Dante Exum: Receives only eight minutes in opener

The limited court time was a bit surprising to see considering Exum’s strong finish to the preseason, but coach Quin Snyder was inclined to ride his starters in the opener, with the backcourt duo of George Hill (39 minutes) and Rodney Hood (38 minutes) both logging heavy workloads. In addition, Shelvin Mack (15 minutes) entered the rotation ahead of Exum and functioned as the primary backup to Hill at point guard, with Exum instead seeing most of his time off the ball. This sort of playing-time distribution won’t hold over the course of the season, but Exum may have to settle for a more lessened role than anticipated over the first handful of games.