CoolBreeze44 wrote:I don't see a 10 man rotation, and I see the starters playing a ton of minutes for us. That's Thibs pedigree. Of the reserves, Bazz and Dunn will probably see the most time. The next tier would be Belly and Aldrich, and Rush will get spot minutes.
They need Rush's outside shooting too much for him to only play spot minutes. I think they go with a 10-man rotation, but yeah, it certainly won't be the type of hockey shift rotation we've seen so far in pre-season.
I don't think Thibs is going to play 10 guys in every half. So if Rush plays in the regular rotation, who doesn't?
Well, I think he goes with 10 guys most nights. The question is how many minutes do most of those guys get. But to worldK's point, I do agree that if things are really tight in the 2nd half, he may cut one of those guys out of the rotation - most likely Aldrich since teams tend to go small in tight games late. Bazz would probably play some 4 and, yes, we may even see Rubio and Dunn together for brief stretches.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:I don't see a 10 man rotation, and I see the starters playing a ton of minutes for us. That's Thibs pedigree. Of the reserves, Bazz and Dunn will probably see the most time. The next tier would be Belly and Aldrich, and Rush will get spot minutes.
They need Rush's outside shooting too much for him to only play spot minutes. I think they go with a 10-man rotation, but yeah, it certainly won't be the type of hockey shift rotation we've seen so far in pre-season.
I don't think Thibs is going to play 10 guys in every half. So if Rush plays in the regular rotation, who doesn't?
Thibs just gave 6 players the night off in a preseason game and gave players days off during training camp. I'll say there is some evidence we could have a bit more open mind about what Thibs may or may not do when it comes to minutes and rotations.
Q makes a good point about Rush's shooting ability being a really asset. I agree though 10 guys is a lot and every ones in a while a guy will thrown in that's outside the rotation for one reason or another like foul trouble or something. If Belly does the things he can do most nights especially being a factor from 3 point land that's gonna be big for this team and the bench.
Yeah, I agree that we don't know how Thibs is going to work his rotation. History tells us that he will keep it short and play 9 a lot. But I might argue that this roster is different than his Bulls' roster without a lot to distinguish players 6 through 13, and the guys at the end of the roster were guys that he handpicked. This roster gives Thibs a lot of flexibility to use different guys on different nights depending on matchups. Thibs has talked about how much he learned during his year off sabbatical, and maybe he has a better understanding of "the season" now, and will use his deep bench to keep his stars fresh for a possible post-season. We don't know, but I suspect we will see him playing 10 most nights, and even if they stay healthy, the composition of the 10 may change from time to time. It's gotta be a fun roster to coach.
Oh, and Rubio has a 55 TS% because he's getting to the line. He's killing it so far. It's amazing what a full year of good health can do for someone!
The good news for Dunn is that "do shit" stats tend to have sustainability. He's not going to suddenly forget how to pass to the open man or hustle for a rebound or loose ball. Shooting on the other hand, especially this early in the year, can run hot and cold. For those of you worried about Dunn, this is something for you to hang onto!
Oh, and Rubio has a 55 TS% because he's getting to the line. He's killing it so far. It's amazing what a full year of good health can do for someone!
The good news for Dunn is that "do shit" stats tend to have sustainability. He's not going to suddenly forget how to pass to the open man or hustle for a rebound or loose ball. Shooting on the other hand, especially this early in the year, can run hot and cold. For those of you worried about Dunn, this is something for you to hang onto!
Good info. I'm sort of in your boat on Dunn. Assuming the 2nd unit inlcudes Bazz/Belly/Rush, that's where we should probably expect most of the scoring to come from. Bazz is going to get his. Hopefully Belly will become the guy we thought he'd be. Aldrich isn't going to score. I think Rush is going to be just average. My understanding is Dunn is supposed to be a good defender, so maybe Bazz/Belly/Rush will be enough scoring and anything we get from Dunn is a bonus (like Rubio with the 1st unit). IDK. But I'm not going into this year thinking Dunn is going to be giving us 15+ points/game.
Oh, and Rubio has a 55 TS% because he's getting to the line. He's killing it so far. It's amazing what a full year of good health can do for someone!
The good news for Dunn is that "do shit" stats tend to have sustainability. He's not going to suddenly forget how to pass to the open man or hustle for a rebound or loose ball. Shooting on the other hand, especially this early in the year, can run hot and cold. For those of you worried about Dunn, this is something for you to hang onto!
Good info. I'm sort of in your boat on Dunn. Assuming the 2nd unit inlcudes Bazz/Belly/Rush, that's where we should probably expect most of the scoring to come from. Bazz is going to get his. Hopefully Belly will become the guy we thought he'd be. Aldrich isn't going to score. I think Rush is going to be just average. My understanding is Dunn is supposed to be a good defender, so maybe Bazz/Belly/Rush will be enough scoring and anything we get from Dunn is a bonus (like Rubio with the 1st unit). IDK. But I'm not going into this year thinking Dunn is going to be giving us 15+ points/game.
The bigger issue here is history, which tells us that rookie PGs very rarely are a net plus when on the court. I'm afraid our 2nd unit is going to really struggle, especially early in the season.
Oh, and Rubio has a 55 TS% because he's getting to the line. He's killing it so far. It's amazing what a full year of good health can do for someone!
The good news for Dunn is that "do shit" stats tend to have sustainability. He's not going to suddenly forget how to pass to the open man or hustle for a rebound or loose ball. Shooting on the other hand, especially this early in the year, can run hot and cold. For those of you worried about Dunn, this is something for you to hang onto!
Good info. I'm sort of in your boat on Dunn. Assuming the 2nd unit inlcudes Bazz/Belly/Rush, that's where we should probably expect most of the scoring to come from. Bazz is going to get his. Hopefully Belly will become the guy we thought he'd be. Aldrich isn't going to score. I think Rush is going to be just average. My understanding is Dunn is supposed to be a good defender, so maybe Bazz/Belly/Rush will be enough scoring and anything we get from Dunn is a bonus (like Rubio with the 1st unit). IDK. But I'm not going into this year thinking Dunn is going to be giving us 15+ points/game.
The bigger issue here is history, which tells us that rookie PGs very rarely are a net plus when on the court. I'm afraid our 2nd unit is going to really struggle, especially early in the season.
There have been even recently some exceptions for this rule. Elfrid Payton had +6.5 on/off numbers as rookie, Marcus Smart had +6.4 on/off and even positive plus minus (+3.5), Dante Exum had +5.1 on/off and +3.0 plus minus, Iman Shumpert had +1.4 on/off and+4.0 plus minus. Of course none of those players had as good PG as Rubio playing in front of them but it is nice to notice that even point guards that individually struggled in offense might have still had positive effect for their team because they had good size to play excellent defense already as rookies. So I think that also Dunn has a good change to not be that bad in leading our second unit since he should be right away good at least in defensive end.
Good finds Mikkeman. I stand corrected - there are a number of rookie PGs that were net positives. Perhaps I'm jaded by the experience we've generally seen with our rookies over the years in Minnesota. Let's hope Dunn gets some of these loose handles/poor shooting games out of his system early and tightens things up in the regular season. He is doing pretty well with his rebounding, defense, and assists. He needs to start knocking down some shots and taking better care of the ball.
