The rotation is going too deep and our best players aren't in the game enough!

[jade88]

This is going to be an unashamed rant guys, i'll be rambling all over the place. Please just humor me.

I need to get some thoughts off my chest, i'm incredibly frustrated with Brad Steven's rotations and i feel like he almost cost us the game yesterday and his desire to get a fair amount of minutes for the bench is not in the best interest of wins and losses.

During yesterdays epic collapse more than a few of our best players were on the bench for long periods of time. With that said let's take a look at our starters minutes from said game, i believe this reflects upon the entire season of Brad's rotations though.


Rajon Rondo 34:05

Avery Bradley 32:43

Jeff Green 33:53

Jared Sullinger 29:30

Tyler Zeller 27:21


You what all of these guys have in common besides being the best players on our team right now? They are young!

Why in hell would you have Jeff Green who's playing the best ball of his career only playing 33 minutes when you're 4-5 games under .500? He had around 10 points in first quarter and sat for a ridiculous amount of time in the second. What good coach would do that? Jeff Green needs to play big minutes for this team to win, period.

I'm cool with Rondo's 34 minutes right now, he's still getting comfortable and might not have his wind yet.

Sully is WAY too talented and important to this team to play 29 minutes, why is this happening? Is he still having conditioning problems?

Are we playing our best players a few less minutes to create playing time for guys who aren't even in the future plans or plain aren't very good (Turner) just for the sake of value? If so, this season is a wash.

My thoughts on the bench:


I'm cool with Thornton getting 6th man minutes, he provides some microwave offense that we desperately need. Overall i actually like this guy, he's really good at one aspect of the game.

Let Kelly play Behind Zeller out of necessity, he should be backing Sully but we someone needs to play the 5 off the bench with Vitor out. Kelly also provides a really nice spark of the bench.

Bass can back up Sully and is more than solid in this role imo

Smart can continue his development behind Rondo leading the 2nd unit, not that he's a fantastic distributor right now, i wish we had kept Bynum. We should really seek a real backup PG who can handle a motion offense though, via a trade with other moving parts.

My final thought is on Evan Turner, the guy is awful at basketball imo. Everything he does well he negates in other areas, no standout talents either. Atleast a guy like Thornton is above average on offense and can get hot. Turner is mediocre on both ends of the floor and his distribution skills are negated by his knack for turning the ball over. He's a total negative imo.


I'd rather play Crash Wallace who i know is gonna guard his man and has a high IQ. Wallace is turnover prone too and struggles to score, but we need defense in the 2nd unit more than anything. Thornton and KO will handle the offense. If distribution is the problem, let's get a real back up PG. Jordan Crawford was a much better version of Turner last year, not sure when he'll be eligible to be brought back to the states, but i'd love to have him back if we could move ET.

Thoughts? Anybody else getting annoyed with BS and the way he's playing the team right now?

/rant



 

[pearljammer10]

I don't really see anything wrong with those minutes numbers except that AB's are too high and Sully could chip in a few more if he was in shape enough to play them.

Green and Rondo at 34 minutes each is something I can live and be happy with.

[jade88]

I don't really see anything wrong with those minutes numbers except that AB's are too high and Sully could chip in a few more if he was in shape enough to play them.

Green and Rondo at 34 minutes each is something I can live and be happy with.

Me too, if the bench was good. I feel like our bench's ineptitude is understated. I'd rather play Jeff Green Jimmy Butler minutes if i was trying to win.

[Evantime34]

I think Rondo will get more minutes as the year progresses. When he hurt his hand in the offseason people didn't expect him back until the start of December, so I think keeping his minutes low isn't a bad idea.

For now it's important to get veterans like Bass and Thornton minutes to keep their minutes up, I'd be surprised if they weren't dealt eventually. Once they are dealt the rotation will probably tighten even more.

[incoherent]

On a team thats rebuilding, we have to give run to some of our chips in attempt to create value.

[jpotter33]

I believe yesterday Sully didn't play much at the end because they went small. He couldn't chase the guys all around the perimeter, so they went small with Rondo, Bradley, Turner, Green, and Zeller I believe, which tended to work better than I thought.

[Who]

I like Rondo down around 33-34 minutes per game. I think his minutes need to be kept around that level to maintain high effort levels throughout regular season. I think there is slippage in his game when he plays 36+mpg. Some guards are like that. Chauncey Billups was one of those players. Kept him fresh and in his best condition for playoff time. Calderon was another PG. Calderon needed to stay down at 30-32mpg or else he'd start to wear out as the season went on.

Jeff Green is having the most consistent season of his career so far. I don't know if the minutes have anything to do with it or not.

I agree that Sullinger should play more. I'd like to see him up around 32-34 minutes per game. He is too good to be playing south of 30 minutes a night. It is hurting his trade value too which hurts Boston's chances of acquiring a star talent.

Avery Bradley should play less. I'd keep him at 28-30 and would happily decrease that if the bench guards start to offer more.

Tyler Zeller deserves around 30mpg but I worry about hurting Olynyk's trade value if Zeller takes too much of his minutes. I'd rather keep Zeller's minutes low for now and find a way to trade Olynyk over next month or two. Then up Zeller's minutes.

[manl_lui]

I like Rondo down around 33-34 minutes per game. I think his minutes need to be kept around that level to maintain high effort levels throughout regular season. I think there is slippage in his game when he plays 36+mpg. Some guards are like that. Chauncey Billups was one of those players. Kept him fresh and in his best condition for playoff time. Calderon was another PG. Calderon needed to stay down at 30-32mpg or else he'd start to wear out as the season went on.

Jeff Green is having the most consistent season of his career so far. I don't know if the minutes have anything to do with it or not.

I agree that Sullinger should play more. I'd like to see him up around 32-34 minutes per game. He is too good to be playing south of 30 minutes a night. It is hurting his trade value too which hurts Boston's chances of acquiring a star talent.

Avery Bradley should play less. I'd keep him at 28-30 and would happily decrease that if the bench guards start to offer more.

Tyler Zeller deserves around 30mpg but I worry about hurting Olynyk's trade value if Zeller takes too much of his minutes. I'd rather keep Zeller's minutes low for now and find a way to trade Olynyk over next month or two. Then up Zeller's minutes.

I think everyone knows how good Sully is, and I think those minutes are intentional. I hope I am just overthinking this but could this be related to his conditioning. If it is, I think this is a problem

[TheTruthFot18]

I figured I wasn't alone in this thought.

Rondo I can understand (maybe he's still 90%) but Bradley, Green,  and Sully should be maxing out. I'd say Olynyk but he seems to be a sixth man for now. I'd also like to see Thorton get more minutes. If he's not in our long term plans, why not showcase him more? Plus he can get buckets and has played well in the minutes he's been given.

[Rosco917]

I'd like to see Sully get 32+ but he really starts lumbering when he's in for extended minutes.