jammertime, a rotation can simply have built into it time for developing players. You can have your starters play the whole first and third quarters along with the last 6 minutes of the game, your 2nd unit play the first 6 minutes of the 3rd and 4th quarters, and then still have the 2nd half of the 2nd quarter to do a lot of development stuff.

Now, for the Pistons, Darko might both be in the rotation as the backup center and also get development time all at once. But this is not for sure. Dale Davis might get 12 minutes every game as the chief backup center while Darko just gets that 6 minute shift at the end of the 2nd quarter.

Lets look at Darko's minutes so far. About 400 in two years. If he plays 6 minutes per game this year, thats 492 minues. Not much. To that you add in about 150 minutes of garbage time and thats 642 minutes, about three times the rate he accumulated minutes during his first two seasons. Probably still not quite enough though. So, occasionally, about every 4th game, you let Dale Davis sit it out. We have 20 back to backs so there you have it; just don't play Dale Davis on both ends of a back to back to help keep him fresh for the playoffs. No way he is going to get rusty missing a game when he plays just the night before (or after) anyway.

Ok, so thats 20 times 12 or 240 more minutes for Darko added to the 642 above. Now thats 882 minutes. Add to this the occasional injury and assume Darko will get an additional 200 minutes from playing for Ben, Dyess, Sheed, Davis, when they sit for whatever injuries they might have. Now you are up to 1082 minutes, or about 5 times the rate he was accumulating minutes during his first two season.

So thats one player getting developed. And you still have 82 x 4 x 6 = 1968 player minutes available over the course of a season from the other 4 slots along with Darko in the last half of the 2nd quarter.

But of course you have to have these guys on the roster for them to play. Lets assume we really can carry 14 guys on the roster. But you can still only have 12 eligible for any one night. Its simply impossible to have five players all together in that 2nd half of the 2nd quarter all getting development time. Not with 10 guys already in as part of the starting and 2nd units. You could only have 2. I am guessing Darko and Maxiell maybe as those two guys who always are on the eligible list every night.

We covered Darko, now how about Maxiell. Lets say he just plays the 6 minutes per game plus some garbage time. 642 minutes. Ok, now you whoever is your backup small forward, say Mo Evans, and your backup shooting guard, say Delfino, you have each of these guys sit on the ineligble list 10 times. Now Maxiell plays about 882 minutes in the season. As far as injuries, other people cover those, so we just leave Maxiell at 882 minutes.

Just to set where we are so far. Starters are CB, Rip, Tay, Ben, Sheed, each getting 30 minutes of playing time combined from the 1st, 3rd, and last half of the 4th quarter. None of the development time is affecting their minutes.

The 2nd unit, Arroyo, Delfino, Evans, Dyess, and Davis each are getting 12 minutes per game combined with 6 minutes in each of the 2nd and 4th quarters. In the 2nd half of the 2nd quarter, there are only two players, Darko and Maxiell, designated as players being developed that are playing. So there are 3 x 6 x 82 minutes left to divide up yet. How about Arroyo, Delfino and Dyess getting all those minutes, so each gets 18 minutes per game. Delfino would play 72 games, while Arroyo and Dyess would play all 82.

Acker and Amir Johnson hopefully are in the development league. Maxiell and Darko are getting valuable NBA experience.

There would be three basic units. Starters, 2nd unit already covered. And then a unit of Arroyo, Delfino, Maxiell, Dyess, and Darko playing the 2nd half of the 2nd quarter.

Also, in ten games with Mo Evans sitting out, there would be a 2nd unit of Arroyo, Delfino, Maxiell, Dyess, Davis.

Also, in the ten games with Delfino sitting out, there would be a 2nd unit of Arroyo, Mo Evans, Maxiell, Dyess, Davis.

And finally, in the 20 games Davis sits out, you would have a 2nd unit of either Arroyo, Mo Evans, Maxiell, Dyess, Darko or Arroyo, Delfino, Maxiell, Dyess, Darko or Arroyo, Delfino, Mo Evans, Dyess, Darko.

Any time Amir Johnson or Acker got from this point would either cut into the playing time of the starters, the 2nd unit, or the development time for Darko. But you could still give each player 400 minutes during the season in meaningful minutes by simply cutting out 10 minutes total from the other players each game. Which is just one minute per player on average. Those times Davis, Delfino or Evans are left inactive, one of these other two rookies are activated for that night. Thats 40 player games, or the opportunity to activate Acker and Amir Johnson for 20 games each during the regular season.

But that is not enough, as you would have to play each of these guys 20 minutes each time they played to give them 400 minutes. Too much. Now, you have 10 players who play every night. If a rash of injuries occur, you have more time to play the rookies. But what if everyone is healthy. So what, no excuse. Keep each of the 10 guys out of 5 games per season, five of the back to backs. And add in 2 games at the end of the season that end up being meaningless. Now you are up to about about 90 player games, plus a couple of games where Acker and Amir can play some serious minutes.

Now, the two rooks would just have play for about 8 minutes each time they are activated to get 400 minutes per season. As both Acker and Amir Johnson are very versatile players, and they don't overlap in the positions they can play, its just a matter of a whole lot of players losing a shift here and a shift there to these guys. Acker could take some minutes from each of the following: CB, Arroyo, Rip, Delfino, Mo Evans. So about 80 minutes from each for the season. Which amounts like I said to just a minute per game from them.

Amir Johnson could likewise take 80 minutes each for the season from Ben, Dale Davis, Dyess, Sheed, Darko. About a minute each from each player per game on average.

Getting down to the details. For Amir Johnson to take 80 minutes from Ben, first, those two meaningless games at the end of the season. Right there, Ben sits those and Amir Johnson plays the whole 60 minutes Ben would have played. Then Amir plays some minutes, about 4 each time, in the 5 games Ben sits out thruout the season on back to back sets. Done.

The 80 minutes Amir Johnson gets from Dyess are primarily during the five games Dyess sits on back to backs. Same with Sheed. For Dale Davis, he loses a minute or two to Amir Johnson all season long and it just adds up.

Ok, this post is long enough. Basically, a rotation can have built into it a lot of development time. Planning is the key. We have room to give two young guys around a thousand minutes each and two others 400 minutes each without depriving anyone of the minutes they need to stay sharp over the course of the season.

I believe it does not take that many minutes for a rookie to get the experience he needs to make his practice between games more productive. Playing the games keeps the focus on exactly what the player needs to learn. Just 400 minutes a season, mostly in a bunch of 6 to 8 minute shifts, in about half the games, is substantial. I am not talking about garbage time minutes here. 400 meaningful minutes. Garbage time, you keep your 2nd unit out there to increase their conditioning level.