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I see where you're coming from with this lay-out, but Blair has no business playing 30 minutes/game in the playoffs. Duncan will wear down before the end of the first half and if that happens the Spurs can forget about the Finals.
Minutes in parenthesis PG: Tony (36), Manu (12) SG: Manu (22), Green/Neal (18), Kawhi (8) SF: Kawhi (24), JAX (24) PF: Duncan (24), Bonner/Diaw (18), Splitter (6) C: Blair (30), Splitter (6), Duncan (12) totals (9 man rotation) Tony: 36 Duncan: 36 Manu: 34 Kawhi: 32 Blair: 30 JAX: 24 Green/Neal: 18 Bonner/Diaw: 18 Splitter: 12 is how I tentatively see it. I highly doubt Pop will trust anyone but Manu to run the team for the 12 minutes Tony will be on the bench. Therefore, I don't see any way for Green and Neal to coexist. One will have to make way for the other; to split up the 18 minutes at SG will just wear the talent thin. Pop will most likely choose based on matchups; whether we need shooting (Neal) or defense (Green). I see a similar conflict with Bonner and Diaw. Excluding small ball, the 4 big lineups I expect to see are: Duncan + Blair (24) Bonner/Diaw + Duncan (12) Bonner/Diaw + Splitter (6) Splitter + Blair (6) Splitter+Duncan is way too slow to work, Bonner+Blair is a do ented defensive disaster, and I don't think the offensive spacing with Diaw + Blair would be very pretty either. And if we ever run Diaw + Bonner out there, we have bigger problems than minute distribution lol
I see where you're coming from with this lay-out, but Blair has no business playing 30 minutes/game in the playoffs. Duncan will wear down before the end of the first half and if that happens the Spurs can forget about the Finals.
We cannot win with Bonner, but then we cannot win without Bonner. If we had the defense, we could keep the scores low, but we need Bonner's offense to stay in the game. We use that during the regular season but it doesn't translate to post season wins. Bonner wilts.
It's difficult because you want to play your best players the most minutes but you also want to get a boost from your bench.
Hard to say what the playoff rotation is going to look like. Don't forget, we could have injuries or more matchups that require three point shooting. It just depends on situations that we don't know right now.
What we can take solace in is that the Spurs have a lot of options and can match up well with most any team given the diversity of positions we have on the team.
The trick will be to get the new guys familiar enough to trust playing them during key moments in the playoffs.
The way this team is constructed, don't expect anyone other than Parker to average 35 mpg in the playoffs. I'm thinking 32-34 mpg for Duncan and 30-32 mpg for Ginobili, because of the caliber of backup at center and the overall depth at shooting guard.
Pop is not going to entirely go away from Green; nor should he. Maybe as a round moves along, if he's struggling mightily or their backs are against the wall, you'll see a more condensed rotation. Other than that, he's going to spot him a few minutes here and there. Depending on the match-up and how they're playing, don't be surprised to see him play more than Neal some games. Moving ahead of him in the rotation is unlikely, but not entirely out of the question.
Mills and Anderson, have no chance to crack the rotation. Pop's going to have a difficult enough time playing both Neal and Green as much as he'd probably like to, there's just no way he moves Mills ahead of either. He's strictly around for insurance, in case Parker, Ginobili or Neal, can't go, so that they don't have to count on Joseph.
Really, the only odd man out I see is Blair. If Diaw really struggles, he'll be given a look though. But Green and Blair are quality depth players to have. If this team is going to go four rounds, they're going to need contributions from 11-12 guys. It's not just injuries, some games certain guys are just not going to have energy. You saw it with the Mavs like season, when they had to rely on Mahinmi and Cardinal in Finals games. So to have two rotation caliber players, who are energy type players (particularly when well rested), to go to in that situation, is a luxury.
To the benefit of seeing how all the players look at any given night and play more the ones that are performing better in that particular game.
If at the beggining of every game you give the chance to ten players and one or two are underperforming you can cut them from the rotation for the rest of the game and you'll still have an 8 men rotation.
If you go for an 8 men rotation since the begining and one of those players fail to deliver you're ed 'cause you can't go back to that player that you sent to the doghouse, well you can, but it wouldn't be the same as if he was on a playing rythm.
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