Mat, your post kind of says pretty much what I am saying. No need nor room for Mohammed, and as a pair, Maxiell and Amir can cover our forward backup minutes. (Backing up Tay and Dyess if Dyess starts.)

Dyess, Sheed, Tay, Amir, and JMAX. Thats already five guys rotating on the front line, and you know they are going to want one of Mejia or Afflalo to play some small forward as well. If I were going to add anyone to this mix, it would not be Webber or Mohammed, as we need defense. Indeed, I would not even play Dyess for that reason. I would as soon have Dale Davis in the rotation for his defense, as JMAX and Amir should be able to contribute all the offensive fire power we need.

Just curious.

How is DD rotation to the weak side capability?

Is he quick enough to play any big who does anything other than plant themselves down low?

How many of those of type of centers are there in the league today?

How is DD run out capability on doubling coverage?

How is his passing capability on offense or when he is on the court are we stuck playing 4 on 5 when we are on offense.? I think we know what that was like with Ben who at least could roll to the hoop for an offensive rebound possibility.

Cut the guy and give us all a break.

The more I think about it I think that the starting five will be

AJ, Sheed, Tay, C-Bill and RIP

With Dyess and JMax first two bigs off the bench

Stuckey and either Murray or Afflalo will be the first two guards off of the bench.

The last two would be Nazr and Dupree

I think that adds to 12.

I like the idea of starting Amir. Last season we had a problem with slow first quarters. Amir would give the first unit some athleticism and energy. Sheed can take the 5 on defence with Amir giving weak side help with his quickness.

If Amir manages to get a couple of early fouls which wouldn't surprise me early on until the refs cut him some slack, that's when Dice could come in. Dice would still get to play his preferred position coming off the bench.

DD is a far sight better than Mohammed. Since we need depth, it should be DD, if he will sign for us. But we have to play him for that to happen. DD gets over very well to help out, and stands in strong for rebounds. Although not much of an offensive threat, he is certainly not someone who can be ignored. You ignore him for a second and he will be gathering in that offensive rebound. Its not easy keeping him away from under the basket, and once there, you can't dislodge him. He is basically a very tough player, one who can help teach our youngsters how to do it right.

If DD is on the team, then we would have to use him as the backup center, which means Amir would have to see a lot of time at small forward. (or JMAX, or simply a combination of both playing the forward positions as a duo.)

We can start Billups, Rip, Tay, Amir, and Sheed. This leaves the excellent combination of Dale Davis and JMAX off the bench.

The bench would be Stuckey, Afflalo, Mejia, JMAX, Dale Davis.

Dyess would play, but a bit less than last year. On any back to back situations, and the Pistons probably will play about 40 games that are part of back to backs per usual, Dyess will take minutes from Sheed as part of our starting unit. So Sheed will only play about 55 minutes total in each set of back to backs, while Dyess gets about 7 minutes per game that Sheed would otherwise get. In those same 40 games, Dale Davis only plays one of them, so in one of the games, Dyess gets those 14 minutes. Thats 20 games in which Dyess plays 21 minutes in place of Sheed and Dale.

In addition, for 20 games Mejia will sit out, and we change up our rotation as follows:

Billups, Rip, Tay, JMAX, and Sheed start.

Bench is Stuckey, Afflalo, Amir at small forward, Dyess, Davis.

In these games, Dyess and JMAX will split minutes, each getting 24. In sum, Dyess would be getting about 20 DNP's, 20 games with 24 minutes, 20 games with 21 minutes, and 20 games with 7 minutes.

At this point in DD's career, I am not too sure about that and everyone knows what I think of Nazr's game.

DD used to be very good defensive center when he was younger and played across the state line. He just hasn't played enough minutes in the last two years to prove that he can play any more than he has the last two years given that he will 3 years older than he was just before the last two years and is approaching 40. He is no Mutombo. If he was I might tend to agree with you, but only as a backup.

I agree with the above except for DD, who I would replace with Dyess.

I would concur too. We already have Nazr. No point in signing another aging vet who may not get off the bench much. Joe may need that financial flexibility later on.

JMAX and Dyess don't work as a combo of bigs on defense. On the other hand, JMAX and Dale Davis together are magic. We don't need Dyess shooting his outside jumpers. JMAX can do that better, and get the ball right to the basket a lot.

Small vs. big rotations. If we really wanted to go big, we could start Billups, Tay, Amir, JMAX, and Sheed. Rip would get 6th man of the year no doubt.

Our bench would feature Rip playing the point some along with Tay who would be running the offense. Stuckey would be a fourth gaurd while Mejia and Afflalo would see no time at all.

Dyess can't backup all three front court positions. Going small just a bit, using Mejia, Afflalo, or Prince at small forward, would alleviate some of the problem, but we could stay big by letting Samb play some. For this big rotation, that is the route I will go.

So Samb and Dyess play 40 minutes combined, about 25 for Dyess and 15 for Samb. This leaves Sheed, Amir, and JMAX playing 35 minutes each. This might seem a tad much, but hey, since the only front court players playing along side them would be Samb and Dyess, guys who bring energy, the time on the floor won't be quite so draining. There won't be a Webber or Mohammed out there to sap the strength from the other front court players, making them do way too much on D. Now Samb and Dyess make a good old / young pair. As Dyess diminishes with age over the years, Samb picks up the slack.

In all, you got a nine man rotation. Billups, Tay, Amir, JMAX, Sheed, Rip, Stuckey, Dyess, Samb. The only other two guys to get minutes at all during the season would be Afflalo and Mejia.

Now for a small rotation. We are back to Billups, Rip, Tay, Sheed, and JMAX starting. The only two bigs off the bench are Amir and Dyess, with neither of JMAX nor Amir playing any small forward. Now the bigs minutes are split 4 ways. Dyess can play 21 minutes, JMAX 25, Amir 20, Sheed 30 (adds to 96 minutes)

Mejia backs up Tay, getting 16 minutes per game so that Tay only averages 32 minutes.

Afflalo backs up Rip, and gets 16 minutes, again, limiting Rip to 32 minutes.

Billups keeps it down to 30 minutes, leaving 18 for Stuckey.

This setup gives us a 2nd unit that pretty much plays 16 minutes per game as a unit. The whole 2nd quarter pretty much, plus the first 6 minutes of the 4th quarter. A very simple rotation. The 2nd unit would be Stuckey, Afflalo, Mejia, Amir, Dyess.