Rotations - Part Deux

Good - Moose, Dre, Knight, Singler, English, Prince

Rubbish - Daye, BoT, Bynum, Maggette.

If we could get rid of our rubbish for even just reasonably productive players - I would take Scalabrine over all of those guys - our team would be dramatically better. I still think we are terrible because our bench is so unproductive.

I think Singler has proven himself as a starter and can do well enough at the SG spot. Our pts production should look like this
PG (BK) - 13
SG (Singler) - 12
SF (Prince) - 12
PF (Moose) - 18
C (Dre) - 10

Thats 65 points from my ideal starting line-up. We should be able to get 35 points from the bench, but at this point, I don't even know if thats possible. BoT is too leaky, Maggette gets fouled out in 2 minutes, Daye couldn't hit the broadside of a barn door. That leaves Slava, an unknown, Maxiell, good for maybe 10, English, who only gets 2 minutes a game, and Stuckey, who turned into Kobe -7.0 and shoots 20%.

I believe the same thing. I think all minutes at the 2 and 3 spots should go to Singler, Prince and Maggette. Prince plays all his minutes at SF, Maggette plays all his minutes at SG and Kyle starts at SG but plays back up minutes at SF. I play Bynum exclusively as the backup PG and cut Rodney completely out of the equation. I'd have a 3 big rotation of GM, Max and Dre

PG: Knight (30pg) / Bynum (18mpg)
SG: Singler (16) / Maggette (32)
SF: Prince (32) / Singler (16)
PF: Maxiel (32) / Monroe (16)
C: Monroe (16) / Drummond (32)

I'd put English in when there's an injury or issues with foul trouble. I'd play JJ or BoT spot minutes depending on the opponent and/or situation.

Only problem is, we'd still be a bad team, but not bad enough to get a top 3 pick in the draft lottery.

I'm not sure about 32 minutes to Maxiel, but if we were in a playoff race, I think this 8-man rotation is about as good as we could get based on our current roster.

Yeah, I think there may be room for another big to play about 6 minutes in each half to bring guys minutes down to the 28-30 mpg range.

It would be fun to throw Kravtsov out there for 10 minutes for a couple of games and see what happens. He did some good things in preseason games. What could it possibly hurt?

That's really what this team is missing. That's the difference between this team being stuck in the middle of the lottery and making serious noise in the playoffs. You put James Harden on this team and it wins 55 games.

You put LBJ on this team and it does the same. Or Dwight. Or DRose.

Picking up a ridiculously gifted player on a team makes it a lot better. Unfortunately, thats easier said than done.

I think Shabazz Muhammed can be or could be just as good as Harden.

Paging OJ Mayo........Paging OJ Mayo

Only $4M of Stuckey's last year is guaranteed, we can cut him and save $4.5M, so that we can use the amnesty clause on Chaz.

Are you two dating?

People aren't just capable of 20ppg. Someone put it up earlier, but that list this year is really short - 10 players.

The problem with the current Pistons rotations is that the bench group has clearly gelled as a unit, and I don't want to see them broken up. Drummond is awesome, but if the combination of Bynum/Daye/Villanueva/Drummond is getting great results, why muck with that chemistry? IMHO, you bring all four of those guys off the bench at the same time with around 4 minutes left to play in the first and leave whoever is playing well in the game.

Current starting lineup:
Knight/Singler/Prince/Maxiell/Monroe
- This isn't really my ideal (I'd at least move Stuckey back in for Singler and let him run the point), but the whole point of this exercise is to have some fun with how to best utilize this bench.

Possible bench lineups:
Bynum/Knight/Daye/Villanueva/Drummond
- Let Knight play the off-guard on offense, he can spot up and shoot threes if he's got the hot hand, or if he's driving and exploiting, let him do that.

Bynum/Singler/Daye/Villanueva/Drummond
- If Singler is playing well (this rarely happens, btw), then let him stay in there, spread the court, let Bynum crash.

Bynum/Daye/Prince/Villanueva/Drummond
- This gives them some height, some iso ability, and some good mid-and-long range shooting. If Prince is playing well, let him ride.

