Starting with this new season I am having a problem managing the minutes played in my team. Previously, I would set up my tactics to have my starting 5 only play starter minutes with my backups slotted in for 'backup' and 'reserve' minutes. This would result in my starters playing roughly 33 minutes each game, almost never deviating more than a couple minutes.
This season, however, the same tactics are resulting in my starters playing 45+ minutes each game, even though I assign other players to backup minutes and always select 'Strictly Follow Depth Chart'.
Does anyone know why my starters would be playing so much? Is there something I can do to decrease their minutes?
Three words that I find myself unfortunately typing a lot: "too much stamina."
The other thing that might have an effect (but I didn't look in your case) is that if you are winning by 20+ after three quarters, you usually play the rest of the game with as many starters as possible on the bench. If you had that occur frequently last season and not this season, that could also explain it, in which case your dominance could have been masking the "too much stamina" issue.
Faster offenses should in theory get your players substituted out a little more, and full court press of course will do that as well, though it's hardly likely to be the best defensive tactic for any given game.