Analysis Spurs rotations and depth chart

[Shmurs]

Not captivated by “he’s not gonna like it” type of posts. Nobody except #1 gets to be choosy on this team.

 

[scott]

Close game against a competent team and Mitch has reduced it to an 8.5 man rotation.
Those 4 minutes Waters got could've easily gone to Champ, they play the same role.
I can't see the rotation changing much while Harper is out.
It also looks like Mitch doesn't rate Jeremy, but running an 8 man rotation so early in the regular season would be too much.
I guess 10 minutes Sochan/Waters got will probably be Mitch's token minutes for fringe rotation players to show they can be a spark plug on any given night.

One of Castle/Fox is always on the floor in the point guard role and they obviously start together.
One of Wemby/Kornet is always on the floor as a rim protector and they play some minutes together.
Vassell/Barnes/Keldon/Champ as off the ball shooters/cutters with Vassell getting some ballhandling duties when one point guard is sitting.

Our playmaker rotation will be arguably the best in the league when Harper is back, no need to do anything on that front.
Rim protector situation is also great when both are playing. It's just that we're fucked when one sits. Hopefully Olynyk is more useful than Biyombo as a player, because he's just as bad of a rim protector at this stage.

It's obvious our wing rotation is the weak link. I'm not saying any of them should get traded mid-season, but it would be nice if we could upgrade Sochan/Olynyk into a legit wing. Too bad there don't seem to be any on the market.

Mitch is definitely working our best players a lot hard than Pop has done in the last decade or so... on one hand its refreshing, on the other hand I don't want him running our guys into the ground like Thibs.

Seems like he should definitely be spreading the minutes around a little more... but it's also our own guys fault for fucking around and not putting games away when they could have and gotten some rest.

 

[Arguendo]

Those 4 minutes Waters got could've easily gone to Champ, they play the same role.
I can't see the rotation changing much while Harper is out.
It also looks like Mitch doesn't rate Jeremy, but running an 8 man rotation so early in the regular season would be too much.

Or probably more likely, to Castle if he wasn't in foul trouble.
This is looking to me like an 8-man rotation + Harper when he's back.
Sochan gets D specialist minutes, Waters get 3pt special minutes, Oly and Bryant get energy/match-up/foul trouble minutes.

I'd figured given the youth, this would largely be a 9-man rotation, with Oly getting most of Keldon minutes.
I did not have KJ becoming a top10 O-rebounder and totally eliminating long 2s from his game on my bingo card. In 259 minutes, Keldon hasn't shot a 2pt of 10' or more. Dude has fully embraced his role and eliminated Oly & Sochan from the rotation.

 

[Arguendo]

If you’re using Sochan/Olynyk to get a wing, whose minutes do you take from the Vassell/ Champ/ Keldon/ Barnes group?

I think Keldon and Barnes are in a unique group from Vassell and Champ because these games have shown Vassell and Champ can’t play the PF position whereas Keldon and Barnes can play up or down.

To me, it’s pointless to use Sochan/Olynyk to trade for an upgrade to replace one or two of those players, unless you believe that they should fight for those minutes and prove they deserve it over another. You might as well trade the weakest link(s) from that group in order to get your upgrade, which I think are Vassell and Champ (and include Sochan/Olynyk if needed). This way, you have 40 minutes freed up for that upgrade to come in and take.

Trading those players also makes it easy to find guaranteed minutes for Harper.

I think if you look to trade them its to maximize their value to the franchise. Oly is expiring and might have real value to a contender as big man depth whose off the books..
Sochan still has real potential to the right GM/team. If someone has confidence they can fix the shot, I can see him bringing something back + he's functionally expiring and it removes his extension decision from the Spurs board. I can totally see either one being moved, but prolly not both for depth reasons unless you somehow get a 4 back.

But if on deadline day, Brooklyn hasn't used all its cap space and calls offering Wolf for Oly + Sochan because they either like Sochan or want him to expire, I'd make that trade.
More likely, I think they could both be useful in some multi-team deal to throw in an expiring/matching for something more valuable to the Spurs than their expiring contract/RFA headache.