The Armor have used nine different starting lineups this season.
Armor guard Tyshawn Taylor has started two games for Springfield after being assigned to the club by the Brooklyn Nets.
SPRINGFIELD – Springfield Armor coach Bob MacKinnon isn't spending a whole lot of time thinking about the success of last year's team as the 2012-13 team scuffles through a rough first half.
The Armor have a 7-15 record entering Saturday night's game with the Santa Cruz Warriors. By this time last year Springfield had 13 wins, winning its seventh game before Christmas.
Of course, last year's team is dramatically different from this year's squad, which is the way it will always be in the NBA Development League. Dennis Horner is the lone player back from the 2011-12 season, and he only returned to the Armor on Jan. 3.
These kind of wholesale changes in player personnel is a way of life in the D-League as each year the coaching staff and front office have to start from scratch, putting the previous season out of mind.
"Last year was last year and in this league it changes so much," MacKinnon said. "It's not like college where you've got the same guys and add recruits to it, or even in the pros where you've got the same guys. We had a total changeover and we started out slow and we've got to pick it up."
Last year's Armor had a solid returning core of players in L.D. Williams, Jerry Smith and JamesOn Curry and added to that with talented frontcourt players Horner and Jeff Foote.
With the exception of Ben Uzoh, this year's Armor came in as an inexperienced group in terms of professional basketball, and MacKinnon and company are still trying to find the right fit in terms of players and rotations.
Through the first 22 games the Armor have already used 18 players, the same number they used all of last year. MacKinnon has had nine different starting lineups in those 22 games, with Brooklyn Nets assignees accounting for just one of those lineup changes.
"You have to make adjustments, but there are a lot harder things in life," MacKinnon said. "We're just playing and coaching basketball so we'll make adjustments and hopefully they'll work."
When the Nets send players down to the Armor, like they did Thursday with forward Tornike Shengelia and guard Tyshawn Taylor, players on the regular roster lose playing time.
In Thursday's win over Maine, MacKinnon shortened his rotation and used just seven players for the first time this season, if not the last two seasons.
Players like Horner and Ramone Moore, who are used to playing 30 minutes a game, never got off the bench against Maine.
"They're told the last day of training camp that once they make the team, that's what this is and that's going to happen so there are no surprises," MacKinnon said. "No one should be surprised that guys are coming down and getting playing time. That is the way this quote-unquote farm system works.''
Coaches and players alike have to adjust to new players throughout the season, and while winning and making the playoffs is certainly a goal, developing players and getting them ready for the NBA is job number one for MacKinnon and the Armor.