With DDR taking over the 3 spot in the starting lineup, I think you absolutely HAVE to start Keon at the 2. Starting Monk alongside DDR and Fox makes no sense - they are all high usage scorers, and none of them are knockdown outside shooters. Starting Fox-DDR-Sabonis, and surrounding them with Keegan and Keon makes so much more sense. Allow Keegan and Keon to focus on the two most difficult defensive assignments and set a strong defensive intensity from the tipoff, let Keegan take a bit more of a backseat offensively, and add a classic 3/D guy like Keon to take a low usage role in the starting lineup. Mike is going to need to talk to Monk and convince him that his best place continues to be on the bench unit, where he can be the high usage guy we know and love.
If I were trying to optimize the current roster, I would probably do something like:
Fox (32)/Carter (12)/Monk (4)
Ellis (20)/Monk (24)/Carter (4)
DDR (28)/Huerter (16)/Ellis (4)
Keegan (32)/ Lyles (12)/DDR (4)
Sabonis (32)/Len (10)/ Lyles (6)
That gives you:
Fox, Sabonis, DDR, Keegan- 32 minutes
Monk- 28
Ellis- 24
Lyles- 18
Huerter, Carter- 16
Len - 10
That gives you some room for your traditional lineups, while also giving you space to tinker with a few different things: (Fox-Carter-Ellis-Keegan); some Monk point guard minutes and also a few DDR minutes at the 4 (like a Monk-Ellis-Huerter-DDR lineup). You would still get 10 or so minutes of Len (which seems to be Mike's limit), while also allowing for some small ball Lyles lineups. If you consolidate from 10 to 9 men, you are probably squeezing out Huerter or Len.
More ideally, you try to trade Huerter for a bench 3/4. The names that have been discussed on this board make a lot of sense: DFS, Cam Johnson, Grant Williams, Thuybulle. I suppose you could even look at Kuzma. All of the guys could work (salary-wise) in a package for either Huerter or Huerter and McDaniels, except Thuybulle. For Thuybulle you would have to add in some salary coming back (Kris Murray would fit perfectly
) But if you got one of these guys, you could easily give them the 16 minutes allocated to Huerter, and then skim a few minutes off Len and Lyles to make this a 20-24 minute per game reserve role. Something like:
Fox, Sabonis, DDR, Keegan- 32 minutes
Monk- 28
Ellis and new bench wing (DFS, Cam, Williams, Thuybulle)- 24
Lyles, Carter- 14
Len - 8