[Charlie Brown]

tightening the rotation has its pros and cons . . .

it will define roles better, but like you say, it will tire out our stars come playoff time, particularly nash . . .

i'm not certain that nellie will tighten it, but that's what it sounded like, and that's what 103.3 post-game show commentators are assuming as well . . .


however, in defense of Nellie and other coaches in the NBA these days . . . it appears more and more that GMs and owners are keeping coaches on too short of a leash . . . and forces coaches to focus too much on short-term results rather than long-term . . .

hence,

1) Nellie doesn't run enough plays through Dirk, since his passing is not fully developed yet, although in the long-run, continually developing Dirk's passing game during the regular season will only help the Mavs in the long run as he is the one player that gets double teamed the most . . .

2) Nellie plays his stars too many minutes, while it may help win games in the regular season, it will tire them out in the playoffs . . . but Nellie can't think that far just yet

3) Nellie keeps short leash on players he doesn't have confidence in like rookies and players like Bradley . . . i'm really annoyed at Nelson's utilization of Bradley . . . when Bradley makes one mistake, Nelson takes him out instead of allowing him to play through his mistakes . . . in the long-run, i think Bradley is integral to the team's success [he's like the team's Gollum. he's a bit mysterious, been there forever, seems to have jeckyl and hyde personality on the court, and as Gandalf says, 'Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over' and i feel Bradley has a GOOD part to play on the Mavs (sorry for Rings allusion, excited for premiere tomorrow)] but Nellie needs to have a bit more patience on guys like Bradley in the regular season and give him more of a chance to contribute before deciding whether he's fit to contribute during the playoffs . . . luckily, Howard came out of Nellie's doghouse, because he's been playing like an All-star the past couple games and took advantage of Finley's absence

in sum, Nellie needs to coach for the long-run, not just for this season, but for next season; he needs to focus on identifying roles and developing them, instead of playing game by game to fit his creative fancy . . .

just too bad that the NBA these days doesn't foster long-term development