Just this morning I started tinkering with the idea of running out a small lineup with my Rochester team. I have 4 very talented guards, and one of them (who I recruited as an SF, and he really wouldn't be a great guard) has just enough rebounding to give him outside consideration as a PF. For reference, my current depth chart is as follows:
PG - Betts, Michalik, Bassett, Prioleau
SG - Vegas, Michalik, Bassett, Prioleau
SF - Litherland, Prioleau, Latham, Norton (who is on mop-up)
PF - Fisher, Terrell, Neuhaus, Latham
C - Campbell, Neuhaus, Terrell, Latham
That's a pretty reasonably balanced team. My main issue is that Campbell (or any other big I insert into the starting lineup for that matter) is nowhere near as talented as Michalik. In general that's fine. I don't mind having a good scorer with mediocre defensive skills coming off the bench. The problem is that in my first game last night we ran the slowdown. Michalik played only 7 minutes. Last year he averaged 18.7 with the same depth chart at the guard positions. In the zone he could easily be playing 24 or 25 minutes, and I hate wasting so many minutes of a guy who could be knocking on the door to 100 PER by the end of the season with solid speed, BH, and Pass. So my proposed small lineup would be:
PG - Betts, Michalik, Prioleau, Bassett
SG - Michalik, Vegas, Prioleau, Bassett
SF - Vegas, Litherland, Latham, Prioleau
PF - Litherland, Fisher, Terrell, Latham
C - Fisher, Campbell, Neuhaus, Terrell
Typically when I have that many starters on the 2nd line of another position it has done a decent job of shifting everybody over if only 1 or 2 starters go out. If it works as I'd hope, this lineup would basically take minutes away from Campbell and to a lesser degree from Terrell, Neuhaus, and Bassett and give them to Michalik and, to a lesser extent, Prioleau. Obviously the downside is that I give up a lot of the offense from my 2nd team and give up a lot of rebounding. However, at least against weak rebounding teams it maximizes the strength of my starting lineup and maximizes the minutes of my best players.
I tend to agree with a number of coaches that, given the same players on the floor, the zone is the weakest defense in the game. It makes up for it by minimizing fatigue and allowing teams to use less depth or play uptempo with less ramifications. In the slowdown game even Fisher, with his 63 stamina, played 30 minutes. He only showed up as yellow once and was otherwise green or blue (fresh/fairly fresh). Vegas and Betts played 33 and 34 minutes. The question is how best to maximize the value of this advantage. Obviously against a team with depth issues I'll go uptempo with the normal lineup. However, against a good team is there any chance the small lineup on slowdown better utilizes my team? I have a game against a human-coached team with depth issues in the post and a major rebounding weakness (nobody over 60) tonight, and if there is some chance of me utilizing the small lineup in the postseason this may be the perfect opportunity to test it. Otherwise I'll run uptempo and try to run their bigs off the court.