Eight man rotation

Someone asked this question in the Mailbag and I thought it could lead to some good discussion. If you have to choose an eight man rotation from next year’s roster who are you picking?

Can only choose eight guys.

I guess I just don't understand Dawkins being a lock for the rotation vs. MAAR...........both showed flashes in relatively equal terms, I just think popular opinion may be swayed toward Aubrey since he put together his best stretch toward the end of the season, and did it in consecutive games. MAAR showed just as much promise, but his instances were distributed throughout the season rather than a cluster. In my mind though, there is no doubt MAAR has a bigger impact/net positive as a 2 way player.

For me, it’s about what I expect the rotation to be, and I expect versatility of some of the other players to unfortunately keep MAAR from the “top 8” in the rotation. He is hindered because unlike the 3 and 4 spots, which only really have one proven player (Irvin), the 1 and 2 spots have 3 proven players (Walton, LeVert, and Albrecht). I would expect if Levert or Walton were taken out, Albrecht would be the man replacing them.

That’s not to say I don’t think MAAR couldn’t contribute in meaningful ways if given the opportunity, but in terms of who I think will get the minutes I expect Beilein to give the heavy brunt to his seniors and juniors.

I guess I just don’t understand Dawkins being a lock for the rotation vs. MAAR…both showed flashes in relatively equal terms, I just think popular opinion may be swayed toward Aubrey since he put together his best stretch toward the end of the season, and did it in consecutive games. MAAR showed just as much promise, but his instances were distributed throughout the season rather than a cluster. In my mind though, there is no doubt MAAR has a bigger impact/net positive as a 2 way player.

I feel like I am the only one that does not see Dawkins starting. I think he comes off the bench, unless he has added much more to his game than being a shooter. He played a lot last year because he had to, but not until Chatman was given every opportunity. I think Chatman starts the season at the 4 and if not him, then Robinson. I have no justification for this, just my feeling.

This is tough with so many unknowns. The top 6 are obvious: Walton, Levert, Dawkins, Irvin, Doyle and Spike.

For the final two I will pick Donnal out of necessity and Robinson for his shooting ability which is a better fit for our offense then what ever Chatman does. Wilson and Wagner seem just too skinny and/or not proven enough shooters to fit.

We will be an 8 man rotation come end of the year/tourney time. Extending to 9 with foul trouble.

Is it just me, or do others cringe at the idea of either Zak or Dawkins defending the 4 spot? I definitely think both of those guys bring value on the other end, but can't help but to wonder if it is a net negative to play either of those guys at the 4. Be interesting to see if Chatman/Wilson/Wagner can step up and man that spot.

I don’t think it’ll come into play every game because fewer and fewer teams still utilize a traditional four man (partially because bigs with a post game become more and more rare and partially because teams like to spread it out more). But a team like MSU with Davis or Schilling playing the four, yeah our guys are gonna struggle. Or OSU with a bull like Tate playing the 4. But most teams, I think they’ll be fine. We will just have to utilize the advantage on the offensive end for our guys.

The thing with Mark Donnal is that he has the ability to score. It may not come from the post all the time, but he does put up some points I think most likely Donnal will take 5 minutes and Wilson 5 as a split backup for Doyle unless someone earns the minutes. I think if anyone does earn it it would be Donnal.

I really can not see a 6 man rotation: My PREDICTION is
Pg Walton (30 min) Albrecht (20 min)
SG LeVert (30 min) MAAR (15 min)
SF Irvin (30 min) Robinson (7 min)
PF Dawkins (20 min) Chatman (8 min)
C Doyle (30 min) Donnal (5 min) Wilson (5 min)

Red shirt for Wagner

Is it just me, or do others cringe at the idea of either Zak or Dawkins defending the 4 spot? I definitely think both of those guys bring value on the other end, but can't help but to wonder if it is a net negative to play either of those guys at the 4. Be interesting to see if Chatman/Wilson/Wagner can step up and man that spot.

