2022/23 Rotation Thread

[PerkinsFor3]

I know we have to play our starter together for them to get chemistry but I am hoping we are good enough next year we can afford to rest some players and still not lose any ground at a top 3 seed. I want us to go into the playoffs healthy.

We know Edwards wasn't 100% and Russell seems to always miss games throughout the season. Basically I would like us to use Nazi to git Rudy and Kat some days offs. I also think we need to still sign a back up PG I like McLaughlin but not sure he is someone I want starting games if DLo is out for sometime. I would also like to bring in a backup PF still to give Kat some days off.

Being Dutch, I can not recommend using Nazi's to get days off.

[Klomp]

I know we have to play our starter together for them to get chemistry but I am hoping we are good enough next year we can afford to rest some players and still not lose any ground at a top 3 seed. I want us to go into the playoffs healthy.

We know Edwards wasn't 100% and Russell seems to always miss games throughout the season. Basically I would like us to use Nazi to git Rudy and Kat some days offs. I also think we need to still sign a back up PG I like McLaughlin but not sure he is someone I want starting games if DLo is out for sometime. I would also like to bring in a backup PF still to give Kat some days off.

Being Dutch, I can not recommend using Nazi's to get days off.

Confirmed.

[Macwolf527]

I would limit KAT’s minutes at center unless injuries dictate otherwise. First, you limit wear and tear on his body. I would start ramping his minutes up the last 20 games of the of the season to get him ready for the playoffs. Second, you have to keep Naz in the rotation just so his timing is on in case of injuries and he has to back up the center position. You can start to scale his minutes back as you ramp Towns up later in the season. Lastly, at 30, you want to save wear and tear on Gobert as much as possible. I wouldn’t mind if he averaged 29-31minutes a game and the rest went to Naz in the regular season.

McDaniels, Prince and Anderson can share the remaining PF minutes and the 48 at small forward with Moore tossed in during blowouts.

The minutes hard to determine is at PG and SG. I really believe we’re going to sign a veteran PG before free agency is up. DLO is almost assuredly to miss 15 to 20 games, so you need someone reliable to step in when this happens or to spell McLaughlin. You could possibly get away with playing Nowell or Forbes in a pinch, but it’s going to cost defensively if we do. It’s going to cost playing McLaughlin too defensively, which is why another PG is needed. I would love to sign Dennis Smith Jr. I think he fits this squad, especially when we go small and want to get out and run. Edwards is my only sure thing at SG. I’m really curious to see the rest of the rotation behind him, Nowell or Forbes?

[winforlose]

So does Rivers fit into the rotation?

[Krapinsky]

So does Rivers fit into the rotation?

I think similar to Forbes. Probably depends on matchups. He’ll get irregular minutes when we’re fully healthy.

[winforlose]

So does Rivers fit into the rotation?

I think similar to Forbes. Probably depends on matchups. He’ll get irregular minutes when we’re fully healthy.

I was thinking about this a little more, and I think Ant might get some run at the 3 at the expense of Prince, especially when MCD is in foul trouble. If Ant moves to the 3 and Nowell plays with him at the 2 you add a second shot creator. Now if you play a Rivers or even a Forbes and move Nowell to the PG you have a lot of 3 point shooting. Finish that lineup with KA and KAT, and your very difficult to guard.

One thing I thought was funny last season is we had too many guys who deserved to be in the rotation, and it was both a good and bad problem to have. You always want to be deep, but you don’t want guys getting angry at not having opportunities. This season I thought for sure we wouldn’t have that problem. But Rivers was getting 22 a game last year and Forbes is used to getting around 17 a game. Instead of young guys needing minutes to develop, we have vets who aren’t used to being 3rd string. On the one hand it is an “embarrassment of riches,” but on the other hand, it might become an issue if not handled properly. Gonna be very interesting to see if Finch tries an 11 man rotation again, or if he actually cuts it down to 8 or 9 like some of us are suggesting.

[Jailblazers7]

I think for the PG rotation that the team will challenge Ant to play some minutes there and develop as a distributor almost like a mini point Zion. They’re clearly making a big bet on Ant overall and that means he’ll need to be the hub of the offense more often than in prior years. I’d love to see some supersized lineups with:

PG - Ant
SG - McDaniels
SF - Anderson
PF - KAT
C - Rudy

I could foresee some issues playing Kyle Anderson with the KAT/Gobert lineups. I think having more athletic wings on the floor with those two will be important or else they’ll give up a ton of open 3s on defense.

[winforlose]

I think for the PG rotation that the team will challenge Ant to play some minutes there and develop as a distributor almost like a mini point Zion. They’re clearly making a big bet on Ant overall and that means he’ll need to be the hub of the offense more often than in prior years. I’d love to see some supersized lineups with:

PG - Ant
SG - McDaniels
SF - Anderson
PF - KAT
C - Rudy

I could foresee some issues playing Kyle Anderson with the KAT/Gobert lineups. I think having more athletic wings on the floor with those two will be important or else they’ll give up a ton of open 3s on defense.

