4 players on the court

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

No. The case play is penalizing them for returning at DIFFERENT times....note that the penalty didn't come until that player came back. That is what the penalty is for....the late return. If the last player doesn't return, there is no penalty. They have to play without said player until the next stoppage of play.

If it were otherwise, it would be much simpler to say that playing with other than 5 players would be a T if 5 were available. They do say that for 6 players. If they wanted that to be the case for 4, it would have been much easier to say it that way.

All that returned in the OP did so at the same time...thus no penalty.

We are going to have to disagree.
The rule doesn't say what you are writing. It clearly says that it is a technical foul to "fail to have all players return to the court at approximately the same time." If one guy stays on the bench, then the team has failed to have all players return right at that very moment.
There is no provision requiring the remaining player to return at all in order to invoke a penalty. That just may be when the officials notice the problem.

Look at the language of the ruling in Case Play 10.1.9: "RULING: A technical foul is immediately charged to Team B for failing to have all players return to the court at approximately the same time following a time-out or intermission."

The rules book also says that this is to be penalized when it occurs.

Lastly, your "all that returned...did so at the same time" doesn't hold water. ALL means ALL, not some. C'mon man!