REVIEWING THE ROTATION SO FAR


Point guard. We are two months behind where we should be. Stuckey was suppose to be our backup point the very first game of the season. Hopefully, we can find a silver lining here. One, there is a lot less chance for rookie burnout since Stuckey is starting so late. Two, Suckey's absence left room for Afflalo to step in and take some minutes. Going forward, we should be all set at point. I am hoping that tonight is the night that Stuckey becomes the primary backup to Billups.


Shooting guard. As good as Afflalo is playing, I can't imagine him being taken out of the rotation. If Stuckey is that good that he demands shooting guard minutes, then Afflalo will have to be given small forward minutes. In any case, we are all set at shooting guard. For tonight, vs. NJ, there should be a real simply rotation at guard: Stuckey backs up Billups, while Afflalo backs up Rip. Lets start to see what this new combo, Stuckey and Afflalo, can do.


Small forward. Hayes has been in a shooting slump. The Houston game saw him make more than one outside shot in a game in quite some time. Another player, Walter Herrmann (Fabio), would like to get a shot at some of his minutes. Personally, I would like to see Amir Johnson get some of those minutes. Hayes seems to be playing somewhat better D as the season goes on. Perhaps he is healing yet a bit more from his knee surgeries. We might be ok with Hayes staying at small forward as the backup to Tay. My hope is that either he proves to be the scorer he showed us early in the season, or that his defense continues to improve, or that he gets replaced.


Power forward. We continually get into foul trouble at this spot. But its just a choice by the coach. If we add Amir Johnson to the regular rotation, we add 6 fouls to give to the situation and pretty much become immune to foul trouble. Dyess is playing way too many minutes anyway. Frankly, at this point, I can think of little that is more important to our success in the playoffs than getting Amir playing regular minutes.


Center. We have added Brezec to the team. Samb could still earn minutes here before the season ends. Meanwhile, we mostly use Sheed at center with Dyess as his backup. In my opinion, Dyess should only be our backup center, with Amir or JMAX starting at power forward. According to Dumars, Dyess starts because we don't need his energy off the bench since Amir and JMAX provide that. The trouble is, in case Joe Dumars has not noticed, Amir is not yet a regular part of the rotation to bring that energy.


Here is a list of things I like so far about our rotation:


Stuckey is back already.


Afflalo is playing regularly.


JMAX is playing a lot.


Rip, Billups, Tay, and Sheed are winners. And they are not being beaten into the ground like in past years. At this point, they are a fairly healthy group of players, and there is nothing in sight to think they will get overplayed by season's end.


Flip Murray is out of the rotation. Hunter soon will be. Mohammed has been traded. Dupree has been released. All signs of progress indeed.
Now the bad.


Samb showed enough that we signed him. He showed enough that people really thought he should play more. Instead he was sent down to the D league, where he got two games under him and then got injured. In my opinion, Samb should have been getting some of the minutes Mohammed was getting. (Amir too.) And Dyess has been playing too many minutes, so there is more minutes Samb and Amir could have been getting. Dumars did manage to trade away the bad contract of Mohammed. That is great. Maybe Mohammed had to be showcased for that. But he is traded away now. As soon as possible, Samb should be back with the team and getting some spot minutes for us at center.


Afflalo is in the rotation, but he could have a lot more experience than he has now. Here, Murray played too much, taking valuable minutes from Afflalo. Since Murray has an expiring contract, he did not need to be showcased. Harm has been done here, just hope it was not too much.


Part of Amir not playing is that he had that ankle injury. But that is in the past. He is not playing enough. This has to change. The playoffs are way too close. I do not believe we will win it all if we try to do so without Amir. We will be in too much foul trouble. It won't be pretty. With Amir, we add a very good post up player, a speedy, lengthy defender. And 6 more fouls to give.


And finally, small forward. We need to try other options here. If Hayes wins out in the end, great. If he fairly beats out guys like Amir, Afflalo, Fabio, (and ideally Mejia), he certainly deserves the minutes.