The Rotation (2020-2021)

[chaparral]

I loved Killer’s long write-up.

Something I saw on another site that I’ll add to the discussion because I haven’t seen it here.  Johnson will probably have a bigger role than we anticipate.  He’s almost exclusively a PF and has been bench/occasional starter for the last several years.

Why am I focusing on Johnson?  Because it appears they went out of their way to get him.  The deal with Detroit could have simply been Wright for Ariza.  Ariza is useful and expiring.  Dallas could have stopped there, but did Ariza + Jackson plus minor draft compensation to get Johnson.  My read on that is Johnson will be the primary bench PF.  He’s good at the PnR and PnPop.  

I think if Powell is healthy he will return to his starting role.  I don’t know if he’s a C or a PF, but it doesn’t really matter.  He’s a big and a vertical spacer who is a PnR savant.  I see Maxi and Johnson playing the KP/Powell roles off the bench.  As Kamm said, WCS will be DNP some nights and starter in place of KP some nights in order to maintain the rest of the rotation.   DFS, Burke and Brunson will join Maxi and Johnson as the primary bench and the rookies will be used sparingly.  

Carlisle doesn’t run lines.  He runs starters for each quarter and a KP w/o Luka grouping and a Luka w/o KP grouping.  The key to understanding “the bench” is understanding who will play alongside KP and Brunson in the w/o Luka line and who will play with Luka, Powell and Burke in the w/o KP line.  Popcornmachine.net is a really good site to monitor this from game to game.  My guess is Luka gets Burke/DFS/Maxi and Powell while KP gets Johnson/THJ/JRich and Brunson.  Closing lineups tend to be matchup driven depending on what we need on the floor defensively.

Thanks for the web site info.

"He faked him into the popcorn machine...
he's got salt and butter all over him"
-Chick Hearn