Blazers Rotation after 1 game: did we learn anything?

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Wizard Mentor

Wizard Mentor

Wizard Mentor
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Who wasn't in the rotation:
Biebs, Layman (but got PT due to blowout)+ CJ (suspension), Collins (illness), Vonleh (injury)

So, we rocked a 9-man rotation that looked something like:

Dame/Napier
ET/PatC
Harkless/
Aminu/Biggie
Nurk/Davis

With CJ coming back, and considering the results of game 1, the simplest thing to do is
to simply add CJ to the 9. Something like:

Dame/Napier
CJ/PatC
Harkless/ET
Aminu/Biggie
Nurk/Davis

OK, no problem. But what happens when Collins and Vonleh come back? I'm pretty sure
coach won't go beyond a 10-man rotation, so, if Collins or Vonleh come in, 1 has to leave.

Option 1: Collins and Vonleh stay out of rotation
see above

Option 2: Napier leaves rotation (something like):
Dame/ET
CJ/PatC
Harkless/Aminu
Biggie/(Vonleh or Collins)
Nurk/Davis

Option 3: Pat C leaves rotation (something like):
Dame/Napier
CJ/ET
Harkless/Aminu
Biggie/(Vonleh or Collins)
Nurk/Davis

Option 4: Davis leaves rotation (something like):
Dame/Napier
CJ/PatC
Harkless/ET
Aminu/(Vonleh or Collins)
Nurk/Biggie

Other options:
Biggie or Aminu or Harkless leaves rotation - I find these unlikely.

All of this assumes coach is willing to go to a 10-man rotation.
All of this assumes that there are no injuries.
All of this assumes that each of the players continues to play well.

It's not obvious what to do, but I think we just might go with Option 1 - especially if we are winning.
Bottom line: if Napier and Pat "freaking" Con continue to play well, depth is actually a serious problem.

What would you do?
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Great post....but none of them

My vote is:

Dame/Napier
CJ/PatC
Harkless/ET
Vonleh/Aminu (gradually ease the rookies in)
Nurk/Davis
Click to expand...

FWIW, Davis played the fewest minutes of any of the rotation players last night.
 
Dame / Napier
CJ / Patty
Harkless / ET
Aminu / Swanigen / Vonleh
Nurkic / Davis / Collins

A 12-man rotation? Yes and here’s why: you might start Nurk and Aminu, but Davis/Swagitron and Vonleh/Collins can act as matched pairs of situational solutions. I think Zach and Noah will work well as a more offensive, long, help defense sort of pair while Ed and Caleb act as a gritty rebound-and-pound sort of pair. One pair or the other will get the bulk of minutes in a game.
 
Wizard Mentor said:
FWIW, Davis played the fewest minutes of any of the rotation players last night.
Click to expand...

Yeah Davis does not need huge minutes. And sometime he can look really bad on offense. But you gotta like how he battles. Our 2nd unit needs that vet leadership.
 
Not sure you can learn anything from one blowout game against Phoenix, so my preference hasn't changed:

Damian/Pat (Either CJ or Damian is always out there anyways)
CJ/Turner
Harkless/Aminu
Collins/Swannigan (or they could switch)
Nurk/Ed

Vonleh and Napier will get opportunities as well.

Even though I know it would be difficult to guard stretch PF's, I really like us when we have two actual bigs on the floor at all times, as opposed to going small with Aminu at PF. With Nurk, Davis, Swannigan, Collins and Vonleh, two of them should almost always be out there. They really go after the rebounds and hustle inside.

In reality I'm pretty sure it'll change from night to night depending on match ups.
 
It nice to be deep and young guys like Swanigan and Collins eventually will get there chance. Swanigan again very active on the boards and with him there Davis that 2 active players on the boards on both ends. It has to be headache for opposing teams. But I still think Collins will be our future 4 and stotts properly going bring him on very slow. If he was stronger he properly either backing up the 4 or starting before the season ends and that might happen anyway.
 
I just cant see a scenario where the rookies haven't earned at least some playing time in the rotation. But then again so did Ed. So Meyers is SOL and if Vonleh brings it there is going to be at least one or two players that deserve to play that wont be. If we stay healthy and there isnt a consolidation trade its going to get really interesting around here.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
We learned that we need to play the Suns 81 more times.
Click to expand...

