins start at the 4 and WCS at the 5? This is what I understand.

Do you think WCS starts straight away or does Koufos?

Does Rondo start straight away? Does he get big starter mins, I wouldn't think so to begin with.

My take on the rotation and depth chart,

Rondo-Collison-Curry
McLemore-Belinelli-Anderson
Gay-Butler-Dukan
Cousins-Casspi-Acy
Koufos-WCS-Moreland

I think if WCS and Cousins play together, WCS plays the 4. I don't really understand why a lot of people are considering him a center when he's not necessarily strong enough to defend centers while being vastly quicker so I think it would limit his effectiveness to guard centers. He can't shoot but it's not like having a stretch 4 is a necessity and I'd rather see him as a weak side shot blocker. He did play the PF spot next to Towns in college so I don't know when he became a C.

Personally, I hope to see:
Rondo-Collison-Curry
Mclemore-Belinelli
Gay-Casspi-Butler
WCS-Acy-Moreland
Cousins-Koufos

I would imagine we do an early substitution moving Gay to PF and bringing in Casspi and possibly even playing Rondo-Collison together in the backcourt. That's what I hope to see anyway.

I think Rudy Gay starts at 4. I just can't justify starting WCS over Koufos right now, and I don't want to start Koufos with Cousins for speed reasons.

Spacing would be beyond turrible with WCS and Rondo starting.

I want to see Willie and Ben in there but I wouldn't be surprised to see Karl really look at Rondo/Collison/Casspi/Gay/Cousins.

codydaze wrote:I think if WCS and Cousins play together, WCS plays the 4. I don't really understand why a lot of people are considering him a center when he's not necessarily strong enough to defend centers while being vastly quicker so I think it would limit his effectiveness to guard centers. He can't shoot but it's not like having a stretch 4 is a necessity and I'd rather see him as a weak side shot blocker. He did play the PF spot next to Towns in college so I don't know when he became a C.

Personally, I hope to see:
Rondo-Collison-Curry
Mclemore-Belinelli
Gay-Casspi-Butler
WCS-Acy-Moreland
Cousins-Koufos

I would imagine we do an early substitution moving Gay to PF and bringing in Casspi and possibly even playing Rondo-Collison together in the backcourt. That's what I hope to see anyway.

Anyone can call Cuz or Willie the center if they want, but defensively I doubt Cuz steps too far away from the basket. If they switch Cauley-Stein to playing at the rim and putting Cuz out of the perimeter then it's time to be worried because they both can possibly excel at elite levels in the opposite situation.

SacKingZZZ wrote:

codydaze wrote:I think if WCS and Cousins play together, WCS plays the 4. I don't really understand why a lot of people are considering him a center when he's not necessarily strong enough to defend centers while being vastly quicker so I think it would limit his effectiveness to guard centers. He can't shoot but it's not like having a stretch 4 is a necessity and I'd rather see him as a weak side shot blocker. He did play the PF spot next to Towns in college so I don't know when he became a C.

Personally, I hope to see:
Rondo-Collison-Curry
Mclemore-Belinelli
Gay-Casspi-Butler
WCS-Acy-Moreland
Cousins-Koufos

I would imagine we do an early substitution moving Gay to PF and bringing in Casspi and possibly even playing Rondo-Collison together in the backcourt. That's what I hope to see anyway.

Anyone can call Cuz or Willie the center if they want, but defensively I doubt Cuz steps too far away from the basket. If they switch Cauley-Stein to playing at the rim and putting Cuz out of the perimeter then it's time to be worried because they both can possibly excel at elite levels in the opposite situation.

Agreed, that's pretty much my point. Having WCS guard centers in the post hamstrings him in a sense by not being able to fully utilize his quickness.

EDIT: and it really doesn't matter what you call them on offense. Positions are just semantics at that point.

Well this gets me thinking, now I got no idea who to start. Gay at PF is something I never considered.

Seems like the majority think WCS won't start straight away correct?
And when he does, he's at the 4 and Cousins at the 5.

Well, Karl himself said he doesn't really like to play rookies much. Of course, he said that after saying something about how Cauley-Stein looks to be an exception to that rule and he will play. I wouldn't look for him to start but if he proves to be a perfect front court mate for Cuz he should start him and play him a ton.

I think the odds right now are still in favor of Gay at PF.