Sorry, but MCD is a SF not a SG. His handle isn’t good enough nor his 3 point shooting. Anderson playing with the twin towers is serviceable, but not ideal. Ant hates playing PG, and his handle is good enough for SG but questionable at PG. Your lineup pairs a non shooter Rudy with MCD and Anderson who both lack shooting consistency. That lineup puts too much pressure on Ant and KAT to score without sufficient PG support.

[TheZachAttack]

I think for the PG rotation that the team will challenge Ant to play some minutes there and develop as a distributor almost like a mini point Zion. They’re clearly making a big bet on Ant overall and that means he’ll need to be the hub of the offense more often than in prior years. I’d love to see some supersized lineups with:

PG - Ant
SG - McDaniels
SF - Anderson
PF - KAT
C - Rudy

I could foresee some issues playing Kyle Anderson with the KAT/Gobert lineups. I think having more athletic wings on the floor with those two will be important or else they’ll give up a ton of open 3s on defense.

Sorry, but MCD is a SF not a SG. His handle isn’t good enough nor his 3 point shooting. Anderson playing with the twin towers is serviceable, but not ideal. Ant hates playing PG, and his handle is good enough for SG but questionable at PG. Your lineup pairs a non shooter Rudy with MCD and Anderson who both lack shooting consistency. That lineup puts too much pressure on Ant and KAT to score without sufficient PG support.

Anderson would run a lot of point forward a lot in this lineup. I'm not sure traditional lineup spot matters if it's not going to change how McDaniels would get used. McDaniels is going to be used as the primary POA defender in lineups whether he's the 3 or not on defense. On offense, McDaniels will be a spacing off-ball player.

[Jailblazers7]

I think for the PG rotation that the team will challenge Ant to play some minutes there and develop as a distributor almost like a mini point Zion. They’re clearly making a big bet on Ant overall and that means he’ll need to be the hub of the offense more often than in prior years. I’d love to see some supersized lineups with:

PG - Ant
SG - McDaniels
SF - Anderson
PF - KAT
C - Rudy

I could foresee some issues playing Kyle Anderson with the KAT/Gobert lineups. I think having more athletic wings on the floor with those two will be important or else they’ll give up a ton of open 3s on defense.

Sorry, but MCD is a SF not a SG. His handle isn’t good enough nor his 3 point shooting. Anderson playing with the twin towers is serviceable, but not ideal. Ant hates playing PG, and his handle is good enough for SG but questionable at PG. Your lineup pairs a non shooter Rudy with MCD and Anderson who both lack shooting consistency. That lineup puts too much pressure on Ant and KAT to score without sufficient PG support.

All fair points but this is the kind of lineup they should experiment with throughout the course of the season. Maybe this isn’t the exact 5 that makes the most sense but playing Ant as the defacto PG is something that will be important for his development and the development of this team. Not trying to say this lineup should play big minutes but worth 3-5 minutes per game as the team figures out the PG rotation.

[winforlose]

I think for the PG rotation that the team will challenge Ant to play some minutes there and develop as a distributor almost like a mini point Zion. They’re clearly making a big bet on Ant overall and that means he’ll need to be the hub of the offense more often than in prior years. I’d love to see some supersized lineups with:

PG - Ant
SG - McDaniels
SF - Anderson
PF - KAT
C - Rudy

I could foresee some issues playing Kyle Anderson with the KAT/Gobert lineups. I think having more athletic wings on the floor with those two will be important or else they’ll give up a ton of open 3s on defense.

Sorry, but MCD is a SF not a SG. His handle isn’t good enough nor his 3 point shooting. Anderson playing with the twin towers is serviceable, but not ideal. Ant hates playing PG, and his handle is good enough for SG but questionable at PG. Your lineup pairs a non shooter Rudy with MCD and Anderson who both lack shooting consistency. That lineup puts too much pressure on Ant and KAT to score without sufficient PG support.

Anderson would run a lot of point forward a lot in this lineup. I'm not sure traditional lineup spot matters if it's not going to change how McDaniels would get used. McDaniels is going to be used as the primary POA defender in lineups whether he's the 3 or not on defense. On offense, McDaniels will be a spacing off-ball player.

MCD would need to be better from distance, especially when not in the corners before he could be considered a floor spacer. Anderson running point forward makes sense except his distance shooting isn’t consistent either. You put MCD and KA together with Gobert and you are inviting them to guard the paint, Ant, and KAT, and make the other 3 beat you from outside.

[Nick K]

I think it goes like this. Starters...

Rudy, Kat, McD/KA, Ant, and Dlo.

How many starting 5's do you like more than that?

[winforlose]

I think it goes like this. Starters...

Rudy, Kat, McD/KA, Ant, and Dlo.

How many starting 5's do you like more than that?

