Stan Van Gundy

Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy yells from the sidelines during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, in Auburn Hills, Mich.

(Carlos Osorio | AP)

AUBURN HILLS -- For Stan Van Gundy, the easy part is saying he wants to play 10 guys.

It's particularly easy now for the Detroit Pistons, who are the healthiest they have been since the 2016-17 season began. With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jon Leuer back in the lineup, they suddenly have depth (and options) on the wing in Reggie Bullock and Stanley Johnson.

But what about minutes, and the ripple effect that it might have on others?

"You start charting it out, now it gets hard," said Van Gundy, the Pistons' president-coach. "It was funny because (assistant coach) Aaron Gray sort of went to work on it, and he's really been in favor of a 10-man rotation. I said, 'OK, you guys have got to go work it out.'

"He came back in late (Wednesday) afternoon, he said, 'Man, that's hard to figure out.' The teams who play 10, and there aren't all that many of them anymore, but the teams that play 10 are teams that really don't have a bench guy that they want to play more than back-up minutes."

That doesn't work for the Pistons, who consider themselves in possession of three starting-caliber forwards. Marcus Morris and Tobias Harris are each averaging 32-plus minutes per game, while Jon Leuer - who's started for Harris of late - is playing 26-plus.

Trying to find consistent minutes for a potential 10th player then becomes tricky.

"I'm not so sure I want to make any of them 18-minute-a-game guys," Van Gundy said. "Then it gets really tough. So, if those three guys are going to take the 96 minutes at the 3 and 4 (positions), you can't get to 10."

The obvious answer to a 10-man rotation, though not ideal, would be to play Johnson or Bullock nine minutes and the other six.

But Van Gundy would prefer not doing that either.

"I mean, you can't," he said. "I made the point to the staff - what you can't do is sit down and just say, 'I'm going to build my rotation around having to give this guy minutes.' No, you're building your rotation around what you think is best for your team."

Who that ninth guy is will be determined on a game-to-game basis for now, Van Gundy says, with Johnson playing better of late and Bullock able to bring instant offense with his 3-point shot.

Bullock, in nine games, has averaged 6.4 points and 2.4 rebounds, while Johnson - boasting a larger body of work - has averaged 4.0 points and 2.1 rebounds.

"It's a good problem," Van Gundy said. "I like having all of those guys available. It certainly gives us more flexibility, but the idea it's as simple as, 'Play 10,' or 'Play nine' ... you start charting out the minutes guys should get, and it doesn't work.

"The goal is to win. And so, the goal is to get what you think are your best players and best lineups on the court. That's the goal. And to do that, my point is, it's hard to get to 10 and be making those decisions based on who should be in the game at this time."