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yesterday i was looking at our players stats and i was impressed about how many times mitchell changed toronto's rotation.

maybe is just me, but i really think that a team has to find his stability and sam after 43 games didn't even try. from the beginning of the season sam changed starting lineup and minutes almost in every single game, with players that went from an DNP to the starting lineup and than back from 40 minutes on the field to DNP after 1 or 2 games. when you are not sure how much you will play you usually tend to force to prove that you deserve your position, and this make you usually play badly.

in an nba season there are 82 games, and i really think that confidence is way more important than a single W or L. my solution? sam has to decide a rotation and stick with it at least for a while. after 6-7 games if something is not working and he wants to give more/less time to someone he can make some changes, but in this case he has to stick with his changes for other 5-6 games before changing again.

look at the minutes of kapono and rasho...

kapono in the last 10 games played 14 17 5 8 32 17 6 14 7 and 20 minutes (but is all season that is going up and down).

rasho in the last 10 games played 17 14 20 8 9 17 11 6 14 and 22 minutes with some DNP's.

how can they possibly play with confidence?!? if you look at bargnani's playing time you can have and headache on how he went up and down... all considered we are 5 games over .500, but how would we be with some stability?

we have 10 players that can play: tj(dixon), calderon, ap, moon, carlos, kapono, cb4, andrea, humpries and rasho. if we want to gain some confidence and start a big run i think that is sam's responsability to decide a rotation and follow that for a while.

rasho or humpries?
how many secure minutes for bargnani despite how he plays?
parker, kapono, delfino and moon. how much time they deserve on the field?

i'll not judge his decision, but i think that after more than half season his players deserves some stability.

sam will leave players on the floor if they are contributing.. he made it clear tons of times.. if your out there playin hard and gettin the job done you will not get pulled.. you seen it in boston too.. jamario enters the second with a careless turnover and out he goes right away

Actually our rotation has been pretty consistent. Your argument is really quite bland because the minute Bargs starts we all know that Rasho's minutes will certainly be situational. Kapono has been off the depth charts with Sam using Delfino more but he's trying to work him back in.

Hump is also situational and with Bargs's minutes he didn't deserve to play consistently so he didn't. Sam plays you if you put in effort.

The rotation has been

Caldy/Dixon (D-Mur)
Parker/Delfino
Moon/Parker (Kapono)
Bosh/Moon/Hump
Bargs/Rasho

I think consistent minutes and rotation can be important for some players, but it's not necessary across the board. IMO, you play Rasho when you need him and it's that simple. Rasho's a vet and he's not gonna get thrown off playing 8 one night, then 20+ the next. He knows his role. Kapono I think could use a far more set role over all. Here are your minutes, here's what we want you to do, go execute. After those two the only other two guys I think minutes are even an issue are Hump and Bargs. Hump deserves to be given a consistent rotation and I think he's getting it now.

Bargs, if I knew what the best thing to do with him was, I'd be in the Raps FO by now. I like that they try to build up his confidence, but sometimes I think the quick hooks or leaving him in when he's playing better just makes him more aware of his performance minute by minute instead of week to week. I think it wouldn't be a bad idea at this point to say to Bargs, here's 22-24min a game, other than for foul trouble you're gonna play these minuetes every game for a month. Stop worrying about that day's performance, no one in the team is gonna judge a single individual minute and we'll look at the month when it's done. Just to help stop being super self-conscious, 'cause I think that's what he is right now.

This is a common complaint but Sam actually has one of the most consistant rotations in the league.

The starters are consistent and the sub-rotation stays virtually the same although Rasho, Hump and sometimes Joey may come in earlier depending primarily on opposing match-ups.

And at that point, the minutes flucuate primary depending on which players are playing best. If Delfino, Bargs, Parker, Moon or whoever are playing well, they get more court time.

It all sounds pretty logical and reasonable to me.

last year, we struggled in the playoffs because nobody knew their role on the big stage.

it was evident.

Sam sometimes drives me crazy. I just don't understand his big guy rotation. If anyone understands it can you tell me how it works?

Bosh is the man, no issues there. He should get 38 minutes a game unless he is in foul trouble or the game is a blow out one way or the other.

The 10 minutes he does not play I want Bargs to get those minutes as he did against Boston. I think it will help his confidence to play some PF and some C. With Garbo out I see no reason to play anyone else besides Bargs in this role. I like Joey as a person but it drives me crazy to see him in at PF in the first half with Bargs on the bench!!!!

If you play the 4 best bigs right now you can get them all time by just doing this smart.

Bargs starts at C and only plays 6-7 minutes to start each half. He can rest and then give Chris a rest near the end of the 1st and 3rd Q at PF.

Bosh gets 36-40 at PF
Bargs getting 12- 8 at PF plus 18 at C for the game.

This also leaves 30 other minutes at C for Rasho and Hump which ever is playing well or has the best match-up. I don't think this should be so hard.

Even if Bargs gets two fouls in the first 6-7 minutes he never uses them all up. It does not seem so hard to figure out but Sam does not do it that way????

Does anyone know why?????

Three threads down is a discussion of our rotation that includes the use of our bigs...I'm going to merge this post with that thread.

I think his rotation has been bad for the young players.

I think he needs to put Bargs in at PF when Bosh is out to give him some time at both big positions and improve him.

Rapsalot wrote:I think he needs to put Bargs in at PF when Bosh is out to give him some time at both big positions and improve him.

He's been doing that some lately by playing Bargs with Rasho- like during the pre-season when Bosh was hurt and Bargs was playing well.

Our rotation has been fairly consistent. Considering Mitchell has to juggle so many Raptors, I think he has done a pretty good job. Bryan definitely needs a 2 for 1 deal to shorten yet strengthen our bench in order to help Mitchell AND the Raptors out though