It is funny that Miles Plumlee gave us more of a problem than Chandler now does. The Morris brothers as well.

The current Suns roster is just too young. You think last night was a problem, wait until they go out on a long road trip.
 
One thing that I dont like after game one is the thought it we continue to have this many successful contributors to the rotation then that could lead to trade talk. It would really suck ass if a trade fucked up our mojo on a good season. Guess thats always a risk though
 
Duckhook said:
For all the +/- crap we gave ET last year, his +43 last night was a thing of beauty. I don't know if I've ever seen one that high before. That's yuuuuuge!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is a game where the primary stats (pts, reb) don't really tell the story. ET and Harkless share the game ball from me. I'm not suggesting we start ET over CJ, but when we have a bad matchup at the SG, ET should be the first one off the bench. And the ability of ET/Harkless/Aminu to switch seamlessly really paid off.

Other rotation findings:

Pat and Napier are plenty good to be used in the rotation as needed. Both have the confidence and ability to come in and really help.

Would love to see Phys-Ed and Biggie in the game together more. I think it really wears down the other team's front line. Nice to see Biggie contribute with whatever was needed. Nice passing last night.

Questions remaining:

Layman: there is part of me that would love to see him take Aminu's place at some point. He may never get the consistency I want, but he is an amazing athlete and a lineup of Dame, ET, Harkless, Layman, Collins someday would be fun to watch on D.
 
Last edited:
SportsAndWhine said:
Dame / Napier
CJ / Patty
Harkless / ET
Aminu / Swanigen / Vonleh
Nurkic / Davis / Collins

A 12-man rotation? Yes and here’s why: you might start Nurk and Aminu, but Davis/Swagitron and Vonleh/Collins can act as matched pairs of situational solutions. I think Zach and Noah will work well as a more offensive, long, help defense sort of pair while Ed and Caleb act as a gritty rebound-and-pound sort of pair. One pair or the other will get the bulk of minutes in a game.
Click to expand...
I like this, Id like to see them all play, except Id put Vonleh starter with Aminu as first replacement
 
Wizard Mentor said:
It leads to Chemistry problems, which leads to problems off and on the court.
Click to expand...

Winning is the salve for those problems and great depth helps keep us winning. I never heard the Lakers or Celtics of the 80's complain about being "too deep" although those teams had about as much depth as you can get.
 
Still maintain that our rotation should be:

Dame/Turner
CJ/Turner
Harkless/Pat
Collins/Biggie
Nurk/Davis

Give Bazz a few minutes to cut down on Turner's, but Turner is the primary back-up guard.
And when Vonleh is back, then he takes the PF spot and Biggie/Davis split back-up C duty until we trade Vonleh/Aminu/Davis.
 
We learned that Phoenix might be worse than they were last year? Or maybe we learned that the Blazers out-shot and out-hustled a very poorly prepared team? It was a helluva way to open a campaign, but I don't think there was much learned about the Blazers.
 
I have a couple of thoughts. You could tell the front court players to play their asses off every night because we have depth to cover foul trouble and fatigue. Most coaches go shorter rotations because of drops in talent.... Except one coach, Popovic uses his depth most nights. Last year the Spurs had 12 guys play in 63 games or more and they all averaged at least 12mpg.

This is how I would roll it out there.
Dame/Turner
CJ/Pat
Harkless/Aminu
Vonleh/Swannigan
Nurkic/ Davis

Then Collins gets spot minutes depending on fatigue/matchup/foul situations.
 
Nikolokolus said:
We learned that Phoenix might be worse than they were last year? Or maybe we learned that the Blazers out-shot and out-hustled a very poorly prepared team? It was a helluva way to open a campaign, but I don't think there was much learned about the Blazers.
Click to expand...
I agree mostly, but I would say that it seems like in preseason the Blazers were basically in "Cruise control" and controlled most games til the 4th quarter which then went garbage time. Last night they played more legitimate regular season and were at a totally different level.
 
