Corbin plans to stretch playing rotation to 12-13

LOS ANGELES — Naming a starting lineup might have been the easy part for Tyrone Corbin.

The way he talks about his eight bench players, the second-year Jazz coach has a minutes distribution nightmare to deal with this season.

Before Tuesday night's season-opener, Corbin dismissed the traditional use of an eight-to-10-man rotation.

"We've got a 12-13 man rotation right now," Corbin said. "We want everybody to start ready. We can dress 13 and we want 13 to be ready to go."

That is a wrinkle the NBA introduced this season.

Teams are allowed to dress and play 13 players — instead of a dozen — for the first two months.

The final two months, however, 13 players can dress but only 12 will be allowed to see action. One player must be designated as being non-active, taking that option away from coaches.

You'll have to ask NBA commissioner David Stern why. It's a mystery to the Jazz.

In Tuesday's opener, Paul Millsap was the first player off the bench after starter Derrick Favors picked up an early second foul.

C.J. Miles and Josh Howard were next to be subbed in, followed by Earl Watson and Enes Kanter in the first quarter. Rookie Alec Burks also made his first NBA appearance in the second quarter, and Jeremy Evans played the final moments of the second period — the 12th Jazz player to see action in the first half.

Expect a lot of different combinations over the next few games and weeks.

"We'll see how this lineup develops, what comes off the bench, how match-ups are," Corbin said. "We want to get a set rotation as soon as we can, but right now the way things are and the way the schedule is, it's a real unknown, so we'll get it figured out."

SAN FESENKO TREAT:Al Jefferson was surprised — and happy — to hear Kyrylo Fesenko has a new NBA home.

Fesenko played the first four seasons of his NBA career in Utah, but the 7-foot-1 big man will soon join the Golden State Warriors on a one-year deal, according to Sports Illustrated.

Fes the Ukrainian Warrior was called a "hard-working man" by Big Al.

"You can't teach 7 foot. On top of that he's got skills," Jefferson said. "I think a new place will be good for him."

NEW NAME:Jamaal Tinsley played with Lakers' forward Ron Artest for 31/2 seasons in Indiana earlier in their NBA careers.

The Jazz point guard got a kick out of his old teammate's offseason identity change.

"It's just funny. Ron is Ron," Tinsley said. "Other than that he's a good player, he's a good person."

Don't expect Tinsley to start calling him Metta or Mr. World Peace anytime soon.

"I'm going to call him Ron," he said, smiling.

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