FanPost

Rebuilding 101 - The simple guide on how to do it right

I'm sorry. But I really thought that this season was going to go much differently than it has. I thought we were rebuilding with our eye towards the future. I thought we had 5 lotto picks under the age of 23 and another 2 lotto picks under age 28 who could have solid roles on the team in the future. We also made a trade that everyone in the entire country thought was made solely to acquire a couple first round draft picks in exchange for paying a couple of completely washed up vets to sit at the end of our bench for the season. Boy was I wrong.

Now to me this is a pretty simple concept. It is a "season of discovery", a season of "development", a season of "defense", and a season of "discipline". Nowhere have I ever heard this is a season of "winning". Here's how to simplify the current situation.

Rebuilding 101- The simple guide on how to do it right

When making playing time decisions ask yourself these questions about the player:

A) Is this player likely to be a rotational player for us in 3 years? (10 points)

B) Could this player be named to the All-star team or an All-NBA team at some point in the future? (10 points)

C) Could this player be used in a trade that would net us a significant asset that would become an on court contributor in 3 years? (5 points)

D) Does this player need time on the court to develop? (5 points)

E) Do we need to find out what this player can do? (5 points)

F) Does this player obviously help our team defense? (5 points)

Now add up the points and rank the players.

A

B

C

D

E

F

Total

Favors

10

10

5

5

5

5

40

Hayward

10

10

5

5

5

5

40

Kanter

10

10

5

5

5

0

35

Burke

10

10

5

5

5

0

35

Burks

10

0

5

5

5

5

30

Rush

10

0

5

5

5

5

30

Gobert

10

0

5

5

5

5

30

Evans

10

0

5

5

5

5

30

Marvin

10

0

5

0

5

5

25

Garrett

0

0

0

5

5

5

15

Biedrins

0

0

0

5

5

5

15

Clark

0

0

0

5

5

0

10

Harris

0

0

0

5

5

0

10

Lucas

0

0

0

5

0

0

5

Jefferson

0

0

0

0

0

5

5

Ok, Let's make this simple. Do the first 5 guys on the list make sense as a starting lineup?

Burke, Burks, Hayward, Favors, Kanter - YES

Do the next 5 games makes sense as subs for these guys?

Rush, Gobert, Evans, Marvin, Garrett - YES

There you go. There's your starting lineup and your subs. Starters should be getting ~30 mpg and subs between 8-24. Guys ranked 11-15 are to be used only in times of injuries, foul trouble, suspensions, ejections, etc.

Don't complicate it.

Don't overthink it.

Just put those lineups out there and try and put them in a position to succeed. Be patient with certain young guys and understand that the end goal is to be significantly improved by years end. Wins don't matter. Losses don't matter. Worrying about certain players' next contracts does not matter. Catering to certain coaches' shortcomings and insecurities doesn't matter.

Seems simple enough to me...

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.