It will be MCD/Prince, not KA. KA is KAT’s primary backup. Yo could also start Ant and Nowell at 3 and 2 respectively if MCD struggles with foul trouble or works out better as 6th man. I do agree that Dlo, Ant, MCD, KAT, Rudy is hands down the best starting lineup in the NBA. I would add it is basically unguardable. Someone will always be open for a good shot as long as we move the ball and run the scheme.

[winforlose]

Locked on Wolves gave me two ideas for our super big lineup. Not sure if either is the best iteration of the super big, but gonna toss them out there.

Ant, Prince, Anderson, KAT, Rudy

Or Anderson, ANT, KAT, Naz, Rudy.

[shrink]

Locked on Wolves gave me two ideas for our super big lineup. Not sure if either is the best iteration of the super big, but gonna toss them out there.

Ant, Prince, Anderson, KAT, Rudy

Or Anderson, ANT, KAT, Naz, Rudy.

Jaden?

[winforlose]

Locked on Wolves gave me two ideas for our super big lineup. Not sure if either is the best iteration of the super big, but gonna toss them out there.

Ant, Prince, Anderson, KAT, Rudy

Or Anderson, ANT, KAT, Naz, Rudy.

Jaden?

Good point. Pop Prince out for MCD on the first group. Second group would MCD be “bigger” than Naz. I mean actual height aside, the weight and style of play is different. It really is cool how we have so many different viable lineup options.

[Devilzsidewalk]

Locked on Wolves gave me two ideas for our super big lineup. Not sure if either is the best iteration of the super big, but gonna toss them out there.

Ant, Prince, Anderson, KAT, Rudy

Or Anderson, ANT, KAT, Naz, Rudy.

Jaden?

Good point. Pop Prince out for MCD on the first group. Second group would MCD be “bigger” than Naz. I mean actual height aside, the weight and style of play is different. It really is cool how we have so many different viable lineup options.

Problem w/ Naz is he doesn't play to his size in many ways. He can score over undersized players decently, but his rebounding and defensive toughness are pretty mid. I think Knight @ the 4 is more conducive to a power 4.

Our most viable big lineup imo is Gobert/KAT, then Anderson instead of McDaniels at the 3, and then slide McDaniels to the 2 and Edwards at the 1. Honestly, the starting lineup is already huge. We just need DLo to embrace his size mismatch potential. He fancies himself as a perimeter bomber, but he should be a postup mismatch against 80% of the PGs in the league. He's already got good size and is comfortable working in traffic in the midrange. He could be a totally different player (in a good way) if we'd brought in Sam Cassell 2 years ago as an assistant coach and assigned him to show DLo how to back down a player, body-check them to create space, and then cash a wide open 15 footer.

[Klomp]

Problem w/ Naz is he doesn't play to his size in many ways. He can score over undersized players decently, but his rebounding and defensive toughness are pretty mid. I think Knight @ the 4 is more conducive to a power 4.

I've been thinking about this lately. Part of the appeal we fans think Reid will have as a trade target is as a low-cost big in that 20-40 tier. However, the more I think about it, I don't think teams should want to target him as a starting center. Because his matchup exploitation comes more against smaller bigs than bigger ones, like Devilz is alluding to here. Which means teams wouldn't want to start him against the likes of Embiid, Jokic, Gobert, etc. His greater worth comes as a top backup, probably for those teams with bigger frontcourts such as ourselves. If Reid buys into that mindset, I think we may be able to bring him back next offseason on a value deal. Think about Bobby Portis as his role comparison. Mainly a backup to begin his career, even still mostly so. Signed below market deals but played for a winner. Eventually parlayed that into a bigger contract this offseason. Still probably a backup at age 26, but got his money.

[Krapinsky]

Here is a random prediction that I think will happen sooner, rather than later --

Prince will eventually supplant McDaniels in the starting line up. His 3 point shot is necessary to help spread the floor for Russell and Ant drives.

Russell/Ant/Prince/Towns/Gobert

McLaughlin/Nowell/McDaniels/Slo-Mo/Reid

[TimberKat]

Here is a random prediction that I think will happen sooner, rather than later --

Prince will eventually supplant McDaniels in the starting line up. His 3 point shot is necessary to help spread the floor for Russell and Ant drives.

Russell/Ant/Prince/Towns/Gobert

McLaughlin/Nowell/McDaniels/Slo-Mo/Reid

I am wondering if we should just not play Gobert and Towns in the starting lineup for now and let them slowly figure out how to work together. As an example, start Towns/McDaniels/Prince/Ant/Russell and run the same stuff from last year. Have Gobert Anchor the second unit. Slowly increase the plays and court time with the first unit for Gobert. Or have Towns anchor the second unit. I am confident after 10 or 20 games, they will figure out how best to play together. I like the overhead pass from Towns to Gobert, they need to have that type of spacing more. Gobert needs to be further away from the basket when Edwards have the ball.