'25 Playoff Rotation Predictions: A Collaborative Deep Dive

[KillerLeft]

In the WCF Finals last year:

Luka 40 | Exum 5
Kyrie 40 | Hardy 10
DJJ 33 | Green 19
PJW 39 | Maxi 11
Gafford 25 | Lively 22

In the Finals last year:

Luka 39 | Exum 8
Kyrie 39 | Hardy 7
DJJ 23 | Green 20 | THJ 12
PJW 33 | Maxi 16
Gafford 15 | Lively 23

The Mavs won't drop to an 8-man rotation like some teams do. In the finals, 10 players played in all 5 games and THJ played in 4. 
In the WCF, 9 players would have played in all 5 games if not for the Livley injury. Same for the first two rounds, 9-10 player rotations.



Guards: Luka and Kyrie will play ~80 minutes. Bench Guard (Dinwiddie) gets the ~16 minutes.
Wings: Klay and PJW will play ~60 minutes. Bench Wings (Grimes & Naji) get the ~36 minutes.
Centers: Lively and Gafford will play ~48 minutes. Bench Big (Kleber) is the 10th, if healthy and matchup dictates play time over Gafford.

As it stands today, that's the clear 9-10 man playoff rotation.

Worth noting that the reason for those deeper rotations was that Kidd was desperately searching for options that provided the combination of defense with willingness to shoot from the perimeter. Otherwise, we'd never have seen Hardy and THJ probably would've stayed benched, based on the way his regular season ended. I don't think that remotely reflects what is ideal or likely to happen in a world wherein some sort of plan is even mildly successful, personally.  

I'm betting it will be 9, at most, and if it's more...I don't think that will be a good sign. 7-8 minutes isn't really enough to find the rhythm of the game and contribute.