Guess the starting 5

[Hal14]

I think Joe will go with the guys he knows and trusts for starters: Pritchard, white, brown, hauser, queta.

Simons as 6th man.

After that? I think it's gonna be a battle in training camp/preseason (battles might last into the early reg season) where guys will be battling it out for minutes and depth chart positioning.

A few yrs ago we had Juancho, Jabari Parker and Grant Williams all battling each other for the backup PF spot - Grant of course won. Last year it was Walsh and Springer battling for backup wing mins as the 9th man (8th man early in season when KP was out). Walsh won that battle.

A couple yrs ago Banton was good enough in training camp and offseason workouts to win a spot in the back end of the rotation.

I think this year it will be pretty wide open with guys 7 through 15 all basically competing for mins with each other (I say 15 because we have 14 guys on standard contracts -Tatum, + I think Luis and Amari could also be in the mix, like if Luis perhaps outperforms guys like Hugo, Walsh, Minott, Baylor or if Amari outperforms Tillman and maybe even Boucher/Garza). Shulga I think will just be in Maine, barring injury to a back court guy or barring a Simons trade..

But the think that will be most interesting to me is that Minott/Luis/Hugo/Walsh/Baylor group. With maybe Boucher in competition with those guys too since he's more of a 4 than a 5.

I think offseason workouts and training camp will be key. Who grasps our system quicker, who is grasping the defensive principles quicker, who's grasping the terminology quicker, who's working harder. Who's more coachable, who's showing up early, staying late after practice. Who's showing more progression with their game, their shooting, etc.

Joe usually likes to just have an 8 man rotation with a 9th man who is sometimes in the rotation, sometimes is now..but if 1 of the top 8 guys is out for a game, then the 9th man is in..so it's like an 8.5 man rotation..6 guys are set in stone. With 9 guys all fighting for those other 2.5 spots.

Should be interesting..internal competition is good. You find out who wilts under the pressure and who relishes it. The cream usually rises to the top.

I'm confident that we'll get 2.5 guys out of that group who really emerge and develop nicely.