If Walker plays 32 min at PG, that means Smart plays 16 at PG (I am simplifying this just to illustrate). Add that to the 96 minutes for SG and SF and that is 112 minutes split between Smart, Brown, Hayward, Tatum or about 28 min each. Now if you say Tatum plays 8 minutes in some form of small ball line up at PF, that means 30 min each.
If Tatum or one of the wings plays more at PF, some one else is going to need to start seeing minutes at PG, SG, or SF. That someone is than Edwards, or Wannamaker, or Langford. Is that better then more minutes for Ojeleye or Theis? Maybe, who knows as there are a lot of question marks with all of these fringe players. Hopefully one of the bigs emerges and plays better than expected and makes this easy.
I posted this in another thread recently, but this is basically how I see the minutes shaking out.
PG - Walker 34, Smart 10, Wanamaker/Edwards 4
SG - Brown 15, Smart 20, Langford 13
SF - Hayward 31, Brown 17
PF - Tatum 32, Semi 10, G. Williams 6
C - Kanter 30, Theis 10, R. Williams 8
Maybe Semi or Theis eats up some of those Langford minutes moving Tatum over to SF a bit, but I really can't see how Tatum isn't spending a lot of time at the 4 this year.
Some good thinking in your minutes chart.
A few things here:
1) Smart does not play “point guard” - at least if you look at his career so far. It’s true that he logs plenty of minutes as the primary ballhandler, but he has virtually always played with a smaller player on the court with him. He plays wing minutes. Posters around here have really not yet grappled with the fact that Walker’s primary backups are a rookie, and last season’s third-string point guard.
2) I don’t know why we need to continue to use the old-fashioned designations of PG/SG/SF/PF/C - the league, including the Boston coaching staff, has moved on.
3) Langford getting rotation minutes (as for example, you’ve given him here) is not plausible. Of course, you haven’t specified what part of the season you’re predicting for - as the year goes on, all sorts of things can happen; but Langford is effectively the fifth wing; and given his physical issues and the lack of an obvious opportunity for him, anything more than spot minutes and a ton of DNP-CD’s is most unlikely.
4) Interesting that you’ve given only “PF” minutes to Tatum; he will certainly get some wing minutes as well as swing (or whatever you prefer to call it); with the departure of Morris, that role of a heavier wing would seem to have Semi first in line, so you might often find Tatum as a wing when there is a big/swing lineup, exactly as you suggest. Tatum’s length gives him some advantages on offense as well as defense when he’s a wing, so that’s a very good option.
5) On the other hand, the coaching staff have only played Theis as a big - in fact he’s usually been the lone big in big/swing lineups. So if we're going to continue using the old 1-5 designations, in other words - he's a 5, a center.
6) Will Walker play as many as 34 minutes? That’s on the high side for Brad Stevens’ teams - no player in the last five seasons has played that much (though IT came close). Load management has been the norm. But there’s something else at play this time around: Walker is being backed up by Wanamaker and Edwards. Great for them - they’ve got a golden opportunity, and Carsen, I believe, is poised to seize it. But it probably also means longer minutes for Kemba.
7) You’ve put Timelord in for 8 minutes, and while I wouldn’t bet my house on 16 minutes, it’s my opinion that that’s about where he’ll wind up for the year. Again, you haven’t specified if this is for the whole season, or opening night, or the first game of the playoffs, or the median, or the mode, or whatever.
8. Kanter has his deficiencies, though on the other hand good game planning should be able to make use of his remarkable gifts; in particular he’s not a great rim protector, and that means that RW3 has a golden opportunity, especially because he’s potentially a good fit as a big in two-big lineups. His ability to guard out on the floor is precious, and he has the rare ability to be just as good a shot-blocker on his man as off the ball. I’ve just been reviewing his passing in summer league - I think he’s got some real potential to get the ball in his hands and make decisions, or at least to find spot-ups and cutters when he’s the roll man.