Wooooooooooooooo (Lakers vs. Wolves GT)

[AbeVigodaLive]

Interesting that we're criticizing the offense from last night when we shot over 50% and set a season high in assists. We got spanked as usual on 3-pointers, but still.....the defense - ugh.

I think the biggest revelation for me is how poorly the squad defends without KG in the mix. This team just sucks defensively and that was supposedly Mitchell's calling card.

It was interesting HOW they got beat yesterday. The Lakers basically just run isos. Over and over and over again. It's one of the reasons why that team has only 10 wins.

The Lakers hit some really difficult (dumb) shots. But it seemed at times like the Wolves could have scored 150. Both teams are just so bad defensively... it's no surprise that both are up for picks at the top of the draft come June.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Interesting that we're criticizing the offense from last night when we shot over 50% and set a season high in assists. We got spanked as usual on 3-pointers, but still.....the defense - ugh.

I think the biggest revelation for me is how poorly the squad defends without KG in the mix. This team just sucks defensively and that was supposedly Mitchell's calling card.

The lead going into halftime for them was because we had a poor stretch of offense that lead to their offense getting in rhythm. It's a lot easier to defend after a make than a miss. That was around the time we were swapping clanked long-two's from Ricky and Prince for Lou Williams 3's from different zip codes.

[Coolbreeze44]

We always have that 4-6 minute stretch where we don't have any starters on the floor. We become vulnerable on both ends of the court, and it cost us big time in the first half last night.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

We always have that 4-6 minute stretch where we don't have any starters on the floor. We become vulnerable on both ends of the court, and it cost us big time in the first half last night.

It's no surprise that I'm more sympathetic to Sam, and reading over this thread makes me think it should really just be titled "The Sam Bashing Thread." For what it's worth last night, the only players we had last night who had a zero or positive plus-minus were actually bench players.

But rotations are a legitimate question, and I wonder how would you guys balance that out? This is a question for everybody, how would you lay out what your rotations would be if you were coach?

I don't have time to lay out what my rotations would be, but personally, I think part of the problem lately has been KG's injury and Pek playing like a corpse, which has forced Dieng into a starting spot. This is good for our starters IMO, because I think Dieng is pretty good and he has risen to the occasion. But this takes him off the court with other bench players so we end up with LaVine and Bazz in the backcourt with Belly and Pek or (yesterday) Payne or (also for the first time in awhile) Rudez. Theoretically, Belly should provide some ball-movement in that offense, but he's just not nearly the player a lot of people were hoping he was. Putting Miller in there and sliding LaVine and Bazz down has been ok (though why not roll with Tyus as long as we're terrible anyway?). Bottom line for me, especially with KG injured, we really lack a couple players who can play halfway decent defense and move the ball on offense. And without a couple more of those guys, at some point in the rotation, it's tough to avoid having an imbalanced lineup with mostly guys who are trying to score in iso and/or not being that good at defense or moving the ball. When we get caught in that situation, we really do run into trouble. I'd be interested to see how you guys would lay out a rotation that would avoid that.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Ricky 32/Tyus 16
Lavine 30/Wiggins 18
Wiggins 18/Bazz 24/Prince 6
KG 8/Dieng 20/NB 20
Towns 36/Dieng 12

Ideally Lavine and Bazz play well enough to kick Prince out of the rotation all together so it finalizes at 10. Since KG starting has such a big impact defensively I play him the first 8 minutes of the game and then he's out for the rest of the game. I make sure Wiggins is always on the floor with Tyus and hopefully Prince's 6 minutes happen with those 2 as well.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Ok, but by rotations I mean not just minutes total, but who would you put on the floor at the same time and when?

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Ok, I see you've set out some guidelines there. But I'd love to see a first group, second group, third group, etc. approach.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

I'd be wary of playing Towns 36 minutes. He's our best player, but he's so young and has never played this many games before, and frankly, it's not like the playoffs are on the line here.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Ok, but by rotations I mean not just minutes total, but who would you put on the floor at the same time and when?

Ricky/Lavine/Wiggins/KG/Towns for 8 minutes.

Belly subs for KG, Bazz for Wiggins.

Ricky/Lavine/Bazz/NB/Towns to close out the quarter.

Start second quarter with Tyus/Wiggins/Bazz/NB/Dieng for 6 minutes. Towns subs for NB, Lavine for Bazz, Ricky for Tyus.

Ricky/Lavine/Wiggins/Dieng/Towns close out to halftime.

Ricky/Lavine/Wiggins/Dieng/Towns start second half. Sub NB for Dieng and Bazz for Wiggins at 8 minutes.

Ricky/Lavine/Bazz/NB/Towns close out quarter.

Tyus/Wiggins/Bazz/NB/Dieng open 4th. Sub in Ricky for Tyus, Zach for Bazz and Towns for NB after 6 minutes.

Ricky/Lavine/Wiggins/Dieng/Towns close out the game.

That gives the following minutes.

Ricky 36
Tyus 12
Lavine 36
Wiggins 40
Bazz 20
KG 8
NB 20
Dieng 32
Towns 36

That's a rough draft of a rotation so a few Wiggins minutes would go to Bazz (probably pull Wiggins at 6 minutes at the start of the game and 2nd half to bump Bazz to 24 and Wiggins down to 36). Maybe cut the 6 minutes Ricky gets going into the half and give them to Tyus to basically play the whole second quarter bumping him to 18 and Ricky down to 30. Maybe squeak in 2-4 minutes of a Tyus/Ricky backcourt to drop Zach down to 32-34. That's close enough to what I would theoretically do.