Bynum/Daye/Villanueva/Maxiell/Drummond
- This is the most awkward of the lineups defensively and wouldn't happen often, but it's got really good balance offensively and Maxiell and Drummond can wreak havoc on the offensive boards. I'd use it sparingly and usually against poorer rebounding teams in order to give the Pistons a better points-per-possession stat.

Bynum/Daye/Villanueva/Monroe/Drummond
- This is very similar to what Maxiell would provide, though with less explosive rebounding ability and a more finely-tuned offensive game.

Other possible lineups to consider:
The "Run it through Monroe" lineup:
Knight/Singler/Daye/Jerebko/Monroe
- Against over-committing defenses, this one would thrive off of Monroe's high-post passing ability. Move the ball in and out, set lots of off-ball screens, and wear down opposing defenses. Knight the top, Monroe in the middle, with Singler, Daye, and Jerebko alternating bombing runs into the paint with spotting up at the three-point line. Not a great rebounding team, so it would be good for stretches against smaller, quicker teams in order to kill clock, get easy baskets, and make opponents work on defense.

The "Pound the Rock" lineup:
Bynum/Stuckey/Jerebko/Maxiell/Drummond
- This is not much of a long-range shooting lineup, but the idea would be to use Jerebko, Maxiell, and Drummond to set screens for Bynum and Stuckey, get them to do their super-collider thing, then either alley-oop to Drummond/Max or put up a short little shot, crash the boards, and get put-back buckets.

The "This is Our House" lineup:
Prince/Daye/Jerebko/Maxiell/Drummond
- This is a bit of a wonky lineup, but I would really enjoy seeing the PF be the shortest guy of the group. This group would be the "five seconds to go, don't let them get off a good shot" lineup that coach would use at the end of games. Anchor Drummond and Maxiell in the paint, let Prince face up on the isolation guy, and Daye and Jerebko use their length to bother other shooters.

The "When You Absolutely, Positively, Need to Get a 3, Accept No Substitutes" Lineup
Knight/Daye/Prince/Villanueva/Monroe
- The name says it all. The first four guys are all shooting above .400 from three-point land, and Monroe acts as a feeder/secondary distributor in the middle. Actually, I like it as a fairly balanced lineup, too - I originally had Jerebko in there for more three-point-shooting ability, but he's not actually that great at it (less than .300 in his career) and I think four threats is enough.

Again, this all goes with my philosophy that for most NBA players, talent is not individual, it is about groups. There are very few Lebrons and Durants in the league who can will a team to winning all by themselves, so you have to make do with what you can. If you use the players you have to the best of their ability, you can get a leg up on other teams whose coaches have their system that everyone has to awkwardly fit into. The talent differential between the fifth best player in the league at their position and the 15th best is much more a function of the team goals and how well that player meshes with it than individual ability.

Not messing with the starting 5 because you're worried about the success of the 2nd unit is the epitome of small time thinking. There is no reason, outside of Lawrence Frank, that the Pistons can't have both.

The Pistons easily could start Drummond, Monroe, Tay, Singler and Knight with minimal impact to the starters. Just subbing CCG and Daye in for Monroe and Singler or Tay has them playing a similar style of ball that the vaunted second group is playing now. They'd be a Bynum check in away from fully playing this hallowed 5.

They could buy time with Max in short stretches to bridge the gaps if they need another defender with Chuckles or if they really like Drummond with this current second group.

If the Pistons would just think outside the box a little by playing their best player more and not revolving their team around 2 mediocre players in Max and Stuckey then they could play the 2nd units style all game.

No, they are "just friends."

Becaue the team is 9-5 over the last 14 games (and even 4 of the 5 losses were extremely winnable games and were close or OT games) it's difficult to make a case for changing up the rotations, but I will anyway. A lineup that I would like to see right about now is:
Starters: Knight / English / Tay / Max / Monroe
Bench Brigade: Bynum / Singler / Daye / JJ / Drummond

Start: Bra-Handles, Kenny, Singleton, Money, Drummer
Subs: Teen Wolf, Middleman, Life Coach, Baby Eater/Chris Jerebko's kid, TRG

Taysolation, Collider, Porn & BoT in street clothes until the right deal comes along.
If the right deal doesn't come, let the expirings expire and don't sign OJ Mayo with the cap space.

Go (expletive)ing PISTONS!!!!