Jazz Practice Report 9-30- Possible starting lineup?

[InGameStrategy]

This makes a lot of sense. This line up is the future of the Jazz. Why not try if this can work even now? The only questionable person in the line-up is Hayward, because he is a rookie. With that said, he is very talented rookie, had incredible summer league (the best overall according to some reports), and is a 9th overall pick. With Memo out, AK will back up both forward sports, and Raja Bell is 33 years old and maybe his best place is on the bench at this point of his career. Why not give this line-up a shot, and keep it for a couple of years, developing the chemistry? The future just may be now. And if it does not work out, AK or Raja can replace Hayward in the line up at any time.

This DOESN'T make a lot of sense because (1) your two best wing defenders start the game on the bench and (2) it's gonna be tough to find AK the reasonably minimum 25 to 30 minutes unless you start him. There's a logjam at the 4, and you might want to have Hayward play for part of the 4th quarter if he proves to be a decent outside shooter, so save his minutes for Q2 and Q4.

DW-CJ-Hayward-Millsap-Jefferson might be the starting lineup for the preseason, partly to give the new guys (2 of 'em, plus two relatively young players) some burn but I am not convinced that it is the best way to go in the season. Time after time Sloan has played two poor-shooting defenders (think Brewer + AK) together or two poor-defending shooters (think CJ + KK) on the wing, and a lot of the time, it's suboptimal.

It's very possible that one or more of the 2/3 rotation is pretty decent on both ends of the court; CJ might have figured how to not daydream on D, Hayward looks like he's pretty athletic for a white guy, Bell's a notoriously good defender and might be an OK shooter, and maybe AK's head will be in the right place. But I still think that it's unwise to have both of your wings who are most likely to be your worst defenders (or the least good ones) to start the game. You don't want to give the opposing team any rhythm with easy plays, and Korver has shown that your starters don't necessarily need to start the game in order keep their shooting touch.

I'm sticking to DW-CJ-AK-PM-AJ as the best regular season starting lineup until players prove otherwise. Who Sloan plays in the preseason doesn't necessarily reflect reality. [Some would argue that who he plays other times doesn't, either ...]