Proposed New Coaching and GM Era for Spurs: Popovich, Brown, Wright Out

You don’t just get to lose unabashedly and walk around like nothing’s wrong. If you start the season 5–30 when you’ve got Victor Wembanyama on your roster, heads must roll.

The genius that thought tanking was a good strategy needs to be removed from the premises immediately.

Obviously, Gregg Popovich is out.

Assistant coach Brett Brown is out, too.

Very interestingly, Brett Brown was the coach during Philadelphia’s “The Process” years when they began tanking.

Quote Pop in an SI.com article on Brown joining the Spurs:

“What he put up with for those years are still beyond my comprehension because he did it with class and with discipline,” said Popovich. “He went to work every day; he loved those kids even though nothing special was gonna happen. There aren’t too many people like that. To have him back with us and with this young group is very special and very important for me personally.”

I don’t know if Brett Brown is the one that planted the tanking idea in Pop’s head, but some dots certainly connect.

Whoever came up with the idea, tanking during Victor’s rookie season is unacceptable; I can’t stand the anti-competitive behavior that is running rampant with the Spurs.

So Pop and Brown are out in my new regime.

Sean Elliott is my new head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.

I’m also inviting Manu Ginobili to join my staff, if he’s up for some non-family time.

And I’m doing everything I can to bring Chip Engelland back from Oklahoma.

(Did you know over half the Thunder’s roster shoots over 40% from three? It’s true, sort by 3 point fg% on the Thunder’s stats page.)

Additionally, I’m asking Tim Duncan if he would be willing to be a special advisor to the team. I’d love for Tim to spend some 1-on-1 time with Victor so Victor can learn about positioning, rebounding, defense, and post moves.

Even just a two week Tim Duncan summer camp would be amazing.

And, of course, there would be multiple other assistants necessary; the ones that will burn up all of the midnight oil and look haggard during the game because they studied all night.

General Manager

Brian Wright is gone.

I don’t know if he was just following orders, but his name is on the ledger for some horrible Spurs moves so he’s out.

• Hero drafting Josh Primo was stupid
• The Derrick White trade was pennies on the dollar lopsided in hindsight and, even at the time it happened, the Spurs haul was extremely limited
• The Spurs didn’t go after Austin Reaves or make any traction this offseason and entered 2023–2024 without a starting caliber point guard

(This is nothing against Tre Jones but he’s more of a B+ backup than he is a starter.)

Wright did notch some wins including the three-way trade where the Spurs wrestled away the Mavs unprotected pick in 2030 (swap) from Dallas in exchange for not that much, but I need a GM who has a higher winning percentage.

I don’t know who a good GM replacement would be.

In a Nutshell

Tremendous amounts of losing and negativity in sports usually helps usher in a new era.

Given the current roster construction and number of losses, the Spurs need to transition into new leadership and decision-makers who can ensure that Victor Wembanyama will get to play basketball.

Also, we need the entire coaching staff and brain trust aligned with trying to win games.

Losing on purpose causes problems everywhere and the incongruency disrupts the entire organization.