yes its slow...and a number of things cross ones mind when looking at different threads....
we are all too familiar with how health has played a major role in the last few seasons...not to mention the injury situation leading to our demise in the playoffs....
it seems to be reasonable to assume we have one of the deepest benches in the league....this offseason doesnt seem to indicate that that will change much....
given Larrys personal experiences and the shuffling of the medical staff, it seems this has become somewhat of a priority....whether its benders chronic problems or some of the same guys seemingly being injured at the most opportune times, one cant help but think things are being done in such a manner to ensure things turn out differently.....
it also seems reasonable to assume that given the strength of the bench, that the minutes and rotations might be key in trying to address these things....we know ron has typically been pretty banged up by seasons end given his physical style....jt and jo have had some unfortunate and ill timed injuries....
would it be unrealistic given all these facts that the pacers might make a very conscious effort to lessen the minutes by the starters and go with a deeper more balanced rotation over the course of the season....this would allow for a team that has more experience and is better suited for the playoffs as well as potentially more rested and healthier....you would then have the ability to shorten the bench , as often happens, in the playoffs...but if u needed to call on the bench, they would be very prepared, having played more substantial minutes over the course of the season...not unlike last season, in some regards.....
how does this play out?? well what actually got me thinking about this was the guard situation and specifically the potential saras acquisition...the same might hold true if antonio daniels was acquired as well....or jaric.....if the pacers made one of these deals you might very well see the pacers go to a primarily 3 guard rotation....now there are 96 minutes available in the backcourt in games, barring overtime....a 3 guard rotation of jack, tins and saras (or daniels) would allow each player to play 30 or so minutes a game....that would seem to be fairly reasonable....allowing each guy to play 16 minutes a half should be pretty conducive to continuity while probably allowing for a little less fatigue over the long haul....the possibility also exists that with someone like fred jones as a 4th guard that u could even cut it back to the high twenties for some of the guys(tins might be a good candidate) and give the 4th guy 10 minutes or so a game....
jack 30 min
tins 28
saras 28
f. jones 10
something along these lines might prove to be pretty effective....and giving jones even a few more minutes might allow tins to be even healthier over the long haul and hopefully all the guys would be in much better shape come playoff time....
with the depth in the front court the same thing should be able to happen as well.....a strong argument could be made for trying to decrease jo and artests minutes....they are the two allstars, and while u certainly need them to win games in the regular season, if ur able to reduce their minutes and thereby have them have less wear and tear at the end of the regular season, a much healthier jo and ra would be a welcome sight come playoff time....something similar to the aforementioned guard scenario could be done with the forwards....jo, artest, granger, jj(if around)/croshere could make for a formidable rotation with foster or davis seeing spot minutes at the pf slot....with harrison, foster, davis, and pollard it seems we would be able to minimize minutes throughout the season....and have a healthy front line come playoff time...
i realize the best laid plans of mice and men....and sometimes u have injuries and suspensions like last year that can throw a wrench into everything....but we never even addressed the 3 rd point guard on the team or benders situation, so it would seem we would be able to weather whatever unforseen occurences might come along....
i wouldnt be surprised to see minutes spread out a bit more....though i dont expect us to be phoenix, i do have a feeling we might be a bit more uptempo at times....which would make our bench that much more of an asset....and other teams lack of depth more glaring...
and most of all....the possibility of being more healthy come playoff time would be quite welcome....
we are all too familiar with how health has played a major role in the last few seasons...not to mention the injury situation leading to our demise in the playoffs....
it seems to be reasonable to assume we have one of the deepest benches in the league....this offseason doesnt seem to indicate that that will change much....
given Larrys personal experiences and the shuffling of the medical staff, it seems this has become somewhat of a priority....whether its benders chronic problems or some of the same guys seemingly being injured at the most opportune times, one cant help but think things are being done in such a manner to ensure things turn out differently.....
it also seems reasonable to assume that given the strength of the bench, that the minutes and rotations might be key in trying to address these things....we know ron has typically been pretty banged up by seasons end given his physical style....jt and jo have had some unfortunate and ill timed injuries....
would it be unrealistic given all these facts that the pacers might make a very conscious effort to lessen the minutes by the starters and go with a deeper more balanced rotation over the course of the season....this would allow for a team that has more experience and is better suited for the playoffs as well as potentially more rested and healthier....you would then have the ability to shorten the bench , as often happens, in the playoffs...but if u needed to call on the bench, they would be very prepared, having played more substantial minutes over the course of the season...not unlike last season, in some regards.....
how does this play out?? well what actually got me thinking about this was the guard situation and specifically the potential saras acquisition...the same might hold true if antonio daniels was acquired as well....or jaric.....if the pacers made one of these deals you might very well see the pacers go to a primarily 3 guard rotation....now there are 96 minutes available in the backcourt in games, barring overtime....a 3 guard rotation of jack, tins and saras (or daniels) would allow each player to play 30 or so minutes a game....that would seem to be fairly reasonable....allowing each guy to play 16 minutes a half should be pretty conducive to continuity while probably allowing for a little less fatigue over the long haul....the possibility also exists that with someone like fred jones as a 4th guard that u could even cut it back to the high twenties for some of the guys(tins might be a good candidate) and give the 4th guy 10 minutes or so a game....
jack 30 min
tins 28
saras 28
f. jones 10
something along these lines might prove to be pretty effective....and giving jones even a few more minutes might allow tins to be even healthier over the long haul and hopefully all the guys would be in much better shape come playoff time....
with the depth in the front court the same thing should be able to happen as well.....a strong argument could be made for trying to decrease jo and artests minutes....they are the two allstars, and while u certainly need them to win games in the regular season, if ur able to reduce their minutes and thereby have them have less wear and tear at the end of the regular season, a much healthier jo and ra would be a welcome sight come playoff time....something similar to the aforementioned guard scenario could be done with the forwards....jo, artest, granger, jj(if around)/croshere could make for a formidable rotation with foster or davis seeing spot minutes at the pf slot....with harrison, foster, davis, and pollard it seems we would be able to minimize minutes throughout the season....and have a healthy front line come playoff time...
i realize the best laid plans of mice and men....and sometimes u have injuries and suspensions like last year that can throw a wrench into everything....but we never even addressed the 3 rd point guard on the team or benders situation, so it would seem we would be able to weather whatever unforseen occurences might come along....
i wouldnt be surprised to see minutes spread out a bit more....though i dont expect us to be phoenix, i do have a feeling we might be a bit more uptempo at times....which would make our bench that much more of an asset....and other teams lack of depth more glaring...
and most of all....the possibility of being more healthy come playoff time would be quite welcome....