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[QUOTE="RF2044, post: 1860999, member: 40"]
Not really complicated at all.  JB has a preferred approach to using his bench, and traditionally employs a substitution pattern that primarily utilizes 3 guards.  Nobody attributes what happens during the preseason portion of the schedule, where a rotation might be expanded due to easier competition, as evidence of coach using more of the bench.

With few exceptions, by the start of conference play--not March--we're down to 7 or 8 guys.

Recent history also runs counter to your claim.  Even in 2012, when we were LOADED in the backcourt, JB used only 3.  Here are the four guys JB had at his disposal that year:  Scoop / Triche [who were experienced guys that JB trusted], Dion who ended up being a top 5 pick in the NBA draft, and MCW who ended up being the NBA rookie of the year two years later.  I think that most people would acknowledge that season as the year that JB utilized a consistent, expanded substitution pattern out to 9, far deeper than he usually goes.  By the last third of the season, MCW was firmly glued to the bench.  He didn't even play the entire NCAA tournament if I'm not mistaken.

So--even in a year where JB had 4 immensely talented guys to use in his backcourt rotation, and that fourth guy ended up being a point guard who had the talent to later lead us to the final four / win NBA rookie of the year--JB still utilized a 3 guard rotation.

JB has never doled out PT for developmental purposes, in his 40 years on the bench.  I know that many of us wish that he WOULD use an expanded bench and give younger players some  developmental playing time, but that's not / has never been / will never be the way he coaches.  He coaches to win every game, not to develop players for next year.
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