“I don’t think 38 minutes is heavy.”

After shootaround, one question seemed to rile up Terry Stotts more than anything. Stotts did not throw a fit or anything, but wanted to get something off his chest when asked about the “heavy” minutes his starters are playing.

“Let’s talk about that,” Stotts started. “I don’t think 38 minutes is heavy.”

He continued.

“I don’t think 38 minutes is a lot of minutes. The fact that we have four players averaging 38 minutes is unusual but we don’t have any players averaging over 40 minutes.”

Then, addressed the impetus to the (insert synonym for “heavy” here) minutes: an unrefined bench.

“We need to develop the bench and that’s going to take time.”

“We’ve been competitive in games and that’s a priority right now. Things may change over the course of the season but it takes time for young players to develop. The veterans we have coming off the bench are not necessary scorers so it’ll take time to develop guys coming off the bench.”

And will four starters continue to average 38-plus minutes over a long season?

“Probably not,” Stotts said. “There are situations that come up throughout the game and developing the players coming off the bench is a priority of this season. And that’s a six-month process, it’s not a two-week process. I think over the course of the season that will change a little bit.”