The regular NBA game is 48 minutes long. And the regular NBA game is played with five men on the floor. You have two guards, and two bigmen. You also have two wings. One of the guards is also a wing, and depending on how your offense is run, you have an almost limitless variation of players to put on the floor. Three guards? Three wings? Three bigs? Two point guards? Two centers? Five small forwards?
The 96 for two problem is the key problem. Why? Because you have point guards, bigmen, and wings on your team; and there are only five spots on the floor. You're automatically in a crunch here as you can't have two of each. Furthermore, most teams aren't built with huge talent disparities. Or in the case of our Utah Jazz - we do not have an All-Star or All-NBA player starting and a scrub on the bench backing him up. This talent range we have at the bigmen spots is narrow indeed. (The #1 guy is better than the #4 guy, but the difference isn't as big as it is on other teams) Last season we started Al Jefferson, who had a great season, and Paul Millsap, who had a legit gripe as an All-Star snub. Right now, on paper, it wouldn't be crazy to replace one of those two starters with Derrick Favors - who may be capable of actually BEING an All-Star -- something Jefferson and Millsap at their peaks are not. Down the line the Jazz also have Enes Kanter, who could be a Top 15 bigman in the league. And beyond him there is skinny Jeremy Evans who is one of the most athletic players we've ever had on the team. He has worked on his game and is always efficient and productive.
Yes, there are other crunches for minutes on the Jazz, but the 96 for two (players) that we have here for the Bigs is where it is going to be the most talked about issue this season. This is going to be especially true as Favors continues to close the gap behind the guys ahead of him from last year's rotation. So here are 11 ways to divvy up the time between our 5 bigmen. I haven't ranked them in any order, that's subjective and up to the reader -- so we have player 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. How would you slice up the 96 minutes?