I know this is all hypothetical but this is why guys transfer. No way Damonte, Grandison, and Hawkins would project to play that far down the bench and stick around.
I’m using this to segue to theme of guys transferring, and imo it would be totally reasonable for a guy Grandison who sat out a year, learned the system, started the season off the bench, and earned a starting role on the #2 ranked team in the country to expect to keep that starting role penciled in for next year.
Personally, I don’t think that a ‘better’ player being available and willing to join the team is enough reason to supplant some of these guys. I am not suggesting that’s what’s happening, just using the hypothetical to illustrate my opinion on the matter.
I do think that in this transfer era coaches at some point need to tell their players, the ones who earned it, “you’re my guy next year, we’re going to rely on you, and you need to work hard because it’s your turn, you earned it”.