This is great analysis. But it seems we should be concerned about the pressure/minutes it puts on 2 (Harden) and 3 (Parsons). I suppose that's what Garcia and Casspi, and maybe Brewer, are for.
Pretty much exactly how I see it. Here's the 3 groups: Group 1 Beverley Harden Parsons Dwight Asik Group 2 Lin Harden Parsons Casspi Dwight Group 3 Lin Beverley Garcia Casspi Asik Groups 1 and 2 are going to build the leads. Group 3 just needs to maintain them. With Beverley/Asik for defense, Lin for playmaking, and Casspi/Garcia for stretching the floor, I don't why they won't be able to maintain the lead. We still need another rotation player or two. Someone needs to take a few more minutes from Harden, and we need another forward. My guess is Brooks/Brewer get spot minutes behind Harden. We need one of TJones or DMo to develop. We don't need an all-star....just a quality PF that plays well with Howard or Asik.
Harden didn't exactly have a lot of time off the floor last season, and I think his play later in the year and in the playoffs suffered tremendously for it. He'll be helped by having Lin take the load off of his shoulders (and Lin will in turn be helped by having Beverley). The 3-guard rotation should work out pretty well, especially when you consider that Howard can still be on the floor when Harden is out, to help force the other team into making hard decisions. Parsons probably has the most "backup" available, considering many of the 2's and 4's on the team could also take his spot for a few minutes if necessary...
Based on what I saw last season, I don't think McHale is very good at managing player rotations. He tried staggering Harden and Lin's minutes for awhile and it worked really well, then for some reason he just abandoned the whole idea. And I agree with the OP. We need one of Harden and Lin on the floor at all times, same with Dwight and Asik.
I do like having couple (at least one!) starters on court at all times until the W is secured. I really don't fully understand why most teams in the NBA gives first 8 minutes to starters, then lets 2nd unit to finish 1st querter and start 2nd, then returning starters again. It does have logic, but what would have more logic is what Rockets are doing now, taking Omer out early and returning him to dominate other team's bench. Though, Rockets have a great bench so they don't even need to invent the wheel, they can do the old starters vs starters, bench vs bench thing and keep winning.
Someone should build him an IPad app for that. Shows players who can go in based on the set of baseline rules, suggests players based on minutes of current lineup, how recently they played, how many minutes they have played. Lets him click a choice for big lineup suggestions/small lineup suggestions. Flashes yellow or red when lineup in too long... It wouldn't actually be that hard to build, though I imagine he wouldn't use it. Especially if it started flashing yellow or red at him.
So even though McHale said he wanted to go 9 or 10, it was an 8.5 man rotation last night, with Brooks getting his half-man minutes only because of game injuries. It's pretty clear that McHale only really trusts eight players at this point. I really hope he builds the trust needed to go deeper, because I do think it will preserve health and keep players rested for the playoffs. I'm glad that he did stagger minutes so that a rim protector or attacking guard was always on the floor. One interesting note in Morey's radio interview today was that he said that he thinks Rockets' small-ball lineups are proven good, that the twin-towers' lineups have potential to possibly be good, and that the traditional lineups haven't been good and aren't likely to be used much. It didn't sound like he was expecting many minutes for D-Mo or TJ.
