I'm curious about what expectations are for play when described as playing "poorly." It is hard for me to see anyone saying the first unit has played "poorly" functionally at all, although I'm sure there have been stretches. There certainly have been a few line-up experiments (e.g. both freshman guards in at the same time) that have brought the level of play down. There is no doubt that the bench has to improve as the season progresses if they are to succeed at a very high level. None of this should be a surprise to anyone who has watched this team over the years.
We have an outstanding and experienced first five. The three, perhaps four, deep bench, is both less talented and less experienced than the fist five. I would expect the play to decline somewhat when they are in. Give them some time to improve and play together, including experimenting with unit combinations, and see where it goes.
I'd love to see Hurt hit a few more threes, Isaiah play a little better D, and Konate take bigger steps of improvement. But how anyone can be dissatisfied with overall team performance so far is hard for me to understand. We have seen so much really bad basketball in the Barn over the last 20 years, it is simply a joy to watch good players with good coaching and good effort (almost all of the time). Way too early to split hairs over the drop off on the bench. Enjoy the ride.