Originally Posted by Lee356

A roster for this series: Herrmann, Hunter, and Hayes stay in street clothes.

Hunter is too slow to guard Nelson, and too slow and too short to guard Dooling.

Herrmann is simply too slow in foot speed.

Hayes is not much better than Herrmann in foot speed, and has no defensive footwork.

This leaves us with:

Billups, Stuckey, and Dixon as point guards.

Rip and Afflalo as shooting guards.

Tay and Amir as small forwards.

JMAX and Amir as power forwards.

Sheed, Theo, Dyess and Samb as centers.

For strategy, its pretty simple. Orlando plays a center, and then two weak defensive small forwards up front. Every play pretty much should be to the basket, targeting to get Howard in foul trouble. And once Howard is out of the way, keep attacking inside relentlessly.

On defense, match up.

This means do not ever play any of Sheed, Dyess, and Theo at the same time. Again, Orlando does not use a power forward, so we can't have a power forward in the game who can't chase small forwards around.

Our guards overmatch theirs as long as we don't play Dixon or Hunter.

Dixon can be used for offense / defense substitutions at end of quarters. Sneak him in there to can a shot, and take him right back out of the game. If Dixon plays at all beyond that, it should be for an early substitution for Billups so Dixon is in while he can guard Nelson.

Sub pattern:

Starters play the first 8 minutes of the game. Thats Billups, Rip, Prince, JMAX, Sheed.

Amir spells Jason Maxiell for the last 4 minutes of the first and then the first 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter. Then Amir stays in and plays 6 minutes as the small forward while Tay rests. Maxiell is back in for the last 8 minutes of the half. Tay comes in for the last 2 minutes of the first half.

Afflalo and Stuckey start the 2nd quarter and play 8 minutes. Rip and Billups come back in for the last 4 minutes of the half.

Sheed sits after the first 8 minutes and Theo plays center for the rest of the first quarter. Dyess comes in to start the 2nd quarter, and Sheed plays the last 6 minutes of the quarter.

In the 2nd half, you play basically the same rotation, changing things just a bit if needed of course. But with everyone getting a decent rest in the first half, a lot of flexibility is left for the 2nd half.

Just to put this altogether

Billups, Rip, Tay, JMAX, Sheed. minutes 0-8.

Billups, Rip, Tay, Amir, Theo. minutes 9-12.

Stuckey, Afflalo, Tay, Amir, Dyess. minutes 13-16.

Stuckey, Afflalo, Amir, JMAX, Dyess. minutes 17-18.

Stuckey, Afflalo, Amir, JMAX, Sheed. minutes 19-20.

Billups, Rip, Amir, JMAX, Sheed. minutes 21-22.

Billups, Rip, Tay, JMAX, Sheed. minutes 23-24.