I looked at the simple but insightful playing time over the past two years: https://andthenthehex.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/the-simple-but-effective-metric-of-playing-time/ One really interesting thing stuck out - the Portland Timbers defense played A TON together this past season: The Blue dots are (left to right) Powell, Ridgewell, Villafana, and Borchers. The two Orange dots are Nagbe and Chara (slightly lower). Yes, adding Borchers helped tighten up the defense, but I'm convinced continuity played a huge role as well.