In the preseason and early regular season games, coach Byron Scott has primarily chosen to use a rotation of ten players with two players rotating in for each other at all five spots.
When looking at the roster it really would be hard to gain a consensus among fans if we had to poll everyone and rank the players in order of who we thought was best 1-15. The gap between the talent of each player is so small that it seems like it might be a tough job for Scott to determine where the rotation really should end.
Here's how he's sent out the players thus far:
C - Anderson Varejao, Ryan Hollins/Samardo Samuels
PF - Antwan Jamison, Tristan Thompson
SF - Omri Casspi, Alonzo Gee
SG - Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson
PG - Kyrie Irving, Ramon Sessions
Notable DNP-CD's - Luke Harangody, Christian Eyenga
A really frustrating thing for an athlete can be simply sharing minutes with a player at your spot. It is a huge boost to a starter mentally if they can actually know they are the "guy" at their position instead of truly being rotated in fairly even type minutes in most games.
Instead of Scott going with people 26/22 minutes, I think the better route would be to go longer with whoever he deems his top 7 or 8 guys and then drop the clock of a few people (yes I'm looking at you Ryan Hollins).
It's going to be interesting to see who drops in and out of the rotation because Samuels and Eyenga are definitely going to be getting their shot during the season at some point and it won't just be a cup of coffee.
I wonder what the scenario will be the first time he gives someone 38 minutes in a game. Will he stick with someone who clearly is having a good night right away or will he stick with his "get everyone time" plan so far?
These line shifts keep the team with a true "1-2-3-4-5" lineup out there but give them little creativity and don't always keep the better players on the floor.
For instance, a lineup combining both Sessions and Irving seems like it could be really productive but if the substitution pattern stays this way that won't happen.
It's likely Scott just wants to play some games to evaluate everyone in real action again before changing some stuff up but I don't know for sure.
We've got a solid squad but not many guys who are simply just going to drop out of the picture so I'm really going to be following this pattern of who is getting the minutes all season long closely.
What interesting things have you noticed about Scott's pattern? Do you like his non-player friendly system this far of rotating two players are every spot? Where would you shift some of the minutes early in the season?