[Cactus Jack]

And what about Reeves? He's an enigma; I can't figure him out. I see flashes of brilliance, then he rectally inserts his head.

Sheppard so far, is more consistent in his defensive playing. I also think he plays smart with great floor vision. I hope he stays another year. I think he needs to polish the edges a little.

For me, the problem with benching Reeves is that Dillingham isn't a great defender either and Sheppard is nowhere near the type of scorer.

Dillingham and Sheppard just fit together very well too. Really good chemistry that I'm sure you get close to replicating if you put either with one of the starting guards.

Part of me thinks it's best to go with a rotation of Wagner, Reeves, Edwards, Mitchell, Bradshaw/Ivisic starting with Ivisic/Bradshaw, Dillingham, Thiero, Sheppard (in ~7 minutes per) and Onyenso (only in emergencies).

Another part of me wonders if a platoon with Wagner, Reeves, Mitchell, Thiero, and Bradshaw playing man & a second platoon with Dillingham, Sheppard, Edwards, Mitchell/Ivisic, and Ivisic/Oyneso (or something similar) playing [a 3-2] zone is just as effective. At least then you've got continuity and force the opponent to prep for some different things. Even if things break down due to injury or foul trouble, you just revert to the eight man rotation that was just mentioned. Same defensively... if zone isn't working, just go back to the man that you'd initially built your team to play and taught.

If you were dividing the team up evenly to scrimmage in practice, that's probably very close to how anyone sets the lineups.

Taking some pressure off of Edwards by letting him come off the bench couldn't be any worse than some of the performances that he's already put up either.

This team may just have too many tweeners-- Wagner, Dillingham and even Sheppard are really combos. Mitchell is a short 4/big 3. Edwards is a 3/small-ball 4. Thiero is a 4/3/small-ball 5. Bradshaw is a 5 that wishes he were a 4. Ivisic is a 5 with 4 skills. None of them are bad when held in isolation, but meshing it all could be tough.