The "Craig Smith" 10 man rotation petition...

This is a complete fallacy. Go to 82games.com and look at Top Five-Man Floor Units. Our starting five has played played 120.4 minutes together. The top five man unit that doesn't contain at least one starter has played a whopping total of 8.3 minutes together this season. The top five man unit that doesn't have at least two starters has played 12.5 minutes. Note those numbers are total minutes for the season, not minutes per game.

If you look at least year's top five man floor units, you will see a similar trend. Other than garbage time, Nate almost always leaves at least one starter on the floor, usually two, with the second unit. Other than 5-on-5 scrimmage during practice, there is absolutely no evidence to remotely suggest that "Nate can't stop himself from going with two units".

BNM

 

Just going off past years. This year he has really narrowed that rotation down.

 

It's a good thing too. I think the tighter you have the rotation, the more tighter the offense.

 

I have always agreed with this philosophy. This year might be the one exception.

 

You can argue that because of the tighten schedule. But that spurs team that won it the last time we had a condensed schedule had a very similar tight rotation. They started out bad, then kicked it in high gear at the midway point.

 

OK, look it up on 82games.com and show me in past seasons which five man units, that didn't include a single starter, played a significant number of minutes (and please remember guys like Juwan Howard and Dante Cunningham started a lot of games due to injuries, so don't just automatically consider them non-starters). Other than garbage time, Nate has always left at least one starter, often two, on the court with the "second unit". It's one of the reasons Roy, and especially Aldridge, have always played so many minutes.

You're going off myth (a myth you created and continue to perpetuate), not facts. There are things I don't like about Nate, but this criticism simply isn't supported by the actual data provided at 82games.com.

BNM