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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 5339107, member: 9844"] Assuming everyone healthy and Blanca meets expectations, I suspect the positional battles to be pretty traditional, with most players getting their time at their best position. For me that means Sarah consumes maybe 30 of the 40 minutes at the 4, more in big games, and Ayanna and Ice are competing for the rest. If one clearly emerges as the best, the other drops out of the rotation. But that is just the base case as I see it. Both of those players face additional potential competition from 5's and 3's. If neither advances their game much, the backup 4 could become on a loaded team, a relative weakness. If for example Jana is much better than the 4 backups, she could get more than backup 5 minutes and Serah could easily slide down to play the 4 when Sarah is out. In the other direction if Blanca gets starter minutes at the 3, and say Caroline looks like she did as a freshmen, she might be enough better than our backup 4's to justify increasing her minutes by playing her some at the 4. So for Ice and Ayanna, with a healthy team, there probably isn't room for both to be in the rotation, and it is not a lock that either will be, if a backup 3 or 5 is way better than them. With injuries things can change of course. If we lose Serah or Jana then Ice or Ayanna might be a better option than a developmental Gandy, with Sarah playing some at the 5. If the backup 3 becomes the biggest issue, Sarah of course could be great there too, with Ayanna or Ice getting more time at the 4, but in that scenario I think the more likely fix is going small with a guard like Ash at the 3. The main point is we have enough options and versatility that being the second best at a position doesn't guarantee a spot in the rotation. If healthy, every backup in the rotation should be way above average. If they aren't, we can move a player or two around and give more minutes to the best bench players. I think the backup 4 is the second biggest question heading into the season. I consider the backup 3 to be a bigger question because although I project Blanca as the starter there, as a new player that is far from certain, and Caroline and Morgan have obvious questions. Even there, if some are injured or disappoint, we can move a 2 over (Ash), or slide a 4 down (Sarah) so we have pretty good plan B or C's for even our relatively weakest or questionable positions. [/QUOTE]

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