9 Man Rotation

[boomershadow]

Listening to the Pacers media day, sounds like McMillan wants his rotation to start the year looking like this. Talked about how hard it is to play a 10 man rotation in the NBA (like Vogel did). But he also mentioned how guys are going to have to produce on the court, and if they can't then there are young guys behind them wanting to demonstrate the ability. Talked about how CJ Miles and Paul George both need to adapt to the modern NBA and be able to at times play some 4. And for Lavoy to get any time at the backup 4 spot, Nate said he's going to have to make me play him with his performance.

Teague/Brooks
Ellis/Stuckey
George/Miles
Thad/Miles
Turner/Jefferson

[Wizop]

That's certainly what Pacers.com is writing. IMHO 8 and 9 man rotations depend upon guys playing more than one position. For example Smits and the two Davises where DD and AD could both play 4 or 5 so any combination of 2 of the 3 bigs could be on the floor at the same time. We have that on the wing as PG and CJ can be 2's and 3's.

I'm not sure any of us see a clear choice for backup 4 yet. CJ can play it some if the opponent is playing small and I suppose Turner can play 4 with Jefferson or Seraphin at the 5. I think we're saying CJ can swing to 4 some nights but there is an opportunity for someone to earn the playing time at backup 4 when a bigger body is called for.

Edit: having slept on this question, I think the only way a 9 man rotation works is if Turner gets minutes at both the 4 and the 5. Say Young gets 36 minutes at the 4 and Jefferson gets 24 minutes at the 5, then Turner could get 24 at the 5 and 12 at the 4. Injuries and foul trouble could bring others into the mix on a given night. I don't see Lavoy forcing a change unless he's playing at a much higher level than he did last year. Niang doesn't seem likely to be a big contributor as a rookie. Seraphin probably has a one year try out to take Jefferson's minutes next year.

That said, I can see PG playing the 4 against LeBron and Draymond or maybe even Melo. When we had West and Hibbert, we powered over teams that tried to go small. Now we've got ways to match up.