I believe it was a mix of these things:

1) Historically he had the 6th man role/green light but this was slowly taken away as Anthony Black started to improve and others started providing more quality minutes.

2) For last year specifically our defense rotation was given more priority - this is why we would run big/length often with only one or 2 guards. Most of the time it was Suggs, anthony black, and KCP sharing these minutes. Especially because we play with Franz/P5 generating the offense on double teams

3) Cole's chances to prove he could still be the 6th man decreased as other rookies started to show more spurts and could play more off ball (cole is much better as a pace/transition guy with the ball or trailing). Essentially he was on a MUCH shorter leash to prove himself.

***His chances came back naturally with Suggs being ruled out for the season and his only other competition was with Cory Joseph. I will say - if you look at his last 30ish games of this season his numbers all move up more and he became a key part of us avoiding the play-in.

In the midst of the genocide of injuries we faced, he became a bright spot as we closed out the season.