I think that the fatal flaw here was not letting Fish go in exchange for a combo guard in the portal. When you look at this team, they pretty much need to have 2 of Lipsey/Gilbert/Jones in at all times. Yeah, Heise can play guard, but he's more of a 3 than a 2. Lipsey is consistently dinged up. Gilbert has been too and is now out. Jones was asked to do way more than he should and tailed off because of it. You just can't go into the season with only 3 true guards.
That said, I have consistently been critical of how TJ distributes minutes in the noncon. I'm sorry, but if you are up 30 in the 2nd half, you need to be rotating in your bench and if you are up 30 with 5 to go, it should be the deep bench. Not only does that give your starters more rest, it gives your bench more experience.