Denniscd's post in the Shane thread got me thinking of minute allocation and the team as it stands. Below is a table that I have created with a minutes by position projection. I believe that RA will go into the season with a three headed monster at point and will allow players to either play themselves out of the rotation (rafer) or play themselves into a larger role in the rotation (steve). Knowing that RA plays an 8-10 man rotation, Denniscd's post seems to be pretty accurate. However, with a closer inspection, I do believe that there are enough minutes to go around and keep players happy. Also by carrying the contracts of the players listed, RA is insuring against the injury bug as much as he can. To me, one of the things that stood out in minute allocation was the lack of a place for Luther Head. He cuts well, shoots well and is a team player, but his size and inability to play the point make his play disposable (arguable). He is also a liability on the defensive end when playing two's which makes his spot even harder to justify. A player being able to play multiple positions is going to be one of the keys to making this squad. With 20 players under contract and 5 that need to go there will have to be some changes. I can see a couple of different scenarios. A. Sura, JLII, Reed, Landry & Harris are cut. We lose minimal talent (landry and harris) but have a luxury tax payroll. B. We try to package Head & Novak for drafts picks and a TE that we will let expire. Under this scenario, we give up talent, yet reduce payroll. We still ensure roster flexibility and are able to keep both Landry and Harris. Obviously, these aren't the only two situations that could take place. As far as trades go, I don't think the Rockets have much that other teams want unless that it's players we want to keep. We also would be looking to reduce payroll and not take on contracts which limits teams to play with. Bobcats always come to mind with this type of transaction, and the ability to get a shooter like Luther may entice enough teams to make a scenario like (B) be plausible. What are your ideas on the minutes breakdown?
Scenario B is a lot better, but I'd rather keep Head AND Harris. I don't know how expensive it would be for the Rockets, but the players that should be cut are Sura, Reed, Lucas, Landry, and Novak. Snyder is borderline.
I'd cut Yao's minutes to 30 in regular season, give the extra 4 minutes to Deke. I'd also cut James' minutes to 20, give the extra minutes to Alston/Francis
I dont think Deke will get regular minutes. I think he will only play when Yao gets in foul trouble, and we are playing against a true center.
Nice work Studogg. I'm new to Clutchfans, but I'm glad to see someone also feels this three-headed monster could work. We have a lot of offensive players but I feel Coach RA could make this work. and yes we still need Battier. As RA said, the only problem with all the guards comes on the defensive side. Not the offensive side that's for sure! But as I've seen on the other threads some would rather see Battier traded. I don't feel that would help our defense. It's a long season, the more the merrier. Go Rockets!! It's Time!!
I`d try to cut Yaos and TMacs minutes down to about 30... Francis and Bonzie should get a few more, depending on how they play. I`d also like going small more when Yao`s out of the game, so I would give Scola more minutes as a center, and Battier some as a PF.
I see Adelman going with a nine man rotation on most nights. I seriously don't think Mutombo is going to get consistent minutes. Maybe once a week against halfcourt teams or when Yao and Scola are both in foul trouble. No way of knowing right now how this is exactly going to play out but if it were up to me...this would be the allocation of minutes... Yao 35 Scola 30 Battier 30 McGrady 35 Alston 30 Hayes 20 Wells 20 Francis 20 (Head 20 if SF can't adapt to the offense) James 20 I know everyone is screaming for a trade, but I wouldn't trade any of our top 15 players. Only players 16-20 for picks or cash. We have to realize how injury prone most of our rotation is. I know I may get slammed by some for not having Head in the rotation, but he will definitely be there to keep us afloat when McGrady, James, Wells, or Francis goes down at certain points during the season. Lets keep this depth!!
Jackie butler looks like kelvin cato part 2. Just because he's center doesnt mean he should get a free pass ot to get cut but unfortunantely i think he's not. Harris is playing his way on this team and i hope snyder is creating trade value for himself, i dont want any part of him on this team.
The reality is that players can and do pout when not given what they perceive to be their due. Not all players, of course, but it's definitely a part of the NBA that we fans are familiar with. I'd like the Rockets to keep everyone, but I'm aware that's probably not very practical. From both a financial and team harmony standpoint, I expect someone to be shipped out.
thread failed when Head wasn't on the list. Head is much more valuable than Francis and will get more minutes than him. Why would we need Francis when James is a much better version of him?
Unless Adelman is going to stick with exact same 10-player rotation in every game throughout the season, rotational players' mpg's simply CANNOT be added together with starters' (assuming all the same 5 starters are healthy and not missing one game) mpg's to make it 240 total minutes (per game), due to DNPs. In other words, the sum of total ppgs from all players (10, in your case) with meaningful playing time are a lot higher than 240 minutes. Using last season's stats from 12 players' mpg's (i.e., excluding those of Padgett and VSpan) as an example: 37.0 36.5 35.8 33.9 27.6 26.6 22 21.2 17.2 14.5 8.1 5.5 Sum of all 12 = 286.0 sum of first 10 = 272.3 sum of first 9 = 257.8 sum of first 8 = 240.6 You see, to adjust to 240 minutes, you'll have to play the same 8 players all season. Works on paper, but not in real world.
obviously this is a rough average not taking into account matchups, injuries, etc.. With that in mind, deke could have actually been left off the roster. this is just an overview to see where rough minute allocation takes place.
I'd be surprised is Alston, James, Francis and Wells were all part of the rotation. One of them is getting left out. You can't split the SG spot 4 ways, and McGrady won't be the one locked out.
Minor point: Your list left out all rookies. Are you sure Harris and Brooks are not going to see any minutes? Somebody has already complained about the absence of Head. Major point: DNPs occur even without injuries. The sum of players' mpg's will exceed 240 minutes -- the magic number -- when the lineup changes. You can take that to the bank.
To adjust for this, everyone please make their estimates of playing time as a fraction of the total number of minutes in a regular season: 19,680.
First of all, Bonzi is gona play more than 16mins wutsoever, he is the only one that is really familiar with rick's offense system, and you can see already from first 2 preseason games how well he plays under this system. He is prob gona takes about 8mins off from Shane. And from all the interview, I imagine that Rick is trying to put one of MJ/SF into a backup SG(he always talks about how those 2 guys can play both position), with Luther will get at least 10mins per game, I think MJ's mins will go down alot.
hopefully everyone's minutes are right at or less than 30 for the majority of the regular season. parker & duncan both average around 33-34 mpg, everyone else is just at or under 30, and look how well that worked for them. on the other hand, the mavs had their big three in the mid to upper 30s for the majority of the season, and they got run off the floor. of course you could blame that on other factors, like they suck, but they looked tired out there chasing the better rested warriors.