We will get by the majority of teams we play this year with Irvin and Dawkins guarding the 4. It’s when we get past the first day of the NCAA tournament we will be yelling at our TV because we can’t rebound and can’t get a stop on the block.

I assume the people who don’t have Spike in the rotation are counting on him not being healthy? Because there is absolutely no way he isn’t in the rotation if he is healthy. Did people watch him this year? He was pretty much the MVP after Levert and Walton went out

Is it just me, or do others cringe at the idea of either Zak or Dawkins defending the 4 spot? I definitely think both of those guys bring value on the other end, but can’t help but to wonder if it is a net negative to play either of those guys at the 4. Be interesting to see if Chatman/Wilson/Wagner can step up and man that spot.

Walton, LeVert, Dawkins, Irvin and Doyle to start (doesn’t seem to be much controversy there). MAAR, Chatman and Wilson off the bench. I’d take MAAR and Wilson as having bigger potential upside, despite having less experience than Spike and Donnal. Lots of people here seem to favor Donnal, but I don’t see him as ever being more than a marginal backup. I was very underwhelmed by him last year. He played as much as he did because we had no one else, but he just doesn’t have much of a game.

Walton, Levert, Irvin, Dawkins, Doyle, Spike, Chatman, Robinson

Would be really hard to leave MAAR permanently off the court though and obviously someone needs to backup Doyle even though that someone won’t be one of our 8 best players

Ugh, 8 is so tough.

Starters:

Walton
LeVert
Irvin
Dawkins
Doyle

Bench:

Spike
Donnal
Chatman

Throwing Chatman in there as the guy who can be the generic “wing” depth player, presuming Spike has earned some time to play alongside Walton when LeVert or Irvin is on the bench. Would throw Robinson as the next one out there again for versatility.

Walton
Levert
Irvin
Dawkins
Doyle

Spike
MAAR
Donnal

I can’t see us only using 8 tho

I just don’t see how they will play 8 guys – hard to imagine they will sit Chatman, Wilson and MAAR. They also tend to rely on 3 bigs and have alluded to DJ playing at the 5 this year.

Walton / Spike (if healthy)
LeVert / MAAR
Irvin
Dawkins / Chatman
Doyle / Wilson / Donnal

Obviously depends on the relative development of Chatman and Robinson, but if one of them is excluded from the rotation I assume it will be Robinson. In effect basically the same lineup as at the beginning of last year’s schedule.

With Wagner RS’ing.

If Spike isn’t healthy, I could see:

Walton / MAAR
LeVert
Irvin
Dawkins / Chatman
Doyle / Wilson / Donnal

There is no doubt in my mind MAAR will be a rotation player. Will need for defensive assignments at minimum. He just has far too much value on that end of the court to be dismissed, especially considering Walton is our only above average defender at any position

Yeah as much as JB normally likes to have an 8 man rotation, I just don’t see that being an option this year… He will likely have to go 9-10 deep and even then there will be guys not seeing the floor that will be pretty unhappy about it

I'm swayed by Matt D's comments re: MAAR. The guys who've already proven themselves to be B1G-caliber are:

Walton
Caris
Spike
Irvin
Dawkins
MAAR
Doyle

To project that one guy specifically takes the leap to steal minutes from that group is tough given the current evidence. Donnal will get some default minutes and everyone else is going to have to prove their worth.

Not that this is the question, but to me that’s a top 25-35 team with some upside in case one of Robinson/Chatman/Wilson breaks out in a big way.

…Oh and hey. First time poster, long time reader.

Yeah, those seven are pretty much a given I think. Throw in one of Donnal or Wilson by default. If the game slows down for Chatman, he’ll also get significant time, we’ll just have to wait and see. As for Robinson and Wagner, we have no idea what they’ve got on this level at this point. Again, we’ll just have to wait and see.

I assume we’re picking what we think will happen? I would guess Walton, LeVert, Irvin, Chatman, Doyle, Albrecht, Dawkins, Donnal. I think Robinson and Wilson will get some minutes too. And maybe Wagner? Going to be interesting.