The "start the season" regular season roster is a matter of fact now but after 2 games, there is some variation in the bench rotations.
Holiday Pritchard Banton
White Mykhailiuk Stevens
Brown Hauser Walsh
Tatum Brissett
Porzingis Horford Kornet
two-way: Davison, Knight, Queta
I don't agree with it but it appears that the starters will include both White and Holiday and Horford will come off the bench as the 6th starter. Pritchard and Hauser seem to have their slots established the 7th and 8th guys. In game 1, Kornet got 8 min, Brissett 0 min and in game 2, Kornet 0 min and Brissett 14 min as I guess the 9th guy or 3rd big (so I gave Brissett the edge over Kornet as he played more minutes). The remaining players did not play so it is hard to say for example where Stevens is relative to Mykhailiuk, I gave the edge to Svi as he got his contract first, but for sure, Banton and Walsh are 3rd string.
I felt that Brissett was much better in the back up PF role (with Horford as the back up C) than having Kornet as the back up C (forcing Horford to be the back up PF). The latter forced Holiday to cover Randle because Kornet couldn't, he did fine, but it makes no sense to me to have an elite guard defender covering a PF. To me, it would have made way more sense to use Brissett to cover Randle, like they had Brissett on Adebayo, even if that meant less minutes for Kornet and/or Pritchard.
My problem with the starting unit (and using that unit so much) isn't so much about Horford coming off the bench, I actually see that as a good role for him, it is just too many guards on the floor. You end up with things like Holiday covering Randle. And the other thing is that it needs to be established who is the PG when Holiday and White are on the floor. You don't need two. I think it is White that needs to play off Holiday, and he can probably do that, but why not split these guys so that we have at least one on the court as the PG all the time? The more time they are on the court together, the more time they are off together and that means more time Pritchard is the PG.
The line up numbers are early but already, there is a trend that indicates we are best with only one of Holiday or White on the court (per36), OK with both, but clearly worse without either (meaning Pritchard):
White + Holiday together 53 min / +5 (+3.4 per36)
One of Holiday or White 35 min / +8 (+8.2 per36)
No White/Holiday (Pritchard) 10min / -1 (-3.6 per36)
I know it is only 2 games and I think White and Holiday will figure out how to play better together and get that number up some (I sense that Holiday is deferring as he figures it out), but it isn't surprising that if both White and Holiday are off and we have Pritchard, that the result is demonstratively worse and this trend is likely to continue.