Costanza’s Way: Gregg Popovich is Either Tanking or Really Bad

There’s trouble a-brewin’ in the Alamo City.

Gregg Popovich, the Spurs legendary coach, is either having one of the worst coaching seasons in sports history or he’s purposefully tanking.

It’s one or the other.

I had an internal debate with myself the other night about it.

Maybe Richard Jefferson is right, I thought. Maybe I’m naive and Pop would be both greedy and stupid enough to tank during Victor’s rookie season.

But my intuition says otherwise. I keep leaning towards idiot contrarian; the head coach of the Spurs seems insistent on taking the opposite approach and surely he’s too “classy” to tank twice in a row.

(Edit: I changed my mind again. The Spurs are tanking, no one is this bad.)

Either way, Pop needs to make an about face or he needs to go. If Spurs brass can’t make him get over himself, maybe he suddenly needs to spend more time with his family.

Traveling the world could work, too.

Something, anything but the Spurs ownership needs to take control of the situation. If Pop doesn’t start marching to the beat of the obvious, he must be yanked from the sidelines ASAP because his decision-making and coaching (or lack thereof) are decimating this young team.

And, most importantly, this disaster is unfolding during Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season.

Before I continue, you’ll have to excuse my naivete on being torn between tanking and really stupid and obtuse coaching decisions. You see, I’ve watched the Spurs for many years and I’ve seen Pop take the opposite approach (to the Spurs detriment) more times than I can remember.

A few instances off the top of my head:

• Took Tim Duncan out in the waning moments of Game 6 of the Finals. Maybe Tim Duncan, the best rebounder of all-time, could have grabbed the rebound that led to Ray Allen’s three.
• In that same game, he continued to play Manu Ginobili even though Manu kept throwing the ball to the Heat. Manu finished with 8 turnovers.
• Started Bryn Forbes for two seasons (he thought he was going to develop Forbes to be his mini Steph Curry) despite all evidence should not be in the lineup (or maybe the NBA). “Forbes has been particularly detrimental to the team. The Spurs starting shooting guard has the worst defensive rating of any rotation player on the team, yet is third in minutes.”

• Continued to play Matt Bonner despite Bonner getting lit up in the playoffs (defense and rebounding seemed to be Bonner’s Achilles’ heels). The main reason was Bonner supposedly stretched the floor, but Bonner was more of a good shooter in theory than in reality. He was what I call a shooter-who-can’t-shoot. The guys who, in theory, are good shooters but don’t actually make shots when they can help.
• Cut Stephen Jackson six days before the playoffs begin. Stephen Jackson was truly a clutch performer and routinely hit big three pointers throughout his career. He would have been nice to have around in the playoffs.

There are many more examples that I can’t remember (e.g., I recall he refuses to play younger players in the playoffs to the Spurs detriment but can’t remember specific examples), but my point is simply that Pop can and will make the stupid/bad choice even when the Spurs are trying to be competitive.

Hence, why I bought a ticket for the, “No Pop Really Is This Bad” concert.

How Did Pop Mess This Up?

This was one of the easier coaching situations possible. All any coach would need to do is to play Victor 35 minutes a night, heavily involve him in the offense, and make sure he gets 20 shots a game.

There were no expectations the Spurs would be a pretender right away.

In fact, the projected win total was 29.5.

Doctor’s orders were only competitive games, a few nice wins, and lots of Victor highlights.

This season was like a kids’ sports team movie (Mighty Ducks, if you will) where the plot writes itself and everyone walks away feeling good.

But Gregg Popovich decided to zag. Hard zag.

Here are the bulk of coaching failures nearly 1/3rd of the way through the season.

• Start a power forward who can’t handle the ball at point guard.
• Declare it would be ignorant to tell Victor how to play and then trot him out there with no plan.
• State that you want to observe how Victor plays and then limit Victor’s minutes as if he was a 37 year old Tim Duncan with a knee injury.
• Sit out Victor with ghost injuries for rest games.
• Permit teammates to openly ignore and look off Victor.
• Regularly have series of 3+ consecutive possessions where Victor doesn’t touch the ball.
• Don’t get the ball to Victor in positions to succeed.

National Stage Embarrassment

This debacle is playing out on the national stage in the brightest of lights. The Spurs are getting major air time because of Victor (5 ESPN games and 2 TNT games so far) and even when they’re not in the spotlight, people are tuning in.

This is a significant problem for Pop because everyone is taking note of his continually awful decisions.

I wrote about Channing Frye and Greg Anthony speaking truths on the Spurs play vs. the Lakers.

Also, Richard Jefferson and JJ Reddick called out the obvious when the Spurs visited Golden State.

Even usual softies Hubie Brown and Mark Jones wondered aloud why Victor wasn’t more involved during the Timberwolves game. And before tipoff, the ESPN pre-game crew grumbled about the way Victor was being handled.

Just recently, on his December 19, 2023 episode with Ryen Russillo, Bill Simmons candidly discussed the Spurs disaster season on The Bill Simmons Podcast (timestamp 1:27:30):

No surprise, I really hope the Spurs trade for some sort of point guard and I don’t know what the fuck they’re doing this year. I will never understand this Sochan thing — they finally kind of gave up on it. I don’t understand why they’re so happy with just throwing away Wemby’s first season and putting him in weird spots with players that don’t seem to make him better…Just go get more point guards and put the guy in a position to succeed. I think it’s weird. And I really- the Pop thing. Belichick takes so much shit but there’s way more kind of stealth whispering about what the fuck is Pop doing like in NBA circles. I think he’s had a really strange couple seasons. I thought grabbing the mic was super weird during the Kawhi game. And I think thinking Sochan could play point guard was just ridiculous — I didn’t understand it at all. And I don’t think they put Wemby in a position to succeed this season.

