Waterman, GG are guys that have proven that they can get hot from 3, so they start and try to get things going. SJ and Fous are proven points and Hall sets the pace. SJ, GG, and Fous are great defenders.

When fouls and fatigue set in, Saunders, Atiki, Rudi, and Jax come in. Rudi can score. Jax can get hot from 3 and is a great defender, and Saunder's motor is lethal in spurts, and Saunders/Jax are developing a lot of chemistry in their passing game, and Rudi can set the ally-oop lob to Atiki better than Hall can.

SJ, GG fill out the remaining lineup. And Trey has started seeing some minutes as well.


I think this lineup allows 2 things.

1.) Waterman starts and plays as aggressive as he can on offense and defense. If he gets hot, keep feeding him as he is a nightmare matchup. If he's cold, use his height to be super aggressive in the paint. This helps Pope see where the Refs are at with their calls. If Waterman is getting away with a lot, he knows to keep up the aggressive D when Atiki comes in. If he's getting ticky-tack calls, He tells his subs to lighten up a bit.
This heavily reminds me of when Rose started Worthington over Mika for several games to allow Worthington to pick up the few ticky-tack calls that sometimes rear their heads at the beginning and he hated seeing those fall on Mika.
By the time the subs are in, we have 2 starter quality guys against the first set of subs.
Trey coming in also can spell SJ for a bit when the other 4 can score. Play D with reckless abandon. Offense doesn't fall of as much.

2.) Our offense stalls a lot. This staggering of the scorers makes it easily to space them out so they aren't getting tired at the same time.
When we sub, we replace a streaky shooter (Waterman) with another streaky shooter (Jax) who is a better rebounder and defender and has a bit more of a polished offense. We also replace a defensive great (either GG or SJ) with a high-motor rookie (saunders) who can be just as pesky at times. Similar comparisons for Fous/Atiki and Hall/Rudi. Each set has a mix of offense, defense, athleticism, and experience. We aren't seeing a lot of minutes with only the young guys who are prone to mistakes.