I'd be thrilled if we actually landed Swanigan. But I, too, want to see Poythress as little as possible at the small forward spot. His handles just aren't good enough to take opposing 3's off the dribble. He's just much more grabbing rebounds, making put backs and catching alley oops. My hope is that Caleb would be willing to come off the bench. If Poy played spot minutes at the 3 for occasional matchup purposes I could live with it. Maybe 20 at PF and 5 at small. Then if Skal got 30 minutes at center that would give Swanigan and Lee 30 minutes to split at the 4 and 5 spots.
The only way that scenario works is if you inverse Poythress' minutes. He would have to play 20 at SF and 5 at PF.
PG- Ulis, 30/ Briscoe, 10
SG- Briscoe, 20/ Mulder, 20
SF- Poythress, 20/ Matthews, 15/ Mulder, 5
PF- Lee, 25/ Swanigan, 10/ Poythress, 5
C- Labissiere, 30/ Swanigan, 10
That is a solid rotation. I'd be worried about scoring with the sarting lineup. Poythress as a 4 opens up the offense for everyone. He's a liability at the 3 offensively, but not at the 4 - he would actually be a pretty damn skilled 4 offensively, and then you'd have a shooter at the 3 to open things up even further. Actually, a starting lineup of Ulis, Briscoe, Mulder, Poythress, and Labissiere would be a damn good offensive/defensive team.
Assuming we get no other impact recruit this season, I'd much prefer a lineup of:
PG- Ulis, 30/ Briscoe, 10
SG- Briscoe, 20/ Matthews, 15, Mulder, 5
SF- Mulder, 20/ Matthews, 10/ Willis, 10
PF- Poythress, 25/ Lee, 15
C- Labissiere, 30/ Lee, 10
I actually like this lineup more than the above one. I think it opens the floor offensively, and they'd still be a damn good defensive team.