1. Then what are you doing? Because it seems like nobody can give him any critique without being told that nothing is his fault and everything is Pop, or RC, or someone else.
When will it be okay to treat the gm like a gm? Do we have to wait until Pop and RC are retired? Or, because they will still hold sway and influence in retirement, do we have to wait until they're dead?
2. I am giving him the credit nonetheless. I don't care if Pop called him from Japan and told him, "This Jock guy is pretty good. I want him. Get it done.". It's up to Wright to decide what's best and how to go about it.
If he doesn't believe in Jock, he could work it to where the deal never happens. Or if he does believe in Jock, it's up to him to get the deal most in the Spurs favor. We still don't know the details. If he gave him a max deal, that's bad. If he gave him a 1-year deal like Boban where the Spurs don't get guaranteed control of a second year or the power to trade, that's also bad. If Wright got him on a 3 or 4 year minimum deal with unguaranteed money every year, that's great and Wright gets the credit for working a deal in the Spurs favor. Spurs would have protection if he doesn't pan out but also a great cheap movable asset if he does.
And if Primo hits and is the next Paul George and every clip of every draft show is people killing the Spurs for reaching, Wright will be a shotcalling legend. And if some other team comes sniffing around wanting to poach him like how Toronto took Masai from Denver, people will be furious if the Spurs let him get away. And the other team's fans will be joyous, "He's the guy who took Primo! Everyone thought he was crazy but he got Primo!"
I don't think that will happen and the Spurs will regret passing on Sengun, big time. but hey, it could happen.
3. Wright's the one facing the fire in the media, doing the press rounds. He's high enough in the flow chart to bear responsibility. It's a team effort and all, above and below, with personnel guys, cap guys, analytics guys, etc etc. But the GM is the fulcrum. If it was Brent Barry in that job and the results were the same, I'd give him him the same blame/credit.
4. Yeah, it's a hard job. They're all hard jobs. And a franchise with a recent history of dominating for almost 2 decades comes with lots of scrutiny from some of the fans. He's lucky it's a market where the local media is happy to go along with anything and the national media is happy to ignore the team.
When the Celtics passed on Tony Parker, they were too cowardly to accept the blame. What did they do instead? Blame an elderly Red Auerbach for Joe Forte. Wasn't that Chris Wallace in charge? If he believed in Parker he should have fought for and taken Parker. It's almost elder abuse. Easier to blame the elderly for being out of touch.
Maybe Auerbach really did campaign for Forte. Maybe he did carry the weight of les over poor Chris Wallace. And so, fine, he can take some of it. But he's not getting 100% from me.