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I try to stay above the fray but calling me Jeff McDougal crosses the line, tbh
Honestly, though, blaming Pop for the Game 4 loss makes no sense. I expect Pop to be blamed by those who blame Pop for everything, obviously, because that's what they do.
This objective cat is the same guy who was miserable during the golden years of this franchise. He's been calling Pop senile for a decade-plus. He thought Duncan and Ginobili should retire around 2010-2011. He hated Parker because he was "fat." His long running shtick is to whine about the Spurs not signing some Euro scrub they have the rights to (Sanikidze, Javtokas, Dangubic, etc.), whine about the young, athletic players not playing enough (James White, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, etc) because they couldn't possibly be worse than the veteran player he's bored of, and any time the Spurs lose in the playoffs it's Pop's fault. I mean, it's fine to be perma-miserable but at least remix the shtick every now and then. Not every Euro asset the Spurs have is a diamond in the rough, not every young player with athleticism is a star player Pop is holding back and, gasp, not every Spurs playoff loss is Pop's fault.
I gave Pop plenty of low grades down the stretch run of the regular season. But I just don't see how anyone could honestly watch Game 4 and come to the conclusion that it was Pop's fault the Spurs lost.
1) From midway through the first quarter until garbage time late in the fourth, the Spurs hit exactly zero (0) shots outside of the paint. None. I don't care what else happens in an NBA game, you can't win a game when you go 3+ quarters without hitting a shot outside of the paint. You couldn't win a game in 1999 like that ... much less in 2019.
2) A lot is being made by the suicide lineup or whatever it's called but look at the actual game. When Belinelli and Mills entered the game in the first quarter, the Spurs were up by eight points. When they left the game in the second quarter, they were up by nine points. Please explain how Pop playing his bench players and his bench players actually increasing the lead is an example of how Pop lost the game. Honestly, I'd love to hear that explanation. The starters are the ones who lost the lead.
3) I think it's safe to say we all love White but the truth was he was pretty damn bad in Game 4. In fact, Mills was better. Doesn't happen much but White was hurting the Spurs on both ends of the court. The only time the Spurs made any sort of run outside of his first stint was when White was on the bench. I know it's easy to be blind to bad games by young, exciting players but let us be objective.
4) Expecting White to play 40 minutes is illogical. Each of his feet suffered overuse injuries already this season. When he returned the second time, the doctors put him on a strict minutes restriction to help him get through the season. On top of that, he has said after these playoff games that he's been exhausted on the court ... and that's with him playing ~32 minutes. Pushing him much more than that would be reckless. Besides, with the Warriors still around, is it really worth it to risk the long-term health of your best young player? I don't see how it is.
5) The Spurs have struggled mightily all season when Rudy Gay plays poorly or has missed games. Right now, it'd be difficult for him to play much worse. The truth is, with how this roster is constructed, without Gay punishing mismatches, the Spurs lack firepower. They've made up for it at times this series by having White play out of his mind but in a normal situation, the Spurs are going to struggle to beat playoff teams without Gay producing. I can't imagine anything Pop is doing that is causing Gay to play worse than he ever has in a Spurs uniform.
6) Pop not putting Aldridge into the game in the fourth quarter was interesting. Did it make a difference in the win or loss? No. They were down ~15 when Aldridge would have normally returned and they were circling the drain. It was interesting because Aldridge is the type of player who would get miffed by that snub -- even though it made a lot of sense. With the Nuggets not doubling Aldridge and Aldridge not being physical, the offense had a low ceiling if he went back out there -- a couple fadeaway jumpers and that was about it. Poeltl and some shooters around him at least kept the possibility alive of quick 9-0 run to get them back into the game.
7) While the Spurs literally couldn't hit a shot, the Nuggets were busy making contested three-pointers left and right. Torrey Craig is a nice little player but him going 5-for-7 is definitely in the fluke category. He's a low volume, 31% career three-point shooter. Him going for a career-high five threes is more bad luck than anything -- especially bad coaching. Oh, and Barton had been terrible shooting-wise for like a month and he goes 3-for-3 from deep. Well done; not Pop's fault.
8) Rotations-wise, I agree with just about everything. It's the exact starting lineup I prefer. I thought Pop should play Poeltl more minutes due to matchups even though Poeltl hasn't been a big minute player all season ... and now Poeltl is playing big minutes. The bench is struggling but that's mostly on Gay playing poorly. Without Gay providing a focal point for the bench unit, there's just not enough talent. Belinelli was an obvious weak spot in the rotation going into this series but he has played even worse than expected. Bertans has to be hid somewhere away from Millsap. But, really, the bench has to play some minutes. There's no one else to turn to (as exciting as Lonnie Walker IV is, going with a 20-year-old who was meh in G-League isn't the prudent move some make it out to be). If Gay, Belinelli, Mills, Bertans, etc are all struggling ... what is Pop supposed to do?
9) Gameplan-wise, I think the coaches have been pretty damn great. They adjusted on the fly and have consistently put Aldridge and DeRozan in advantageous sets. They realized White was being ignored so they made him the focus of pick-and-rolls. Even when the Spurs aren't scoring, it hasn't often been a case of not having quality opportunities. On defense, they're making life difficult for Jokic to create and find cutters. They're trying to make their guards and swimgmen shoot low percentage jumpers. In Game 4, yes they hit contested threes, but they shot only 43% on two-pointers. For the most part, the defensive gameplan worked as it was supposed to.
I'll blame Pop when there is reason to blame Pop. I don't find much value in being a wonderbread fan on either side of the sandwich who either always praises Pop or always blames Pop for everything, tbh.
All that said, I think some of the worst games Pop has ever coached are Game 5s in which the series are tied 2-2
This is when he has prematurely panicked, changed the rotation and made things worse instead of better (examples off the top of my head: benching Danny Green [actually taking him out of the rotation] in 2012 versus the Thunder, dusting off DeJuan Blair and putting him back in the rotation, panic starting Ginobili for the first time all season). If Pop overreacts this year and puts Dante Cunningham in the rotation or something like that, I'll be there to hand out pitchforks. But to blame him for an unwinnable game in which nothing he could have done would have changed the outcome outside of him going out there and knocking down some jumpers himself is not something someone would do if they're attempting to be objective, IMO.
holy , you wrote this much over 