SportsAndWhine said:
Dame / Napier
CJ / Patty
Harkless / ET
Aminu / Swanigen / Vonleh
Nurkic / Davis / Collins

A 12-man rotation? Yes and here’s why: you might start Nurk and Aminu, but Davis/Swagitron and Vonleh/Collins can act as matched pairs of situational solutions. I think Zach and Noah will work well as a more offensive, long, help defense sort of pair while Ed and Caleb act as a gritty rebound-and-pound sort of pair. One pair or the other will get the bulk of minutes in a game.
Click to expand...

No team EVER has a 12 man rotation. There's no such thing...
 
Schilly said:
I agree mostly, but I would say that it seems like in preseason the Blazers were basically in "Cruise control" and controlled most games til the 4th quarter which then went garbage time. Last night they played more legitimate regular season and were at a totally different level.
Click to expand...
How many times did we play the Suns in the preseason? Twice? Then Maccabi?

I'm just saying, it's too early to tell anything about this team IMO.
 
We learned that there are only two guys on the roster that we absolutely can’t afford to lose to injury for any significant time: Dame and Nurkic.
 
tlongII said:
Winning is the salve for those problems and great depth helps keep us winning. I never heard the Lakers or Celtics of the 80's complain about being "too deep" although those teams had about as much depth as you can get.
Click to expand...
Once you win championships, players sacrifice for the team. We, and 27 other teams aren't there yet.
 
Wizard Mentor said:
Who wasn't in the rotation:
Biebs, Layman (but got PT due to blowout)+ CJ (suspension), Collins (illness), Vonleh (injury)

So, we rocked a 9-man rotation that looked something like:

Dame/Napier
ET/PatC
Harkless/
Aminu/Biggie
Nurk/Davis

With CJ coming back, and considering the results of game 1, the simplest thing to do is
to simply add CJ to the 9. Something like:

Dame/Napier
CJ/PatC
Harkless/ET
Aminu/Biggie
Nurk/Davis

OK, no problem. But what happens when Collins and Vonleh come back? I'm pretty sure
coach won't go beyond a 10-man rotation, so, if Collins or Vonleh come in, 1 has to leave.

Option 1: Collins and Vonleh stay out of rotation
see above

Option 2: Napier leaves rotation (something like):
Dame/ET
CJ/PatC
Harkless/Aminu
Biggie/(Vonleh or Collins)
Nurk/Davis

Option 3: Pat C leaves rotation (something like):
Dame/Napier
CJ/ET
Harkless/Aminu
Biggie/(Vonleh or Collins)
Nurk/Davis

Option 4: Davis leaves rotation (something like):
Dame/Napier
CJ/PatC
Harkless/ET
Aminu/(Vonleh or Collins)
Nurk/Biggie

Other options:
Biggie or Aminu or Harkless leaves rotation - I find these unlikely.

All of this assumes coach is willing to go to a 10-man rotation.
All of this assumes that there are no injuries.
All of this assumes that each of the players continues to play well.

It's not obvious what to do, but I think we just might go with Option 1 - especially if we are winning.
Bottom line: if Napier and Pat "freaking" Con continue to play well, depth is actually a serious problem.

What would you do?
Click to expand...

With CJ back either Napier or Patty will be riding the bench. Probably napier. Though he played well last night, pat was better. With Pat at the back up 2, Turner will likely play at the 3 behind Harkless, though patty could play the 3. Turner did the best I have seem him do last night at the 2 which is where he belongs. Its going to be interesting to see what Terry does.

Dame\CJ
CJ\Pat
Harkless\Turner
Aminu/Biggie
Nurkic\Davis

When Vonleh comes back he will not be immediately put back in the rotation. Collins wont be in the rotation. Vonleh will eventually make it back into the rotation, but at first like Collins, Layman, Napier, and Meyers it will be insurance and garbage time. Though Stotts may use different lineups depending on situation/ against different teams.
 
Last edited:
I think the lineups will be situational. Like we run out to blowout leads and then it's garbage time!

But seriously, I think it's more likely that Pat is SOL. It's been one game and it's nice be excited about a player. I'd love to see him blossom into a guy we have a hard time keeping out of the lineup. I think that's a potential.

Layman had one great game early last year and expectations for him turned out to be completely unrealistic.

I would think getting ET on the court at SG might be what Stotts will do.
 
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