When Dwight got injured in preseason (a player many don't rate) and Branners (can't remember if it was preseason or the first game) we suffered massively to start the year. I would wager we are trying to avoid killing our season before it starts.
We hear this nonsense every single pre-season that it doesn’t matter, we then proceed to lose our opening 3 games while looking miles off the pace of our opponents. It’s a tiring cycle.