Popeye/Lineup

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

Hey all - I thought I'd share this idea I've been kicking around offline with
Josh Farber.

It seems to me one of the biggest problems is, how do you find minutes for
Walker at SF, Battie at PF alongside Vitaly, and also find another PF
rebounder? Most people seem to advocate trading Mercer, but I think you can
keep him. The following assumes Popeye Jones can come back healthy and
contibute at his earlier levels -- though if he can't, a name like Mark Bryant
or Terry Cummings might fit in just as well. (The real key is how well Battie
develops - we seem to be stuck now with the dilemma that we don't want to lose
him, yet aren't sure he can do the job yet.)

In this scenario, Mercer plays 30 minutes a game, and Pierce picks up the rest
of the SG minutes. That would give Antoine time to play at the 3, where people
seem to want to see him play, and we could go with a Walker/Potapenko/Battie
frontcourt for 15 mpg or so. This would mean almost zero minutes for Walter or
Minor, but so what? I'd rather find ways to get PT for Walker, Pierce, Mercer
and Battie.

It could look like this:

Pierce	30 mpg SF	10 mpg SG	Total 40 mpg
Walker	18 mpg SF	22 mpg PF	Total 40 mpg
Battie	15 mpg PF	15 mpg C	Total 30 mpg
Popeye	11-17 mpg PF
Mercer	30 mpg SG
Vitaly 	30 mpg C

Obviously, these times are flexible, but it's a thumbnail. Kenny and Dana
split PG duties; say Kenny plays 28 mpg, Dana 22. Keeps Kenny fresh. 

Guys like McCarty, Minor, Riley & Damon Jones only get situational minutes, eg
in case of injury or very large/athletic lineups. Griffin (or Clack?) gets
stashed on IR unless Minor's moved. (They replace Bowen's defensive intensity,
plus can score some. Hate to lose Bruce, but he's too much of an offensive
liability on this bench.)

The extra minutes at SG in the outline above go to Minor, or they go to Pierce
and you give Wallah a chance to play at SF -- depends on the situation. Popeye
picks up a few extra minutes in situations when Battie pulls extra center
duty. I think a healthy Popeye, and a full training camp with in-shape
athletes, could have made a great, great difference for the Celtics last year. 

Comments?