Can a team play up-tempo with a short rotation? He also has shown the tendency to over-play key guys, particularly failing to rest Lammers and Alvarado properly.
Saying he failed to rest Lammers and Alvarado properly is weird considering there were no good options to rest them with, especially Lammers. Lammers there was nobody on the team that came close to doing what he did on either side of the ball. For Jose, last year we at least had bodies to replace him, and have Devoe play the point, but the options were Alston and Phillips, both of which would have been a step down especially since we weren't really getting anything from the 3 spot.
As far playing up tempo. Yes, the ULM teams with Gathers and Kimble, the 93-94 Arakansas team that ran the 40 minutes of hell, and even our own Lethal weapon 3 are all teams that were up tempo with relatively short benches (Arkansas less so but even then they only really played 8 or 9). Furthermore, up tempo doesn't mean you have to go full blast all game every game. You can push the tempo on offense trying to catch the other team off guard and then slow it down if they get back in time. You can have short spurts of full court press D and then back out of it once they seem to adjust. It's also easier to go a short rotation and push tempo when you have players that can play multiple positions. For instance a line up of Jose, Devoe, Usher, Moses, Banks, with back ups Parham, Moore, and Cole could reasonably play up tempo due to Moses being able to slide to the 5, Usher being able to slide to the 4, and the trio of Jose, Devoe, and Parham being able to basically play in any combination of two of the 3. Lastly playing with a short bench doesn't have to be playing with the same 7 or 8 guys every single game. For instance maybe there is a game where we like the match up Sjolund gives us and so play him more than Cole.
Now I doubt we go that shallow a bench but you don't need 10 guys to play up tempo.