Hot Points: Talking Heat Rotation

February 2, 2011

The Starting Five

• The Sun-Sentinel's Ira Winderman claims that the Heat finally have a "set rotation" - featuring Mario Chalmers and Zydrunas Ilgauskus alongside Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

• Winderman says the starting five could change down the road if Udonis Haslem returns to the lineup, but that would be "way, way down the line, if at all."

• Interestingly enough, Chalmers and Ilgauskus are playing reserve roles with deceiving labels of "starters" as they barely get starter-caliber minutes and rarely play in the game's final minutes. 

Best Five-Man Rotation?

• Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com wrote an article listing the effectiveness of Miami's different five-man rotations, backing up his points with offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency and point differential ratings.

• According to the article, the rotation that grouped Carlos Arroyo and Joel Anthony with The Big Trio yielded the best point differential (+18.7), beating out rotations with Arroyo/Ilgauskus, Chalmers/Anthony and Chalmers/Ilgauskus.

• Mike Miller was also thrown into the equation but his limited minutes with The Big Trio didn't provide enough data to generate statistics of any substance.

• In my opinion, Miami's strongest rotation would include Wade, Miller, James, Bosh and either Anthony or Ilgauskus (depending on the opponent's lineup) - with Wade and James sharing the point guard duties.

• As for the second unit, the Heat are receiving stellar contributions from Miller, Eddie House and James Jones, particularly on the offensive end.