A rotation need not be made up by the best players available on the team, but rather by the skill sets needed.

Someone has to play defense. Someone has to shoot from the outside. Someone needs to gather in the rebounds. Someone has to bring the ball up the floor. Someone needs to control the play, holding the ball until the appropriate moment and hitting someone with a pass to trigger the play. This same person is probably needed to direct his teammates as to what they should be doing. Someone has to be an inside threat, preferrably drawing the attention of as many defenders as possible.

Within the subject of defense, someone has to play really good interior defense, while someone has to play really good perimeter defense. Somebody has to be capable of stopping dribble penetration by the opposing point.

You need a couple of guys really good at moving without the ball. You need guys who can set picks. You need guys that no how to block out in rebounding situations. Someone needs to be able to assist the point guard in feeding the post, as often a 2nd angle is needed as the other team blocks the first angle.

A quarterback for the defense is quite helpful. A guy who can penetrate to the basket and draw fouls is great to have. Fast players who can fast break are great. Guards who know how to run the fast break of course are needed too. So are quick defenders who can get back quickly to defend the fast break.

Finally, a lot of this stuff is related. The better your interior defenders, the less a problem dribble penetration is by the opposing point guard. If your defensive rebounding is really solid, letting the other team shoot a lot of outside shots might not be such a bad idea. If you have a really quick team out there, then you can probably get back on transition defense pretty well so it does not matter quite so much if your offense is perfectly organized by a good point guard. Just jack the ball up knowing you can get back just fine in the case of long rebounds.

With all the above in mind, here is a rotation the Pistons could possibly end up using, starting unit followed by sub unit:

Billups, Rip, Tay, Ben, Sheed.

Arroyo, Acker, Delfino, Dyess, Darko.

As our starters now are about pretty much the undisputed best starters in the league, I guess I will skip explaining them.

Now, the 2nd unit. Arroyo is the guy who sets up the plays. Delfino and Arroyo can take turns bringing the ball up, although us fans will soon see its Delfino who will entertain us the most by bringing the ball up the floor with a mission in mind. These two will manage to feed the post, along with Acker.

Rebounding will be in pretty good hands when you add in Acker getting plenty of rebounds from the guard position. Picks is Darko and Dyess. Quick players with some size. Interior defense not bad at all. Delfino adds his 230 pound body to that cause. Outside shooting is Arroyo and Delfino. Not bad. Arroyo will mostly shoot inside the arc. And Acker has range and Dyess can hit the midranger quite well. Darko might get his shot down with some playing time, and if so he can hit with good range. Driving to the basket and drawing fouls will be Delfino and Acker.

Running the fast break will be a strength of this unit. Delfino can really bring it up and Arroyo is quite the passer. Acker has speed too as does Darko for a center. Dyess is not slow either.

For defending fast breaks, you got Darko who is going to beat their bigs down there, and Acker.

Inside threat is covered pretty well with Dyess and Darko.

Moving without the ball. Could be a problem with a lot of inexperienced players. However, with a couple of very good ball handlers in Arroyo and Delfino, when someone does move well without the ball they will probably get rewarded with a nifty pass for an easy score. In the long run, should not be a problem with this group.

Blocking out. Again, some inexperience. Will have to see how that goes.

stopping opposing guard from dribble penetration. I have not watched Acker enough to know how good he will be at doing this. He is quick and tall but that does not alway do the trick. He is also a very slight build type of player. Interior defense should not be too bad though for a second wave of defense if the perimeter defense fails.