Suns Hit Panic Button With Chaotic New Starting Lineup
Lineup alert: Suns will start Booker, Green, Brooks, Bridges, Maluach on Monday.
A 1-3 start will make a coach do crazy things, but the ' latest starting five looks like a 2K MyLeague simulation that accidentally auto-generated the rotation.
According to Underdog NBA, head coach Jordan Ott is rolling out , , , , and rookie on Monday night.
This is the kind of lineup you throw at the wall when your defense is entirely theoretical. is currently sitting at the bottom of the league with a 126.3 defensive rating, which is a polite way of saying they make turnstiles look like elite rim protectors. They just surrendered 127 points in a loss to the Denver Nuggets, so Ott is clearly tired of watching his team get cooked.
Throwing into the fire is the real wild card here. The rookie center is getting a massive promotion to try and plug a leaky paint, but he has to share the floor with a backcourt pairing of and Green that fans have already been questioning all season.
For the prop market, this rotation shuffle is pure chaos. is pacing the team with 22.3 points per game, but trying to project usage rates when you add Green, , and to the same starting unit requires a crystal ball and a bottle of aspirin. There are only so many shots to go around, and at least three of these guys think they are the primary option.
We will find out if this desperate reshuffle actually works when the Suns take on the on Monday. If they get run out of the gym again, Ott might have to start pulling guys from the lower bowl just to find a combination that can get a single stop.