That starts Adrian Griffin over Tyrus Thomas. And for those who think starting's not a big deal, Thomas has played a total of 21 minutes the past two games.
Skiles is regressing as a coach, and it would be even more evident if his players weren't bailing him out from the criticism by also being terrible. Hinrich is likely the worst starting PG in basketball. Sefolosha has not developed in the least. Those are just the more egregious examples, the rest just aren't any different than last year.
But that doesn't change the fact that Skiles is making things harder on himself, by instead of taking a chance on his 'developmental' players (and if he thinks Tyrus is one, that's ridiculous), he's circling the wagons and trusting his veterans. That's what all coaches do, I guess, but Adrian Griffin should just be collecting his undeserved player-coach contract at this point, not starting. And at this rate, Joe Smith will be on the inactive list by January.
Good teams don't get blown out by 30+ points twice in a week. And unlike last season, there aren't a glut of gimme games coming up in the schedule. This start is a missed opportunity, and even if Skiles' plan is to have them playing their best basketball for the playoffs, I hope he enjoys starting that first playoff game on the road.