Monty said he wanted to prioritize spacing and he did exactly that last game.
Ausar: 17 minutes
Bagley: 16 minutes
Killian: 22 minutes
By contrast our better shooters played heavy minutes.
Ivey: 29 minutes.
Knox: 31 minutes.
Burks: 24 minutes.
These extra minutes for good shooters did not work (obviously), in part because most our good shooters aren’t available, but it is a step in the right direction.
Also I know Ausar getting benched is this subs 9/11, but if you prioritize spacing, Ausar might get a shorter leash for rookie mistakes, as he is the worst 3pt shooter on the team.
He started two non-shooters. That is the opposite of prioritizing spacing. Starting even one of them is something that NBA offenses avoid unless it’s absolutely unavoidable, because it severely hurts spacing. Monty started not one but two, the effect of which compounds into far worse than double the effect of one. At the very least, he could have replaced Killian with Burks. He did not.
As Monty himself put it, Ausar got less minutes because he was making unforced errors.
Bagley was fighting off an illness. He went to the locker room partway through the game and did not return.