let alone making those fans who feel that way ‘utter idiots’.

According to 2k9! This is just the way i have the lineups and why:

Rose and Kirk: I wont lie, its mostly since im a kirk fan and its also the default lineup. This still is good, defensively kirk and rose lockdown the peremeter and when they double team any single ball handler (INCLUDING Arenas but NOT KOBE or LEBRON and Sometimes Paul) they are bound to create some kind of turnover (bad pass, or if im lucky a steal). Rose is utlized in attacking the rim and if the lane is open dunks the ball, if i attract attention a kick out to deng (who is pretty much money 15 ft and in) thomas, or if possible a wide open kirk. Kirk isnt a ben gordon in making his shots, but with him i often use set plays, and have him run the point in that sense. Meaning call a play with kirk as the ball handler and initiate the offense (pick and rolls are what i often use getting kirk a look, noah a dunk, or a slashing deng a shot). Kirk is money when wide open, and can hit a mid range well even with a hand in his face (depending on whos hand it is though).

Rose and Gordon: Defensively it gets pretty hard, i cant really force turnovers, although gordon can stay with the player he is guarding and keep his hand up. Big guards tend to shoot over gordon, and pgs often tend to get past gordon, so i often try to use a zone instead of man to man. Offensively though i get every point i lost back. Its at these times where rose really gets alot of assists, pick and roll with thomas or gooden, hit a slashing deng on the way to rim, or see gordon get a few inches of space (all he needs!!!) and hit a three (many times over!). OFfensively probably the best lineup.

Rose with Hughes/Thabo: Both and hughes and thabo are very much the same despite thier stat and tendency differences. They both are mainly slashers with an okay mid range jumper (dengs way better) defensively they are both solid, thabo gets more blocks while hughes gets more steals when playing with rose. Best used for defensive purposes, but offensively it can be used if the other team is soft on the inside.

I know this is how the 2k9 version plays out, but i really think real life can have very similar results.

…and you concluded this how??

I totally missed this in my absence.

when coming up with guard rotations that don’t even mention the 14 million dollar Hughes.

I really don’t want to play Hughes, but I imagine it won’t be helpful to bench him and maintain some sort of trade value. Maybe he gets it and realizes his only value is his expiring contract.

Stay in shape Larry. Winning isn’t everything anyway.

As there are 96 available minutes between PG and SG. Split evenly between Rose/Hinrich/Gordon each would get 32 mpg. With Rose’s coming all at PG, Gordon’s all at SG, and Hinrich splitting 16 at each.

The problem there obviously is no mention of Hughes and in my opinion he is going to be the biggest thorn in the season trying to balance enough minutes to keep him happy and keeping him off the court for players that are better.

and he’s nowhere near Luol Deng as a player.

And…I have no idea what you mean with respect to Rose.

As a seventh man, he’d be nice to have around to continue to provide a 3-pt shooter as Rose matures. However, he does make $7-$8 million per year over the next 3 years. So I’ll put it another way: Nocioni’s contract must go.

And as yfBB said, he’s nowhere near the player as Deng. Especially on defense, in the NBA, where they no longer allow flopping. And Deng can guard the 4 spot. Except for last year, he has been as good or better than Nocioni at defender 4’s. That’s one of the reasons the Bulls even tried small-ball.

those people were scary!