A few good things to talk about here:
I think Keyonte ends up in the rotation... whoever ends up starting will cause kind of a ripple effect on the rest of the guys minutes. I think Sexton is a good choice to start but have a feeling they push him to the bench and end up going with JC and Ochai or JC and Dunn. If Ochai starts it will cut into Sexton's minutes a bit. I also wonder if you gave George the starting job with JC and the others... but only played him like 12-16 minutes (the Keith Bogans start if you will) if it would help mix and match things while providing development minutes.
I was actually considering giving Dunn the Keith Bogans. If Dunn is going to play 15-18 minutes, it kinda makes sense for him to get those in with the starters. 1) That matches him up with the best opposing players and makes the most use out of his defense. 2) The starters have 3 great play finishers (Kessler, Collins, Markannen), might as well get our best passer in with those lineups. It's probably the best situation for him.
(small side tangent... if we can't get 15 minutes a night for Taylor and Keyonte then WTF are we doing here? We are a play in team right now so I'd say player development is basically just as important as winning or damn close.)
Not disagreeing with anything just discussing and wanted to give some appreciation to a well thought out post here... good job.
This is a good point. I think we can all agree that there are 7 players who are locks to be in the rotation and 2 spots left. If you were an outsider, you'd probably look at the Jazz with two promising rookies and say "those two stupid" and that's tough to argue. I think the Jazz will end the season this way, but the question is how long it will take us to get there. I think one of THT/Dunn will play to start and take one of those spots for sure. The other spot.....honestly could see it going to Hendricks, George, or THT and to a lesser extent Brice or Simone. Injuries will happen and open up opportunities throughout the year, but if I had to guess it would be Dunn and Hendricks.
But like you said, what are we actually doing if we're not playing George and Hendricks? That means we're playing Dunn and/or THT instead....and what that amounts to is probably a couple more wins over the course of a season. Is that worth it? I think it will feel like it's worth it while we're in the thick of a play in race. But whether we win that race or not, I feel like it won't be worth it after the first round. As much as I despise the incentive structures of the NBA, you have to play the game and I'm certain that one year from now we would be happier with our pick instead of a play in/first round whooping.
It's a common sentiment that you should just play the young guys and see how far they take. You win, or you win. But it doesn't happen as often as you would think.
The other thing I wonder is if they will put KO and JC as the backup 5 full time or if they sneak in 4-6 minutes of Yurtseven... maybe in the first half and then stay small for the 4th quarter? I would do the frontcourt rotation the same way you have it here... I think Hardy is pretty flexible.
My first instinct is to write this off. I think if you're thinking of putting in Yutserven at C, you should really just be thinking about playing Hendricks instead in some kind of small ball configuration. But who knows. With the Paul Reed attempted signing it seems like they may have had plans to fill more C minutes. I think we have more than enough as is with Kessler, Olynyk, and "small" ball lineups enabled by Lauri and Collins.
