Obie's guys vs. Danny's guys

[Michael Joseph Byrnes <mbyrnes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

With the addition of Jumaine Jones, it seems like an interesting battle
for playing time is set up at the PG and SF positions.

At center, Battie will start no matter what.  He'll be backed up by Blount
and/or the new svelte Vin Baker.

At power forward, Walker will start.  He'll be backed up by some combo of
Baker, Hunter, McCarty, and Eric Williams.  If it's up to Obie, Walker
will play ~42 minutes per game as usual.  Ainge might prefer Walker to
play a little less than that.

At shooting guard, it will be Pierce, backed up by some combo of Delk,
Brown, Jones, and McCarty.

The real interesting positions will be PG and SF.

At point guard, there are three possible options: Tony Delk, Marcus Banks,
and Mike James.  Ainge has said he sees Delk as more of a SG, but there's
no question that, of the three, Delk is Obie's guy.  Marcus Banks is
Ainge's guy, and James sounds like he could fall into either camp.  There
won't be a lot of minutes for the backup SG, so if Obie wants Delk to get
a lot of minutes, some it it will have to come at the point.  Looking at
who gets the PG minutes will be a good way to get a feel for who is really
running things, Danny or Obie.

And looking at small forward will be even better.  There are now four
contenders for playing time at that spot.  Two are Obie's guys: Eric
Williams and Walter McCarty; and two are Danny's guys: Kedrick Brown and
Jumaine Jones.  If Obie is playing the guys Danny wants him to play, Jones
and Brown will log significant minutes here.  If Obie is doing his own
thing, it will be Williams and McCarty.

There's also another scenario (call it Obie's compromise)
in which Banks and James play PG, Delk logs big minutes at the 2 guard,
with Pierce playing SF.

Also, Obie likes to have his 8 man rotation.  An "Obie's guys" 8 man
roation would be: Battie, Walker, Williams, Pierce, Delk, Blount, McCarty,
and Banks or James.  Ainge is going to want Banks, James, and Brown and/or
Jones to be part of to regular rotation.

All in all, soome very interesting offseason moves by Danny, in that he's
brought in some of his own guys, but also brought back two of Obie's guys
(McCarty and Blount).

Michael