This is getting ugly. Really ugly.

I’ve already written a few times on how Gregg Popovich is quickly burning through his 5-championships store credit.

That next gift card swipe might not go through.

Victor

Back to the feel-good-movie glow to start the season, the table was set so nicely.

• Victor wanted to come to the Spurs; he wanted to play for Pop.
• He genuinely said and did all the right things.
• His energy and enthusiasm have been fantastic (the positivity is understandably waning though).
• His talent is up to meeting all of the hype and he’s clearly capable of dominating the NBA in present day.

Victor came to San Antonio ready to learn from the master, but make no mistake, he already had success in mind.

His goal for this season was to “qualify for the playoffs.”

Victor also made his stance on tanking clear: “Tanking? It’s a weird strategy,” Wembanyama said in French in an interview with French newspaper Le Parisien. “I find it unreasonable, and I try not to think about it.

What has Pop delivered?

Losing on a silver & black platter.

The Spurs now have no realistic chance at making the playoffs. In fact, they’re on track for 12.5 wins.

Did you know they’re literally on pace to be in the top 10 worst NBA teams of all-time?

This isn’t hyperbole, check out the worst teams in NBA history.

It’s a complete slap in the face to Victor, especially given his burning desire to win.

And Bill Simmons hit on something I also echoed early on: why are the Spurs so eager to chalk this season up as a development season and throw away Victor’s rookie year?

Longevity is never guaranteed, especially when you’re 7'4.

But, also, NBA careers go by fast. The Spurs won the centerpiece of all centerpieces — why not try to be competitive right away?

What concerns me, among other things, is the primacy effect.

Victor’s initial memory of the Spurs is going to be one of futility, disarray, and weirdness. One where his teammates openly ignored him and his coach was okay with him not getting the ball. One where his coach obsessively looked to limit his minutes. One where his coach fashioned the PA system for an Adam Sandler movie moment.

And even when things inevitably improve (the Spurs cannot get any worse and they have assets), maybe Victor turns down an extension. Maybe he decides he would like a fresh start with a franchise that employees a stable head coach.

Victor may be just 19, but he’s intelligent, astute, and introspective. He’s well aware of what’s going on and there are internal notes being taken.

Time is of the essence for the Spurs; they need to turn this situation around immediately.

Spurs Ownership and Money

There’s a very nice write-up from the Express-News that tells you exactly who owns the Spurs:

1. Holt Cat family: 40% stake (Peter J. Holt, son of Peter Holt, is CEO)
2. Sixth Street Partners: 20% stake (San Francisco-based investment firm)
3. Michael Dell: 10% stake (CEO of Dell Technologies)
4. James R. Leininger: 8.7% stake (Founder of Kinetic Concepts Inc.)
5. David Robinson: 1.89% stake (former Spurs MVP)

That’s basically 80% of the Spurs ownership and it’s time they gathered at a Justice League-style roundtable to discuss how to move forward, if they haven’t already.

If Victor walks out that door, billions of dollars in revenue and franchise valuation walk with him.

Pop has been the big cheese on the Spurs for so long, he’s usually the one that makes the calls. But Peter J. Holt and perhaps others need to have a serious sit-down with Pop and finally give him some marching orders.

And if he’s not willing to do things the obvious way, it’s well past time for Pop to retire.

Looking for a Sign

Sometimes when you’re making a tough decision, you look for a sign.

Along with an avalanche of losses (including an 18-game losing streak), Pop has given us a blatant signal that he might not belong on the sidelines anymore.

The Kawhi-booing mic moment was extremely bizarre and so obviously wrong that no one sided with Pop. And to really seal the mistake for all of eternity, Pop doubled and tripled down on it, unwilling to admit he was wrong.

As a side note, I don’t get the Gregg Popovich ass-kissing of Kawhi. Kawhi acted with disdain for the Spurs on his way out and gave the impression that the Spurs handling of his injury was bad; he gave the Spurs medical team a negative mark when they actually assessed his situation correctly.

Still, Pop immediately acquiesced to Kawhi’s trade demand and took a deeply discounted return from the Raptors (Daryl Morey would have told Kawhi tough biscuits and got a king’s ransom).

And ever since the departure, Pop goes out of his way to show how overjoyed he is to see Kawhi, embracing the oft-injured star with a giant hug after matchups.

All told, when you think about it, the Kawhi situation doesn’t really make any sense.

Zooming out further, neither does Pop’s approach to Victor’s rookie season.

And, you know what, we don’t need to make sense of it.

We’ll leave that for the Gregg Popovich autobiography.

For now, we have more than enough information to know that something must change. Spurs ownership must set the tone for how the rest of Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season is to proceed.

It’s time for Gregg Popovich to coach for his job again, just like when he fired Bob Hill, won the Tim Duncan lottery, and the only play the Spurs ran was 4-down.

There’s more late night Spurs content scrolling where this came from:

How Pop psychology got Victor following Pop and okay with barely playing.

Brian Sutterer MD, the renowned YouTube sports doctor, said Victor’s mandatory minutes restriction is completely unnecessary and called it paranoid.

Ever heard of Nicky Santoro and Sam Rothstein? Would you house sit a wealthy person’s mountain manor responsibly? Read how things got out of control on the blackjack table and in San Antonio.

After Pop is fired, who gets the job? I already know the perfect coach to replace Pop with. Spoiler alert: you definitely know him.