My prediction

[DERRENMATTS]

Ricky Davis will come off the bench and be our star 6th man again. I say this happens somewhere between the 15 - 25 game mark. Also, for this to happen, Ryan Gomes will have to assume a bigger role on the team, as he will slide into the SF spot.

Ricky is an explosive scorer and will be on the floor for much of the game, regardless whether he starts or not. But 2 things:

1) he's holding back in the opening minutes of the game

and

2) we can't have both Pierce and Ricky picking up early fouls

Ricky really heats up when he's playing with energy and this doesn't happen in the opening minutes as the starters are trying to establish the tempo and play smart basketball.

Ricky will start the game on the bench, and will come in after a few minutes and replace Gomes.

[Rondo to Posey]

I always thought having all your best scorers on the floor at the same time never made sense, and this is a perfect example, your getting offense out of PP, Blunt (surprisingly) and Gomes can get you garbage points, with Delonte leading the way and Raef to help defend and rebound thats a solid lineup. When you throw Ricky in there that really leave no real potent scorer for when the starters are out. Sure we have guys like Al that can score down low, but theres no guy there that I trust to make a momentum saving shot like Ricky can. He will get his 30+ minutes whether he enteres at the 6 minute mark or the start, I think Ricky versus a second line up is definetly to his advantage if he playing with a distrubting pg like Orien.

[DERRENMATTS]

Exactly, R2D2. It makes sense to spread it out because our players who start the game are capable scorers and it won't hurt us if Ricky isn't starting the game.

With the way Blunt is playing, he really comes out hitting his jumpers early in the game. Pierce is always going to be a scoring option. And with Raef and Delonte being situational scorers who can hit shots in the flow of the game, there's going to be enough offense from the starting unit. Plus too, the tempo is a bit more controlled in the early minutes of the game (which makes even more sense to have Ryan Gomes in there). This is why Ricky D has been slow in getting his offense reving into high gear at the beginning of the game.

But if he starts the game on the bench, he'll be in the game at the first timeout and he'll be looking to score. It seems like whenever he comes into the game after a timeout, the first play is for him to come off a curl and shoot a jumper from the elbow. And Ricky is the best on the team when it comes to pulling up and hitting his jumpers. I really wish we'd call this play more often because he is so effective at it. Just by doing this more often, I feel he'll boost his average up 3 - 4 ppg.

He seems to have a different mentality when he comes off the bench--much more aggressive with his offense. He's passive when he's on the court at the start of the game.