PRESEASON GAME 2: ORL @ DAL | 105-110 loss

[DanSchwartzgan]

If Hardy would just make a pro-level percentage of his open shots (and avoid highly contested shots), there is a spot here to be won.  We won't ever know unless he's given a chance.  It almost has to be a spot with the starters.  It makes no sense for him to play with the Wood/THJ/Dinwiddie bench that is already loaded with scorers.

Note that Maxi finished the half and that Wood played with either McGee or Maxi all of his 14 first half minutes except a minute and a half as lineups were transitioning.  It looks like Maxi/Luka/DFS/Bullock will continue to close halves and someone from among THJ/Dinwiddie or Wood will join them.  With the exception of THJ owing SD a few minutes, last night was probably as close to a regular season rotation as you are going to see IF they decide to let Dinwiddie come off the bench.  The big rotation made sense.  Green comes in as a bench defender as Bullock and DFS are resting.  Wood and THJ provide bench scoring with Dinwiddie running the show.  The question is are they willing to go through the growing pains of the rookie playing six minutes a half against starting level guards.  

Here is an attempt at graphically laying out the rotation from the Orlando game to the closest 30 seconds.  It allows you to see the overlap between Luka and Dinwiddie and how the big minutes played out (with about 1:30 of Wood as lone big).  It was a fairly basic 9 man rotation except Hardy and Green shared what would normally be one spot.  It was also fairly platooned with the exception of the McGee cameo appearance in the second quarter for about 3 minutes and Luka staying on with the second unit until the end of the first quarter (which is common for him).

Given the reporting about Wood, Maxi, Hardaway and Dinwiddie coming off the bench, Green (and his D) almost has to be the one who joins that group once Luka sits.  To me, the question is whether Green also gets the six minutes to start the half that Hardy got or whether Hardy gets to retain those minutes.  My guess is that it is Green on opening night, but the situation is fluid.  Of course, this plan is based on the reporting of a couple of guys who I don't know.  Just two games into the pre-season we've seen reporting about lineups be wrong.


JM---------/CW--------------------/JM------/MK-------/
DS--------------/MK----------------/DS-----------------/
RB------------/TH------------------/RB-----------------/
JH------------/SD--------------------/LD----------------/
LD----------------------/JG-----------/TH---------------/