SacKingZZZ wrote:Well, Karl himself said he doesn't really like to play rookies much. Of course, he said that after saying something about how Cauley-Stein looks to be an exception to that rule and he will play. I wouldn't look for him to start but if he proves to be a perfect front court mate for Cuz he should start him and play him a ton.

I think the odds right now are still in favor of Gay at PF.

I honestly didn't realise that the most likely scenario would be Gay at PF.

So you'd really have the 2 "centers" in Koufos and WCS coming off the bench, as well as two quality backup PF's in Acy and Evans? that's a lot of big man depth of the bench.

mike3 wrote:

SacKingZZZ wrote:Well, Karl himself said he doesn't really like to play rookies much. Of course, he said that after saying something about how Cauley-Stein looks to be an exception to that rule and he will play. I wouldn't look for him to start but if he proves to be a perfect front court mate for Cuz he should start him and play him a ton.

I think the odds right now are still in favor of Gay at PF.

I honestly didn't realise that the most likely scenario would be Gay at PF.

So you'd really have the 2 "centers" in Koufos and WCS coming off the bench, as well as two quality backup PF's in Acy and Evans? that's a lot of big man depth of the bench.

All I know is the only thing remotely solid about what Karl said he's going to do next year is he's going to play Rondo and Collison together and Rudy is going to play mostly at the 4. We'll see if he's deadset on that or not but as of now that's all there has been to go on. I'm not sure who starts but it's probably the safest bet at the moment to slot Gay in there at PF. Not a huge fan of it personally with the offseason acquisitions they had. It sounded like Karl wanted to play smaller moving forward but they added mostly size and one position wing players so it probably didn't help that vision much. I hope to see him really experiment to find the most complimentary lineup around Gay and Cousins.

Karl loves PG's, wants to run & likes speed... He will start Rondo, Collison, Casspi, Gay & Cousins... Karl played Faried at the 5 & Chandler at the 4 most of the time with McGee & Mozgov on the roster... Gay is 6'9"... WCS is the next Tyson Chandler... He will be a stud...

Koufos started every game for Karl's Nuggets in 2012-13. Koufos, Mozgov and Mcgee in 2011-12 and Nene the year before. Yes, they will rotate in the other guys and play small a lot but the topic is starting lineups and Karl will start a traditional lineup.

Most used starting lineup will probably be Koufos DMC Gay Ben Rondo and then sub in Collison, Casspi and Belinelli as the first off the bench.

If we are talking about who will play the most minutes, I say DMC, Gay, Ben, Collison, Casspi, Rondo, Koufos, WCS, Curry, Butler, Dukan, Acy, Anderson and Moreland in that order.

benchmobbin02 wrote:Koufos started every game for Karl's Nuggets in 2012-13. Koufos, Mozgov and Mcgee in 2011-12 and Nene the year before. Yes, they will rotate in the other guys and play small a lot but the topic is starting lineups and Karl will start a traditional lineup.

Most used starting lineup will probably be Koufos DMC Gay Ben Rondo and then sub in Collison, Casspi and Belinelli as the first off the bench.

If we are talking about who will play the most minutes, I say DMC, Gay, Ben, Collison, Casspi, Rondo, Koufos, WCS, Curry, Butler, Dukan, Acy, Anderson and Moreland in that order.

Yeah I wondered if that was the case, whether that'd actually be the starting lineup or just a highly used rotation.

Anyway you are going to end up games 100% with Collison-Belinelli-Gay-Casspi-Cousins

Fischella wrote:Anyway you are going to end up games 100% with Collison-Belinelli-Gay-Casspi-Cousins

100% huh...haha

Ben and Rondo will definitely end some games on the floor. maybe even WCS if he develops faster then expected. The nba is a league of matchups.

They will start either Casspi or WCS at the 4. Even if they start WCS and call him a center it is pretty meaningless as Cousins will guard the more post orientated player/banger usually.

If it is Casspi look for Butler to play more minutes than most expected, probably around 18 a game.

We definitely disagree. They will start Koufos or Casspi. I believe it is a very slim chance that WCS starts games especially in the beginning of the year when Karl hasn't been able to test him vs real comp with the system installed. Whether its DMC at the 4 and Koufos at the 5 or Gay at the 4 and DMC at the 5. Those are the most likely starting lineups. I tend to agree that Butler will get more time than we expect but probably not 18mins on avg.

This is the question of the offseason so far and we won't know til probably the middle of the preseason when the lineup is locked down.