Spurs’ Popovich won so much, he never learned how to tank

Two weeks ago, I wrote a frustrated piece about San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich. In it, I made it clear that this team’s struggles can’t be narrowed down to one man and also made it clear he’ll forever remain number one in my all-time NBA coaches list due to all he’s accomplished in San Antonio.

With that said, I posed one big question: was Coach Pop purposefully tanking or simply being stubborn, as he was with Bryn Forbes and Marco Belinelli last season? I felt the question was fair, as were the criticisms I had of some of his tendencies that were hurting this team.

Still, as I’m sure will happen with this article (mostly from people who read the title only), I received comments like: “Or the greatest coach in NBA history can do whatever the f— he wants, and we can appreciate his greatness.” Therein lies the primary issue: we can still appreciate what Coach Popovich did in the past while still expecting more from the present. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

We’ve been bringing up problems like riding veterans Patty Mills and Rudy Gay when they’re hurting momentum, which has been occurring since the Spurs’ devastating homestand that began last March. Only now, the total disappearance of Devin Vassell and Luka Samanic in the rotations are compounding those issues.

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