Grumblings From Around The League: What Are the Spurs Doing?

It was often said that Victor Wembanyama landed with the perfect team on draft night, that the San Antonio Spurs would know exactly how to develop him.

Actually, he might have ended up on the worst team possible.

To date, the Spurs have thrown away his entire rookie campaign in a tanking effort and, then, this season, they’ve decided to full embrace Victor not asserting himself inside and turn him loose as one of the league’s worst volume three point shooters.

And it’s not just me saying this.

More and more observers have taken note that the Spurs don’t really seem to have a plan for Wemby, despite having taken off last season for alleged development.

But this is still slightly under wraps. We haven’t had a Shams report that rewords the obvious in a way that makes it seem like it’s breaking news so the mainstream doesn’t know yet.

But the systematic trouble abrewin’ in the Alamo City will eventually rise to the surface.

Right now, there’s some camoflauge because Victor is hitting his threes and the team is winning more games, but eventually word’s going to get out that the Spurs have opted to turn their 7'4 generational phenom into a dynamic Chunk Person, just letting him sit out there and chuck threes with no resistance to his heart’s delight.

And when we saunter into these woods and brush the initial brush aside, we’ll then have to question the Spurs coaching staff, which is currently in a weird place.

Pop is out indefinitely with an ambiguous health issue and assistant coach Mitch Johnson is acting head coach.

Because the Spurs are so secretive, I’ll take the under on the public ever knowing what happened to Pop, but we do know the end result: He needed to take an absence from the sideline for health reasons.

That in and of itself is a suitable reason from drifting away from the sidelines at 75.

And the truth is he’s done a poor job for the last several years so it’s been time for a while anyway.

Look at this Gregg Popovich quote from a 2013 Fox Sports article, where Pop talks about retiring with Tim Duncan:

“When he doesn’t think he can, he’ll stop. It might be in the middle of a game. I can see him walking of the court saying ‘Nah, I’m not pulling my weight anymore, I’m gone.’ And he’ll walk. And I’ll be right behind him, like this. No pride, no nothing.”

Pop was mentally preparing to retire over a decade ago. That’s where his mind was at. His words, not mine.

And now, I think he’s hung around too long.

I don’t know what exactly Pop and/or the other coaching staff are doing. And neither do league insiders.

That’s one of a collection of indicators that the Spurs need a fresh start, that the Spurs need to start providing Victor Wembanyama a real framework to start taking over the league.

Of course, I wish Pop well personally. But professionally, he’s performed poorly for many years now and professional sports is beautiful in that there’s so much pressure to win; if your performance isn’t up to par, you must be held accountable.