We also had no depth last year....
... and I think we would have been better off forcing minutes out of our backups throughout the season rather than playing our starters so many minutes. This is exactly what Ray is doing; you know he doesn't like having to put Baxter Price in the game. Last year, you would have also lost a few games if for different reasons, but our starters could have been fresher to play big minutes late in the season and won many of the games we lost down the stretch. You can't have 3 guys in the top 5 in the league in minutes and not expect to swoon late in the season. But fan perceptions were different for last year's team, largely due to Sidney.
This year, we actually suffer from many of the same problems. We struggle on defense and rebounding in part because, trying to preserve legs and avoid fouls, we play too much zone. When we play man to man, the defense and rebounding are much better.