No amount of shuffling the minutes will take the place of simply playing the bench more, and giving the starters more rest.

An 8 man rotation ain't going to cut it as far as resting players. We got 3 guys rotating up front at our bigs positions, and a 3 guard rotation.

It is possible to make things work by bringing in two subs at 6 minutes into the 1st and 3rd quarters. However, the slightest foul trouble ruins such plans.

Now, bringing in all three bench players in at the 6 minute mark, for an 8 man rotation, is a bit more workable. You can give everyone a decent rest, and even have some give in the rotation to cover foul trouble. This assumes of course you have sufficient versatility amongst your players as far as playing multiple positions. The Pistons do.

However, there is one big drawback. You really only can play your starters as a unit for very little each game. And this too can be ok if it causes more confusion for your opponent than it causes for you. But you better have 8 pretty terrific players, or this won't be the case.

Right now, we run a very weak 8 man rotation, featuring two guys, Dyess and Hayes, who are slow on D. Then you have a very skilled rookie, but one who is not comfortable with the sets the coach wants played. Way too many flaws to make an 8 man rotation work.

However, if you had a mind to do it, here is how it could be done:

Billups, Rip, Tay, Dyess, Sheed Start.

JMAX, Hayes, and Stuckey come in at the 6 minute mark of the first quarter. This gives a unit of:

Stuckey, Rip, Hayes, JMAX, Sheed.

To start the 2nd quarter:

Billups, Stuckey, Tay, JMAX, Dyess

Last 6 minutes: Back to your starters.

For minutes, this is, assuming a close game:

Billups 36, Rip 36, Tay 36, Dyess 36, Sheed 36.

Hayes 12, Stuckey 24, JMAX 24.

Your starters do play together for 24 minutes.

Foul trouble to either guard has Tay playing some guard with Hayes playing more at small forward.

Foul trouble to any of your bigs has Hayes playing some power forward.

Foul trouble to Tay has Hayes playing more small forward.