finally a coach that thinks out of the box.....starting lineup means nothing..you have a squad play them according to need.
It's hard to overcome years of entrenched bias from coaches, players and fans. The best players are always associated with starting. Almost all All-Star and All-NBA selections are starters. The players want to start. The fans only consider starters to be among the best players if you surveyed them. It's harder for bench players to win max contracts.
If you think about it the real measure of the value a player brings to a team is not necessarily if they are on court for the tip-off, but how many minutes they actually play and whether they are there at the end. But we're going against years of tradition and history, not just in the NBA but through all levels of basketball in trying to overcome the starters > everyone else mentality. It's a team game but there's a pecking order and that's been the paradigm for decades.
I don't think anyone in their right mind would say that Baynes is better than Gordon, or that even Jaylen Brown is better than Gordon (at his best), but Gordon has the skillset to be able to mesh better with a second unit since he is a playmaker, he can handle the ball and he can also score. It's a challenge for him to get over it and understandably so. He's said all the right things so far and done his best in his new role but inside it must be a challenge to overcome.