Who Get's Playing Time In Basketball?

We have a good line up regardless of who is on the floor. Let Wade work. Smart, Watford, Days, and Thomas are your 4. The 5th rotates most likely LeBlanc. 5th guy is there for defense can rebounds. Doesn’t really need to score.

Wade says he want about 9 to play.

Starting 5

-Smart
-Thomas
-Watford
-Days
-Leblanc

6-Manning
7-Cook
8-Penn-Johnson or O'Neal

Wilkinson isn't a good enough defender/rebounder to justify minutes because he can't score and he's not a shot-blocker. We have to keep a defensive rebounder/rim protector on the court. I think Penn-Johnson can bring that to second group. Not sure what Shareef brings to the table yet except a little rebounding. Hyatt playing means someone better isn't.

Slightly off topic but is Jordan Toles still going to play basketball here? I remember reading that he would play football and basketball.

Wilkinson has made an early impact with his D. that's the best part of his game.
Gray is more physically ready to bang down low than Penn-Johnson. I think he may have had a minor injury though. per CWW, Shareef has played better in practice, it just hasn't translated to the game yet.

Cook will run the point when Smart is out. Gaines may on occasion.
if Manning is healthy, he may not start but will get a ton of minutes. he does everything well. plays D, rebounds, scores.

Cook is going to get more minutes than gaines imo because Cook is already a decent defender and a dog.

I would expect leblanc to be the eventual 5th starter but mwani gives you some good play off the bench in sec play. He was +14 against nicholls and didn't even attempt a shot.


O neal is going to play some minutes too because he adds height.


The good thing is... none of these guys have to score

A game is 40 minutes. Times 5 players gives 200 minutes total.

On average, you would want the top 4 to play about 30 minutes each. That leaves 80 minutes.

Your other 5 in the 9-man rotation can each play about 16 minutes on average.

Of course, foul trouble, injuries, pace of game, and matchups with opposing lineups will all factor into the rotation for a given game.

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BPJ off the team?

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Yep, I believe Wade called it a "family mattter"

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The good thing is... none of these guys have to score

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Absolutely. The caveat is this has been done against really weak competition, but right now LSU has 4 guys who between them are averaging 72.5 ppg (Thomas - 22.8; Watford 19.4; Smart 15.8; Days 14.5). That's almost as much (in some cases more) as half the TEAMS in the SEC are averaging per game. LSU currently has 3 of the top ten scorers in the SEC with Days sitting just outside the top 10 at No. 11.

That is the difficulty of playing LSU. There isn't just one guy, or even two, who you can focus on shutting down. Any given night, all four of them are capable of having big nights and often times two or three of them do. They are the most efficient offense in the SEC right now and #4 nationally. Realistically, if the other 5-6 guys can chip in with ~15-20 points COMBINED, LSU should have enough offense to win every game they play.

Where those other 5 have to make a huge impact is defensively and on the glass. Watford and Days are going to rebound. Can Leblanc bring a third big rebounder to the table and can he, along with Cook, Wilkinson, Manning and even O'Neal bring enough defense to complement the scoring ability? If so, this team is a serious threat nationally. If not, there will be highs and lows, but ultimately unreached potential

I agree - I don't like playing more than 8 or 9 cause I think to much subbing can disrupt rhythm and continuity.

But having depth helps with injuries and games where you have foul trouble and this year in particular with the contact tracing being so punitive.

I looked at Cisse’s stats and he’s exactly who I thought he’d be. The dude is average 9 rebounds and 2 blocks. My gosh this team would be unstoppable with him manning the middle.