What do you guys think about DOC's rotation last night ??

[ParticleMan]

this thread is hysterical.

um, those were our top 9 guys going into the preseason. they were our top 9 all throughout the preseason. and guess what? they're our top 9 going into the season. it's no surprise who played and who didn't.

POB and Pruitt will get chances during blowouts and such. there will be plenty of those. but on opening night, trying to make a statement against the Cavs, with all the emotion, etc, that's a game to win. not fart around giving experience to guys outside our rotation.

[captain_cheapseats]

I loved the rotation. To me a well-defined 9-man rotation -- with each guy knowing exactly what his role is and how long he'll be in the game -- is ideal. That's what we saw last night, and I for one really hope it continues.

Now my thoughts on a few of the critiques posted so far:

NINE GUYS.....if you play more than 9 (which seems to be what some of you want), the bench players aren't in the game long enough to give the team any sort of consistency. To the extent the Celts got away with using 11+ guys last year in random patterns understood only by Doc, it was because they had older vets like Cassell, Brown, House and Posey playing big minutes, who could turn it on and off a bit easier than your average player. This year we are relying primarily on Powe/Allen to carry the bench, and those two are going to need extended minutes to play up to their full potential on a nightly basis.

REPLACING HOUSE.....if you take guys out when they are struggling (like many of you wanted to see with House), it hurts in the long run because then the bench guys stop playing with aggression and never get a chance to play their way out of the slump. Consider that both TA and Powe also got off to bad starts just like House did, yet none of you are saying that they should have been taken out of the game. The reason, of course, is that they snapped out of it and made huge plays down the stretch. So while it's easy to play coach with the benefit of hind-sight and say House should have been benched, keep in mind that that same logic would have also lead you to bench Powe and Allen, which means your team probably would have lost. That's not to say that if House keeps struggling he shouldn't be replaced him by Pruitt, the point is simply that you don't do that in the middle of the first game of the season over a few missed shots.

POWE & BIG BABY.....while it's certainly true that optimally you'd prefer to see the bigs switched around so Davis and Powe aren't on the court together for quite so long, bringing them both off the bench (hence forcing them to be on the court at the same time for a stretch) is probably a concious trade-off Doc is making to send them a message, specifically: "if you want to start, you need to work your *ss off and win the job from Perk.....it won't just get handed to you to balance the rotation!" I'm sure Doc would love to give Davis his 15-20 mpg alongside KG to lessen the burden on the team, but doing so would send the wrong message to the young guys, which could be harmful in the long run (not to mention that it would probably piss off Perk and the other starters to boot).

WALKER.....it's obvious that he's going to be a good player, but anyone who thinks he should be playing over TA (who got all the excess minutes at the swing spots last night) just hasn't been paying attention. TA won that spot in the rotation over Walker/Giddens this preseason by a landslide, so it'd be an awfully odd move for Doc to just hand Walker some of TA's minutes in a tight game.

PRUITT/POB.....the argument for these guys is somewhat better than for Walker, since they are at least close to being as good as the guys they are behind right now. I'm sure these two guys are going to get a chance to win a job in the rotation at some point this year, and if/when they do we can hear all the Baby/House supporters complain about their guy being left out For what it's worth, I thought POB and House were better than Davis and Pruitt this preseason. But both battles for the final rotation spots were definitely close (particularly between Davis and POB), so I wasn't really surprised to see that House and Davis ended up getting the nod for now.

[Banks2Pierce]

My only issue is that Ray Allen got too many minutes. Also, the team runs a lot worse with Eddie at the point, but he only played there a lot because Rondo got in early foul trouble. I'm fine with the rotation overall.

[chakdaddy]

Seemed like a simple formula to me -

- BBD replaced PJ as backup C.
- Tony Allen replaced Posey's wing minutes
- Powe got extra time that would have gone to Posey at the 4.

Interesting that no one is in the rotation so far that wasn't on last year's active roster.

[sully00]

Baby beat out POB for the back up spot being 3" taller doesn't help if you get pushed around.

House at the point sucks. It isn't even that he is that bad at it so much as it takes him out of his own offense. Eddie needs to be coming off screens and spotting up to do his thing and playing half assed pg means we don't have a pg or Eddie's shooting.

CLE is a wierd match up because they don't really have a traditional pg or a defender at the postion yet they still gave Eddie trouble. I hope that Doc plans on going with Pruitt, because it is an issue that every team in the league can see. Rondo's style of play is likely going to limit him to about 30 mpg. I know that Tony is an option but once he actually looks to pass the ball to someone else is when the turnovers start.

That and KG not getting his ass down on the blocks more were my only itches from last night.

[GreenGrizz]

I would feel much better if they add an experienced small forward like Eric Williams or Linton Johnson.

[sam_I_am]

I think the game was so tight from start to finish that Doc had to stick with the guys he knew and the chemsitry that is already there. I think POB will get a chance to play more when we have full control of the game. He will get a chance if he deserves it but why should Doc tinker with success and risk losing a close game?