we really have a solid fine in Afflalo, if stuckey lives up to what we've been told, mix in our other young players we really should be a 10 man rotation come playoff time. Any of the 5 will be able to sub for a starter in the short term and should have the trust of the team and coaching staff to play in the last min of a close game.

Murray and Dupree need to be gone. as much as I think Samb can be a situational player this year I think with the overwhelming amount of youth we need to play this year he is better of served to spend a ton of time in the jr circuit. Nazi has his place (shown last night) against the few teams with some real beef. and Hunter can be the emergency back up that murray spots now.

Going forward the present and future look bright for us. As dumars has said he wants us to be a contender ever year and with his efforts over the last year it looks like we should continue to be in the chase for years to come.

I think I'd rather see Murray as the emergency backup PG over Hunter.

Ben Howland coached players that become consensus All-Americans have tendency to be fundamentally sound and hard workers, especially on defense.

I am so impressed with AA it ain't even funny. He more than makes up for losing Delfino. He's tremendous at fighting through a screen. Now some of you guys may think that's nothing but lemme 'spain: Years ago they asked Bruce Bowen what made him a great defender, his reply was, 'because I'm the best in the league at fighting through a screen and getting a hand in aguys face'....that's AA. That's also why he should start.

I'm telling you guys, with Flip as the coach this offense does not benefit from having a great starting 5 on the court. The proof was last season when Webber arrived. When Webb came CB and Tay's game went downhill, why?.. there's only one ball. Flips offensive scheme does not put a premium on sharing the ball and making the extra pass, that's what pissed Ben off. Ben knew that when this team played the right way he would get X number of touches per game. The media made Ben appear to be some sort of selfish player wanting more shots.

Starting AA and bringing Rip in off the bench early to be the offensive go-to player solves alot of issues.

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Play hard, Play smart, Play together, share the ball, have fun....Play the right way!!!!!!

Starters: Billups, AA, Tay, Sheed, AJ/Dyess (depends on the matchup).
At the 6 min mark sub in Rip.
At the 3 min mark sub in Flip/Stuckey for Billups, unless CB is on a roll, and Maxiel for the big who does not have it going on that night, ie Sheed, Dyess, Aj.
We now have 3 bench players on the Floor with Tay and Sheed, just a like a solid starting 5. Stuckey/Rip/Tay/Maxiel/Sheed.

This allows Rip more time with the 2nd unit, who needs his offensive contributions more thanm the 1st unit, and keeps his minutes down.

__________________
Play hard, Play smart, Play together, share the ball, have fun....Play the right way!!!!!!

Funny. I was just telling a friend of mine the almost same thing. Starters:
CB, AA, TP, RW and NM (get to that later)
RS/FM, RH, JH, JM/AJ and AM/CS

Reason:
Our current system causes Prince to be our 4/5 option. If you remove Rip, Prince easily becomes 2/3.

I'd rather have NM (6 fouls to give) start then AM, but that's me. Sheed is better at the 4 and guarding the likes of Duncan, Dirk, KG. Having him go back and forth or thinking Dice can guard STARTING centers is crazy.

I also think that gives us better leadership with the second unit and causes more problems for the other team. You could now even slide Flip in as the 2 and Rip to the 3. Dice is having problems as a starter and coming off the bench may be the better move. Having Dice (some one to pull the bigs from the paint) would help open the lanes for Stuckey and Rip.

But that's just me.

__________________
Struggle...Strive...Survive.

A rotation we could have been sticking too, with the injuries so far factored in:

Billups starts. If Billups is injured, Stuckey starts. If both are injured, Prince starts at point. If all three of these are injured, Mejia starts at point.

Shooting guard. Rip starts. If Rip is injured, Stuckey starts. If both injured, Afflalo starts. If all three are injured, Prince starts. If all four (or Prince is needed at point, Mejia starts.

Small forward: Prince starts. If Prince is injured or needed to start elsewhere, Amir starts. If Amir is injured, Mejia starts. If all of these are injured, Hayes starts. If Hayes too, then Jason Maxiell starts.

Power forward: Dyess starts. If he is injured, Samb starts at center, moving Sheed to forward. (or JMAX starts) (or Amir starts.) For a last resort, Hayes could start here.

Center: Sheed starts. If Sheed is injured, Dyess becomes our center and JMAX or Amir starts. (Or Samb could just start for Sheed.) (or Hayes could start at power forward)

First two games. Rip was attending the birth of his child, and Stuckey was out. So Afflalo got the start at shooting guard. Quite logical.

Approximately games 6 thru 8: Stuckey still out, so Prince played backup point. Quite logical.

Games 8 to 10, Dyess out, so JMAX starts at power forward for him. Quite logical.

Last game, no Sheed, so JMAX starts for him. Quite logical.

So, a whole lot of logical stuff has happened, quite orderly. So what has been out of order:

The last few games, all the sudden Prince is playing zero at the point. And with Sheed and Dyess missing a lot of time - you get Mohammed with increased mintues instead of using the opportunity to get Amir and Samb more minutes, things which will help for the playoffs. (Not to mention probably would have won us a game or two more at this point.)

What does Prince do well as a point guard? I don't remember seeing him do anything besides dribbling (with a lot of effort) and making simple passes because his defender was up in his grill the entire time. It seems like it takes him out of the offense completely and drags him to the top of the circle on defense where he can't help anyone else out.

Don't get too bogged down in details. The fact is that we have done fine so far with Prince at point. He makes good decisions, as always, is always a threat to score, and on defense, he defends the shooting guard. Next time he plays the point, remember to bring this up again. We can talk about specific plays during the game.

Let's put an emphasis on, He makes good decisions, because that's a whole lot more than I can say for the starting PG, as of late. Also understand this, as a PG it's not about YOU making the play, it's more about how well can you get your team into their offense. That can often be measured by how long it takes you to get the ball to get OUT of your hands during a possession.