Mr. S£im Citrus said:
Is there some kind of unwritten rule that I'm unaware of which says that starters must play 30+ minutes? I mean, if Miller isn't ready to return to the starting lineup, is there any good reason why Adelman shouldn't start Ostertag and play him for five minutes before bringing in Miller or Skinner?
The fact that we don't have any defensive minded starters is a serious problem. All things being equal, I'd rather the Kings set a defensive tone at the very start of the game, not seven-to-ten minutes in. Playing head coach for a minute, I'd start Ostertag and play him for the first five minutes of the first quarter, and then sit him until late in the second quarter; rinse and repeat for the second half.
The Kings need to have interior help defense in the starting lineup, especially when we have an undesized SG trying to defend a much bigger All-Star. Skinner just doesn't get it done; as has been pointed out before, while Skinner gets his blocks, at 6'8" he doesn't exactly discourage the other team from driving the lane. We need somebody to start who's going to establish a "no layups, no dunks" mentality on defense right off the bat, not wait until after the other team has already become confident that they can go in whenever they want to.