I can't find the post but I think Lee356 mentioned balancing the minutes to give new guys exposure while letting the starters gel together and get comfortable with the system.

We have a ton of players who I'd really like to see get decent playing time and I also would like to have the starters play less minutes overall to deter injury and fatigue as the playoff grind on. But when does the drop off in PT adversly affect a starters performance?

I'd like to get peoples' thoughts on this.

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I feel like you need to get OUR starting 5 about 30mpg, we sit back as fans and think that since a player only has to play 20-25 mpg that's a good thing. Not true. This beautiful game we love so much is a game of rhythm. WHen you limit a players minutes significantly you risk throwing off their rhythm not allowing them to get into a groove. Out starting 5 is a unit that lets the game come to them and they pick their spots in different times in the game to get their Groove going, especially Tayshuan, Rasheed and Chauncey.

If you recall Toine's run in Dallas his productivity went down big time because he couldn't get going playing just 20 mpg with Jamison. This is the reason why finding bench players is so difficult. Tell a guy that he only has about 18 mins to get it done is tough, that's why when some stars get relegated to coming off the bench they drop off. Then there's players like Rick Davis that will ruin a starting 5, but tell him to come off the bench with the green light to fire away and he excelled, go figure.

I think our starters need to be getting 32 mins per game. Last year Ben and 'Sheed played about that, CB slightly more. Biggest problem was Rip and Tay (both in the 37-38 range).

I will second the thought that flow is extremely important. Both limited minutes and too many combinations can ruin that. That's why Lee's rotations of 14 players or whatever are ridiculous. I think you can make a good case that we have players 1-13 that can be at least somewhat effective as regular NBA contributors (everyone but Acker and Johnson at this point, neither of whom is quite ready).

But the idea that you can try to play all of those guys in a rotation is absurd. 10 is about as many as you can use reasonably effectively. That's why I think that in the regular season you will see very little of Maxiell, Dale Davis, and even Hunter, as right now it looks like we'll be going with Arroyo, Evans, Delfino, Dyess, and Darko off the pine. I would guess Arroyo, Evans, and Delfino would play about 16 minutes, Dyess 20, and Darko 12 right now.

I completely agree with you.

I had to go 6 pages back to find something on minutes. Everybody is gripeing about starters playing too many minutes and not being fresh for the long playoff run.
...Well, Tay plays the most at 570 min. total. He's 73rd in the league right in front of VCarter at 569 min.[It would be nice to rest Tay a little more---calling Amir Johnson]
...Rip is next at 83rd with 545 min.
...BBen is 89th with 527 min.
...Memo is 24th at 661 min. and huge numbers[did Lb 4Lb cost us a starter?]
...And CBill [THE BEST PLAYER IN THE NBA ] isn't even in the top one hundred. So I guess CarArr is doing a good job of resting him.

Those are interesting numbers. I just wonder how our starters minutes compare to minutes of just the other teams expected to go to the conference finals and deeper? I would think that's when the minutes really start to catch up with you.

Howabout an every other game concept to get players into the "flow"?One night, Arroyo/ Dice-Maxiell/ Evans get all of the reserve time, and the next night Hunter-Acker/ Darko/ Delfino get all of the extra minutes. That way, they can get used to playing with the same guys and they can play for extended minutes. Also, they will know before hand and can be mentally prepared.

I would also be interested to see how it would work if every 5 games or so, you took a starter and had them come off the bench to play limited minutes if needed... as a way to rest them. It would be a good way to break up some of the back-to-back games for Ben or Tay.

Tim Duncan: 596 minutes.
Jermain O'neal: 624
D.wade: 731.

over roughly 17 games.

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you know what flip is on 1130 today at 4:35 and someone here should ask him about this, just an idea.