1. Payton-Fournier-Harris-Frye-Vucevic
110.5 ORTG - 95.6 DRTG - +14.9 NetRTG - 93.28 Pace 102 minutes
The new look starting lineup with Channing Frye has accumulated 102 minutes of playing time together now. They're only 13 minutes behind our most-used lineup on the season, the original starting 5 with Oladipo.
-Digging a little deeper, the above unit is simply an all-around solidly great lineup that produces at both ends. It's 55% True Shooting mark isn't spectacular, but it's above average. Same with the good 27.3% ORB rate, and the very good 13.0 TO rate.... put all of those things together and you have an offensive unit that checks a lot of boxes. Defensively they're also very, very good.
102 minutes of playing time is quite a bit, and a +15 netRtg is super high, so I was curious to see where the new-look Magic's lineup ranks among the league's top lineups.
In fact, and this is certainly going to change as teams start figuring out how to deal with it, but the new-look lineup is THIRD overall in NetRTG among lineups with at least 80 minutes of playing time.
For comparison, Golden State's starting lineup is "only" a +9.2 NetRTG in 92 minutes.
Obviously, these numbers are skewed by the fact that about 70% of them have come during the Magic's win streak. How much of the NetRtg for this lineup is attributable to the Magic getting "lucky" over this stretch as opposed to the lineup just plain being really good? I think it's a mix of both, but in my opinion Skiles has struck lineup gold with a unit that promises to be at least "good" (though probably won't continue being "great") for the duration of the season.
One thing I'd like to point out, despite all that's been made of inserting Frye into the starting lineup and the effect it's had, Frye is not actually getting a lot of floor time: only 18.2 MPG over this winning streak. That's a verrrry low number for the lone player on the team who has not been a part of any negative NetRTG 2,3,4, or 5 man lineups.
Now, let's look at two other units that Skiles has been (or should be) giving burn too.
2. Napier-Oladipo-Gordon-Nicholson-Smith
108.7 ORTG - 68.1 DRTG - +40.6 NetRTG - 97.04 Pace 38 minutes
I had thought that Skiles would try and give an all-bench unit of Napier-Oladipo-Gordon-Nicholson-Smith more burn, as in limited minutes it has been extremely extremely effective, but he's broken it out fairly sparingly during this streak.
Nonetheless, it has accumulated a total of 38 minutes together (4th most among 5-man lineups) and has a +40.6 NetRTG by virtue of its very good 108.7 ORTG and a face-melting 68.1 DRTG.
Of lineups with more than 34 minutes (obviously arbitrary), a 68.1 DRTG is good for second only behind CLE's Delly-Williams-James-Love-Thompson lineup.
Call me crazy, but I think Skiles should give this one some more run.
Now, on to the last one I want to look at:
3. Payton-Oladipo-Harris-Nicholson-Vucevic
112.8 ORTG - 92.5 DRTG - +20.4 NetRTG - 94.22 Pace 34 Minutes
It looks like Oladipo for Fournier and Andrew for Frye are the first subs Skiles has been making on this run, and its easy to see why.
...Skiles may have found a way to play Payton and Oladipo together. Who would've thought it hinged on moving Fournier out of the lineup and putting Nicholson in?!?
The backbone of this lineup is a very stingy defense and ferocity on the offensive glass, this unit collects 40% of its misses. Coupled with a league average True Shooting number and a low turnover ratio, it's got a good enough offense to put points up. 40% Offensive rebounding is not sustainable, but the defense is.
This could be the "bridging" bench unit between the starting lineup #1 and the all-bench unit in lineup #2.
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Let me know what you think, there are a few other interesting lineups out there Skiles has been trying out, what do you all think the rotation should stabilize as?
