It sounds like you don't trust Curry. Didn't you want Joe D to get rid of Saunders?

I am going to add some comments about this roster:

Billups, Rip, Tay, and Sheed. We know they have won it all before.

Brown: He will work in the post. And only in the post. Comparing him to past centers that we have used since Ben left makes him look just fine. Webber could not defend. Dyess only shoots outside jumpers. Mohammed could be pushed out of a play way too easy, whenever the other team chose to do it, and showed near zero post game for us. I am not saying Brown is all that great, but he may be just what we need for our starting unit - someone who can guard the center so Sheed does not have too, and someone who will post up consistently. Still young. He just might have found a place to grow.

Stuckey. Can drive the ball in. Has naturally good defense with plenty of speed, length, and height. Needs more experience on D to maximize his natural gifts. His point guard skills are good enough and improving. Our offense no longer goes dead if CB leaves the floor.

Afflalo. Does a lot of many things, but especially plays good solid perimeter D to where his guy can't get past him and into the lane. Afflalo is a difference maker.

Mejia. As good as Afflalo is, he is not near as good as Mejia on defense. Mejia has fantastic footwork, and is much stronger than Afflalo. Mejia guards all three positions, point, shooting guard, and small forward, far better than Afflalo. Mejia also will be our 2nd best rebounder, only behind Amir. And perhaps the best thing - when Tay sits, and takes with him his excellent ball handling skill to the bench, Mejia replaces every bit of it, and maybe then some. To the bad, Mejia will score by going inside, but that is about it - poor outside jumper, not good at scoring around the basket other than by just bulling his way in. Does get to the line a lot, but is not a good free throw shooter. Basically, he is not a zero on O since he does bring the ball inside strongly, but he would be the fifth option, and not anywhere near our 4th option, on that 2nd unit. (With our options being Stuckey, JMAX, Amir, Afflalo in that order.)

Amir. One, extremely active on defense. Above all, he gets to the plays. Sure, he needs some work on selecting what to do when he gets to the play, but since he gets to so many, he will quickly enough gain the experience needed. He needs to play consistent minutes, and he will look like he did when we played him consistent minutes toward the end of last year - just fine. On offense, Amir hits a very high percentage of the shots he takes, and pretty much all his shots are close in. Don't be fooled by watching him practice something new and looking way too raw. Amir makes good decisions on when to shoot, and when to pass the ball, whenever he plays regularly. His decision making is indeed about the best part of his game. You are going to like watching Amir play this year, and a lot.

JMAX. I will just say this. Amir brings the speed, JMAX brings the power. Excellent pair of players to play together.

Dyess. Still can contribute. Just no way as a starter. As a depth player, he is a very good quality one.

Samb. Lets see what he can do. He is not getting any younger.

He's only 23, and he's younger than that in basketball years because of his late introduction to the game. If he continues to show improvement the Pistons would be wise to give him more time to figure it out.

To be precise, he will turn 24 a week or so before the season starts. Some have said we should let him develop a couple more years yet. To me, age 26 is a bit too late to be starting an NBA career. I want to see him play this season.

Exactly. I would even go on to say that if he shows something in pre-season and we don't play him then it would only be fair to trade him to a team that will. Both Samb and Amir as Amir is entering his 4th season.

Just because its so slow around here this offseason that watching paint dry is starting to sound interesting, here is a possible roster and rotation.

Lets say that Sharpe is so good he actually deserves to be in the rotation. Ditto for Samb. And Mejia is as good as I say he is. And Dyess accepts a lesser, though still important, role on the team. Is their room for all these players?

Lets see a depth chart:

Point) Billups, Stuckey, Mejia. (Bynum in D-League.)

Shooting guard) Rip, Afflalo, Mejia

Small forward) Tay, Mejia, Sharpe, Amir, JMAX

Power forward) Sheed, JMAX, Amir, Dyess

Center) Brown, Samb, Sheed, Dyess

Starters) Billups, Rip, Tay, Sheed, Brown.

2nd unit) Stuckey, Afflalo, Mejia, JMAX, Samb.

11th and 12th guys) Amir and Dyess.

When does Amir play? Every game. Mejia, Samb, and Brown sit out 20 games each. Tay sits out 8 games. JMAX sits out 8 games. Sheed sits out 8 games. Billups sits out 8 games. Rip sits out 8 games.

When does Dyess play? In about 60 games, for about 12 minutes per game.

When does Sharpe play? In about 40 games, for 10 minutes per game, pretty much every other game, all season long.

Does anyone play every game. Yes, Afflalo, Stuckey, and Amir play in every game. Each one, 20 minutes every game.

What we don't do: Depend on any one player to stay healthy for us to win. We do not over play players. We do not ignore back to back situations and forget to rest players in one of the games.

Is any of this practical? Of course it is. Billups, Rip, Tay, and Sheed have been our core since around the beginning of 2004, four and a half years ago. They do not need to play together that much to maintain their teamwork at a high level. Dyess was added a half season later. JMAX and Amir are going into their 4th year with us. Integrating Afflalo and Stuckey into the mix - pretty easy with such highly talented players.

Guys we have to get into the fold, Samb, Kwame Brown, Sharpe a bit, Mejia. Mejia has been hanging around a while, so he is not new to our ways. Its not that much homework for a season to have any excuse to overplay anybody for the sake of cohesiveness. We can play 12 guys significant minutes. (Though Sharpe would only be getting 400 minutes and Dyess just 720 minutes.)

For the season, our starters would mainly be the same. Our bench would always feature Afflalo, Stuckey, and Amir heavily and on most nights JMAX too. The fifth guy would vary from Dyess, to Samb, to Mejia, to Sharpe.

What is the main goal for all the above? To arrive at the playoffs fresh, deep, and with all the talents needed to win it all.

Some advantages from this: Opposing coaches will have a myriad of things to concern themselves with. The shotblocking of Samb. Keeping Amir and Mejia off the boards. Billups knocking down threes, Etc. Etc. Etc.

If we want to run, it will be on fresh legs.

If we want to shoot triples, it will be with fresh legs.

If we want to drive in, it will be on fresh legs.

If we are getting tired from running, so what, fresh legs can come in and spell you for awhile.

Oh, and remember that cohesiveness thing? Over rated. The more you practice plays in a game, the more heavily scouted they are.

Isn't Mejia playing in Italy?

Here is what I see as of today:

1 – CB, Stuck, Bynum
2 – Rip, Afflalo
3 – Tay, Sharpe
4 – Sheed, Max, Amir, Herrmann
5 – Brown, Dyess, Samb

11th and 12th players: Sharpe, Bynum

Street Clothes: Herrmann, Samb

I have this great mental image of Curry forgetting to call timeout at the crucial moment at the end of the game where we lose HCA for the playoffs because he was holding his stopwatch, thinking, "OK, 3...2...1.......and Sharpe has played his 400th minute. Man, I'm good!"

No worries. Lindsey Hunter is in charge of the stopwatch.

I like Lindsey, but he might be too jittery from his wife's uppers to work the stopwatch properly.