did you train every position?
because if it important that smeguy play 48 as PG, i would try to play with 8 guys because with 8 Players i never see lucky Fans benching you starter. But it was important that the 3 extra players are set as backups on other positions else the coach will handle then as flexible Backups like "lucky fans", who could bench everyone.
If you do so, your coach will just bench your players when they got foul trouble or in the last minutes if your 3 backups ain't split on three positions and you are winning high.