NBA 2016–17 Rotation Wishlist (+what I expect to see but don’t want to) — Eastern Conference Edition

Atlanta Hawks:

• Hopefully Splitter is healthy enough to play the season. Having him and Howard split center minutes 30/18 would be a nice way to have a ‘plus’ center on the court at all times. Something not many teams have
• Humphries, Scott, Muscala only really needs to take up the backup power forward minutes if point above holds true.
• When Schröder does nutty stuff, it would be nice if a non-Jarrett Jack option (Delaney) manages to take the backup PG role. Jack isn’t super fun to watch.

Boston Celtics:

• Olynyk has been an (adjusted) plus-minus king (or pretty good) for a few seasons now. Wouldn’t be terrible if he actually cracked 23 minutes.
• I wonder what the defensive rebounding will look like. There’s quite a bit to be concerned about with Horford/Olynyk lineups. Amir Johnson is the only guy who’s above average for his position, maybe Smart?

Brooklyn Nets:

• Scola with Lopez starting just seems way too slow. Scola as backup center seems to make sense, not like he protects the rim and his shooting would be more useful there.
• Lin/Rondae/Vasquez/Bogdanovic is sort of enough to start thinking about small-ball. Seems like a pretty nice way to handle Rondae’s shooting as well. Would like to see this tried.

Charlotte Hornets:

• There’s a cute way to stagger MKG/Batum/Williams to play a lot of small-ball, so interested to see how many minutes. Not super pumped about playing Hawes or Kaminsky in any case.
• Is this the year Clifford starts trusting Lamb?!? Probably not, but we’ll see a few nice games to start again maybe.
• Sessions could do quite nicely in space here in the right lineups.
• Not expecting anything from Hibbert. “Clifford leads to bounce back” seems relatively optimistic. At least it’s a good way to keep the defense pretty fine in the right match-ups like 9 minutes per game. But wouldn’t want too much of Hibbert/Hawes/Kaminsky per day.

Chicago Bulls:

• Basically you need a 100% stagger between Wade and Rondo. Just take one out as soon as you feel like you won’t get yelled at.
• I don’t actually hate Tony Snell like most do. The Bulls could really use a 38% shooter (I’m being optimistic here ofc).
• Just try to do the “only two non-shooters” dance as much as possible. Didn’t really map it out but should be possible. There’s Snell (hope for 38%), McDermott, Butler (hope for 36%), Portis/sort-of Felicio (hope for volume with a make ever now and then), Mirotic (hope he’s open).

Cleveland Cavaliers:

• Questions about back-up point guard of course.
• Wing rotation is more than fine if Dunleavy’s back hasn’t given out.
• It’s going to be small-ball all day, how that wears out LeBron (+Jefferson) seems interesting enough.

Detroit Pistons:

• Drummond/Marjanovic/Baynes/Leuer seems more than excessive since there’s this thing called small-ball that is relatively useful every now and then.
• Baynes at power forward will be a thing. Not super excited. Maybe some team can absorb him for free? Seems good if you need another center.
• Harris/Morris being pushed exclusively to small forward seems like a minus since both shoot it at a rate that questionable and Stanley Johnson should also play there.
• Throw in Ish Smith and you’ll get get some extraordinarily non-shooting lineups.
• How many minutes will we see variations of core six Drummond-Morris-Harris-Johnson-KCP-Jackson? Those would seem to be the best spread PnR groups for Drummond too.

Indiana Pacers:

• Lets do the efficiency maths: Teague and Ellis need the ball to be efficient. Al Jefferson does pass nowadays but never ever gets to the free throw line. Young is average. George is great, but not quite as good on 2FG% as you’d think. Turner will be a monster.

All together? I don’t know probably some issues. Pacers ranked third in defense and if that falls it could be a surprisingly rough going.

• Wade/Rondo thing for Teague and Ellis. Just 100% stagger as much as possible.

Miami Heat:

Unfortunately will have to go without Chris Bosh in this analysis. Health is more important than basketball.

• Dragic/Richardson/Whoever you can live with at small forward/Winslow/Whiteside should be a pretty awesome squad. Spread pick and roll and just run the shit out of the opponent. Hopefully Dragic can still run that.
• Not really a roster thing, but now would be a good time to not be in the bottom-7 in pace (last 4 years). Requires an adjustment from Spoelstra.

Milwaukee Bucks:

• Dream lineup: Delly/Middleton (get back soon!)/Giannis/Parker/Mirza
• Anything that makes the team slow should probably be abandoned (Greg Monroe).
• I like Vaughn probably a bit more than average NBA guy.
• Not a rotation thing really, but does impact the effectiveness of certain rotations — Jabari Parker can shoot three-pointers right?? He did in college. Seems like a useful skill to try out.

New York Knicks:

• Dream lineup: Rose, Lee, Thomas, Melo, Porzingis.
• To really unlock small-ball, could use a SG/SF combo guy. Lee is pretty strict SG, especially with defense of Rose and Jennings.
• Seems like Porzingis will get enough at center. Hard to imagine Noah being healthy/good enough to take away the minutes.

Orlando Magic:

• It’s the Aaron Gordon thing. I wouldn’t mind trade for Vucevic if you could get reasonable stuff back. Seems like this is screwing him over. I would rather play Gordon at center than small forward.
• I guess there’s some minutes where Vucevic and Biyombo play together. Ok I guess whatever. Not optimal.
• D.J. Augustin for the next for years sounds at 7.5mil per year seems excessive (it’s horrible). For 7.5mil you can try like 5 different guards every year. Seems like you could hit on those rather than pay Augustin. Nothing was learned from C.J. Watson.

Philadelphia 76ers:

• Frontline thing. Could go crazy here. Simmons/Covington/Saric/Noel/Embiid has the potential to see the light of day.
• I guess Sixers need to move on from Noel now… Already congratulating team that gets him for the 17th pick.

Toronto Raptors:

• Powell/Carroll as a wing unit should be absolutely wonderful. Very excited to see how that lineup compares to replacing Powell with Derozan.
• Sullinger for some reason does well in advanced stats, but the fit with Valanciunas seems sub-optimal. Not about spacing as such, but speed. There’s a chance Raptors starting frontcourt somehow manages to go negative again with +5.something net rating. Wouldn’t that really be something?

Washington Wizards:

• Dream lineup: Wall, Beal, Porter (the player we hope he is), Morris, Mahimni.
• Mahinmi and Gortat together could actually be pretty nice defensively. Wizards could find success going back to that type of play since the small-ball with Porter has been pretty shitty.
• Plenty of time to test both variations. If big looks good then you just do that and add some minutes for Jason Smith, a.k.a mid-range god.