Last year on opening night the Sixers ran out a starting lineup of Lou Williams, Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young, Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert. Now that two of those players have established themselves as bench players, one's been traded and Elton Brand's body appears to be on the verge of self-combustion, this year's lineup projects much differently.
Despite training camp being a ways away and free agency technically still underway, the Sixers roster is set enough where we can begin discussing different starting lineups and rotation strategies. Last year Eddie Jordan's rotations and lineups were a hot topic at Liberty Ballers so now is your chance to show EJ how it's done and make some suggestions for new coach, Doug Collins (He obviously reads Liberty Ballers religiously, unless he can't handle the Jruth).
Read my suggestion after the jump.
PG - Holiday (35 minutes)
SG - Turner (35 minutes)
SF - Iguodala (39 minutes)
PF - Speights (25 minutes)
C - Hawes (29 minutes)
Bench - Brand, Lou, Thad, Meeks, Noce
My main concern in putting together this rotation was getting enough minutes for the young guys and limiting the minutes of guys who have no future with the team. It's important for the Sixers to play Hawes and Thad enough to properly evaluate them before they become restricted free agents next summer. Same goes for Speights and Meeks who become RFA's in two years.
From a basketball standpoint I'm relying on my three wings to prevent penetration as much as possible due to lack of interior defense. The lack of a plus-plus defensive rebounder also forces the team to rely on rebounding by committee.
On offense we're going to put the ball in the hands of our playmakers and space the floor with Speights and Hawes. The less clogged up the paint is, the more room Jrue, ET and Dre have to create for themselves and others. A post presence like Brand would be more effective with less playmakers and more shooters.
Most of the time the second unit wouldn't play all together, but when they did the lineup would look like this:
PG - Lou
SG - Meeks
SF - Thad
PF - Noce
C - Brand
The main creators on offense would be Lou with his penetration and Elton with his post ups. If both created well enough they would free up Meeks and Noce for open threes. Thad's job would be to run the floor and crash the offensive glass -- reverting back to his successful rookie year where there were reportedly no plays run for him.
In order for this lineup to maintain or build on any lead, Brand and Noce would have to revert back to their career DREB%s of 18.8 and 18.4 respectively. Defensively, they would be torched on most occasions.
The best part about my rotation is ... no Willie Green!
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A case can probably be made for any of my suggested bench players to start and vice versa. Post your suggested rotation and your best guess on the actual rotation.