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The 10-man rotation, starring Victor Oladipo: star or sidekick?

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: SB Nation. Jonathan Tjarks takes a scout's eye to Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo after 40 games as a pro, casts his mind's eye a few years down the line, and wonders whether the No. 2 overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft profiles more as a top-flight NBA star or a quality second banana.

PF: Regressing. Visualizing each team's strength of schedule going forward. Which teams that have had easy pickings early could be in for a rude awakening, and which teams that have struggled early might get a boost from the schedule-makers as we move past All-Star Weekend?t

SF: Wonkblog. "Great news! We fixed racism. Against white people. In the NBA." Wait, what?

SG: Bullets Forever. Mike Prada gets why Randy Wittman has shortened up the Washington Wizards' rotation, and he's not surprised that it's worked the past two games, but he's a little leery about what going only eight-deep this early in the season could mean for the Wiz down the line. (One casualty of the shortened bench? No. 3 overall pick Otto Porter, who spoke with the Washington Post's Michael Lee about the difficulties of his limited rookie season: “With injuries and stuff, it is different than what I thought.”)

PG: Bleacher Report. Longtime Los Angeles Lakers reporter and columnist Kevin Ding offers his take on Magic Johnson's recent comments about Jim Buss and the direction of the flagging franchise: "Magic needs to shut up."

6th: Bucksketball. KL Chouinard does a nice job breaking down how Brandon Knight's tendency to over-help off the ball led to some tasty wide-open looks for Kyle Lowry during the Milwaukee Bucks' recent loss to the Toronto Raptors, and how the second-year point guard's apparent poor recognition in help situations helps contribute to the failings of the Bucks' 22nd-ranked defense.

7th: Lakers Nation. With the injury-plagued and presently Swag-less Lakers reeling, Andrew Ungvari takes a look back at the curious timing of the team's decision to re-up Kobe Bryant and wonders if it's really all that curious at all, given what came right afterward: "It can’t be just a coincidence that the Lakers wrapped up the extension on the eve of playing their first game of [this] 37-game stretch."

8th: The Nation. Dave Zirin speaks with Royce White for what the former first-round pick says will be his "last interview with a sports journalist." (You can listen to the full chat here.)

9th: Bloomberg BusinessWeek. David Stern and Adam Silver discuss the process of succession planning when preparing for a change at the top of a massive multinational corporation like the NBA.

10th: The Score. I'd actually really like to see Andrew Unterberger's All-Expected-Snubs teams play one another; I think the Eastern and Western players he thinks have a case for New Orleans but won't make it there would be really fun to watch in a game.

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Dan Devine

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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