With all this talk about depth and clear position roles, I fear that Nate may begin to see this team in terms of a starting unit and a separate and distinct reserve unit. IIRC, when 'Dre first came on board, that was something we saw a lot, and I hated it. I really hope that Nate uses the new depth and versatility to mix & match lineups to create and take advantage of mismatches, but I have a feeling we're going to see a lot of hockey-style (3-4 people at a time) substitutions this year.
The main reason Nate did that before, was because he claimed to have a second unit that played faster. Hopefully everyone on this team will play at a high pace and that won't be an issue. IMO it should be everyone plays fast and hard, and if you get tired sub them out. Unless the sub is named armon babbit.
I don't think so. We will probably see it a lot in preseason because Nate is trying to see what he's got in Williams, Smith, Babbitt, and Johnson, but I suspect the main rotation will be a starting five of Felton, Matthews, Wallace, Aldridge, Camby with Crawford, Thomas, Batum, and maybe Williams off the bench. We will probably see either Smith or CJ at times as well. The first two guys off the bench should be Crawford and Batum, with Thomas spelling Camby.
I don't think it matters terribly much, this will be a crazy season where teams are forced to rely on reserves more then normal. If we can still run a somewhat efficient offense centered on Crawford and Batum then we can let the reserve group get more minutes. If however the bench unit's offense struggles we may need to juggle keeping one of Wallace or LaMarcus on the floor at nearly all times.
I think this minute divying is ridiculous. If you have capable backups, play them. It's better for the starters to be as fresh as possible to close out the game. If they whine about being tired in the playoffs, they can't whine about minutes in the season.
