Mailbag 175: What fun lineups should Auburn basketball run?

C Johni Broome and SF Chad Baker-Mazara (Steven Leonard/Auburn Tigers)

Welcome back to the mailbag. It’s crazy that I’ve already done 175 of these here. Number 200 will be here before we know it.

Number 176 will be in two weeks, because I will be out of the country next week.

For those who don’t know, I am getting married tomorrow. It’s why I’ve been away from the podcast this week, and it’s why I won’t be on either of the episodes next week, either.

I’ve pre-written the final two installments of the State of the Position series that will run next Monday and next Wednesday, because I wanted to make sure the loyal subscribers actually got something before the Fourth of July holiday.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, and thanks as always for continuing to subscribe, read and listen to the Observer. It’ll be football season soon, which means it’ll also be basketball season soon. Subscribing for a year right now, if you haven’t done it already, would mean you get both seasons and the roster movement periods for both sports before you had to pay again. It’s a good deal, in my unbiased opinion.

This week’s mailbag — which is finally being shortened in the headline to save space — starts with several fun questions about Auburn basketball’s upcoming season before a switch over to football and the upcoming Nike deal. My question for the readers this week: What is your single favorite thing to do at the beach? It fits nicely with my upcoming travel and, more importantly, next week’s holiday.

Let’s go.

Bruce often puts out some “weird” lineups early in the season just to try different guys together. Three guards, double bigs, etc. You don’t have to project what Bruce might do, but what weird lineup do YOU want to see from this roster?

I’m a simple man. Beach = fresh seafood.

Ryan

I love experimental lineups. I spent the entire sophomore season of Chuma Okeke openly begging for a lineup where he played as a small-ball center. (It didn’t happen.)

A lot of it has to do with smaller sample sizes, but I enjoy seeing how effective these looks can be statistically. For example, as I wrote earlier this week, Auburn had some insane offensive efficiency in the handful of minutes with Denver Jones at point guard last season. The double-big lineup of Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell was +13 in just 12 minutes last season, with an unreal net rating of +60.6.

Those numbers won’t always hold up when stretched out to longer minute loads, but going with something completely different can catch the opponent off-guard and be extremely effective in a short amount of time.

I think the biggest difference for Auburn basketball this season compared to last season will be the versatility of the roster. You probably only have a couple of players who are locked in at just one spot. Everybody else, though, either has experience playing multiple spots on the floor or has the tools to make it work. I expect to see more mixing-and-matching than a traditional two-deep-at-every-spot rotation.

Some of these lineups I’ve come up with are ones that I could easily see Bruce Pearl use this season — and he’s even talked about a few of these arrangements. Others are much more on the wilder side of things, but I wanted them to be based in some reality.

• Double Big: Pegues-Jones/Kelly-CBM-Broome-Cardwell — Pearl has now mentioned several times this offseason, unprompted, that he could play both Broome and Cardwell together. If another team is smaller up front, this lineup would be able to exploit that while still having the ability to spread the floor and shoot, thanks to Broome’s face-up game.

• Ultra Big: Jones-CBM/Kelly-Johnson-Broome-Cardwell — Pearl has floated the idea of playing Johnson as a big 3, especially if the Tigers want to run some more zone defense. Jones is already getting work at the 1, and either CBM or Kelly at the 2 would give Auburn great size off the ball. Pair that backcourt with the Broome and Cardwell look, and you’ve got incredible length everywhere.

• Super Mega Colossal Big: Kelly-CBM-Johnson-Broome-Cardwell — This is where you start going crazy with the size. If you think you can get enough playmaking from CBM and Kelly in the backcourt, then you’ve got a lineup where the shortest player is 6-foot-6. This would be a short-shift look, but it would absolutely overwhelm a team trying to play small ball.

• Stretch Chad (or Stretch Miles): Pegues-Jones-Kelly-CBM-Broome — If I had to come up with a lineup of who I would think will be the top five players for Auburn this season, this is it. The backcourt here is easy, as Kelly’s size makes him just as much of a threat to play the 3 as the 2. This lineup hinges on CBM’s ability to slide down to the 4. He’s a tougher rebounder and defender than people may think, and I think it would be a great hybrid approach for limited minutes. (Or, maybe it’s Kelly who could stretch out here, since his defensive rebounding numbers were great at Georgia Tech.) Surround your All-American center with your best and most experienced shooters.

• Small Ball: Pegues-Jones-Kelly-CBM-Johnson — Pearl has also talked about Johnson being able to drop down and play a small 5. This is a fun proposition, as Johnson is a great rebounder and can play above the rim on offense. You would get an elite run-and-gun setup with this lineup while also keeping both of your centers fresh on the sidelines. This is another look where you could flip CBM and Kelly, depending on who fits better as the small-ball 4.

• Microscopic Ball: Pegues-Pettiford-Jones-Kelly/CBM-Johnson — Let’s get even smaller by bringing in the explosive 5-foot-10 Pettiford at the 2 and sliding the 6-foot-4 Jones down to the 3. This is the Small Ball lineup with an extra burst of playmaking, with all three possible point guards on the floor at the same time. If this look can cause havoc on defense, it would be so fun to watch.

• Speed Ball: Pegues-Pettiford-Howard-Johnson-Cardwell — You want to get out, run and put on a show? Throw the wildly athletic Howard into the lineup. You’ve got three incredible dunkers, an experienced floor general and a dynamic rim-running center. Turnovers would turn into highlight reel moments in an instant. The rim would be in so much danger.

• The Cinmeon Bowers Tribute Lineup: Broome-CBM-Kelly-Johnson-Cardwell — Broome fulfills his destiny as an Auburn center by being the primary ball-handler for a stretch. (OK, maybe not.)

Beach Pick: Fresh seafood is one of my favorite things in life, so I get just as excited about eating at the beach as being on vacation there. Even though I don’t eat much fish, I’m one of those people who can go full Bubba Gump and take shrimp any way you can get it. My love for Dewey Destin’s is well-documented at this point, but I’m always down to eat at a fresh seafood spot whenever I’m near one.

SG Denver Jones (Steven Leonard/Auburn Tigers)

With the rumors of the potential big name team coming to Birmingham and the Maui Invitational, I’m really impressed with the way AU’s noncon schedule is shaping up for this upcoming season, unlike last year’s schedule, which I feel might’ve hurt AU a little on Selection Sunday.

I get that USC and Indiana didn’t live up to their preseason expectations, but the Legends Classic lineup didn’t even look great going into the season. Maui will be awesome this Fall (and didn’t Bruce say we were going back to the Battle 4 Atlantis in ’25?), but going forward, do you think AU should even bother with joining an MTE if it’s clearly going to be the best team going in? (As an aside, what are your thoughts on MTEs maybe dying off for the NIL tournaments in Vegas?)

Anyways, I feel like AU could be better off replacing those 2-3 borderline Q2/Q3 games with quality H&H or neutral site games. It’s clear the Selection Committee values tougher noncon schedules, even if it means an extra loss or two.

What are your thoughts on all this?

Although I’d much rather vacation in a big city or in nature/national parks, my favorite beach activity has to be mini golf. The goofier, the better.

Carter