Pops 2012 Playoff Coaching Grade

[Fabbs]

Overall, including the finish, what do you give Greg Pop for his 2012 Spurs Playoffs coaching grade?

[SamoanTD]

-A

He did a great job this year despite the ending I like the rising of kawhi and green hopefully then can keep getting better. Kept the Big 3 mileage down which is always good to keep championship dreams alive. If it weren't for the way it ended Pop would have been flawless tbh.

[DesignatedT]

A-

[Paranoid Pop]

Can't be better than D, he had such an awesome group of players to work with.

[Fabbs]

With being in the Championship series on the line...

Game 3

Pop C-
The players didn't seem ready for the amount of fire the Thunder would bring to the game. Pop, too, seemed unprepared. His playcalling oscillated between non-existent and confusingly bland. The Thunder threw the book at the Spurs and I didn't see many in-game adjustments by Pop. Rotations-wise, I was disappointed. Matt Bonner was overwhelmed yet Pop inexplicably continues to show belief in him. I thought Diaw and Leonard should have played more. When things started going south, going to Blair to try to change the tenor of the game would have been worth a shot, especially since the Spurs were lacking interior scoring and energy -- Blair's two strengths. Heading into Game 4, Pop has a lot of decisions to make when it comes to countering the Thunder's adjustments. Perhaps even more importantly, Pop needs to ensure that his troops bring the appropriate amount of enthusiasm and desperation.

Game 4

Pop C-
First of all, playing Bonner was a mistake. Bonner is totally overwhelmed by the moment. With as well as Blair played, in hindsight Pop probably should have used him beginning in Game 3. I would also like to see better plays called when the bench unit is in the game. There has to be something in Pop's bag of tricks that is able to take advantage of a defense that is switching everything. Leonard also deserved more minutes and, perhaps most blatantly of all, Ginobili needs to play more than 25 minutes. That's an absurdly low number of minutes with so much on the line. Defensively, the Spurs have been horrible this series and Pop deserves a portion of that blame. On paper, Pop's defensive scheming was supposed to help the Spurs overcome the Thunder's brigade of talent. Thus far, that hasn't been the case. I don't think it's hyperbolic to suggest that Game 5 is the most important game of Pop's career, especially because he doesn't have a superstar version of Duncan to fall back on. Pop needs to make a number of difficult decisions regarding the rotation, continue to adjust the offensive sets to account for how OKC is defending, and figure out a defensive gameplan that gives the Spurs a fighting chance. Pop, the time is now to show why you are a future Hall of Famer.

Game 5 at home.

Pop F
As both teams were preparing for Game 5, I went on record to say this contest would go down as the most important game of Pop's coaching career. He had many items to consider, many possible avenues to explore and no superstar-level Tim Duncan to rely on. Now that the game is over, I still feel like it was the most important game of Pop's career. Unfortunately, Pop was an unmitigated disaster. His first quarter rotations made absolutely no sense. I realize he was dealing with foul trouble but to play Blair at the center of a small ball lineup when the defense was already porous to begin with was astoundingly stupid. Pop shuffling players in and out added to the confusion. By the second quarter, it was obvious that Pop had committed the coaching cardinal sin: he took the game out of the hands of his players. As the game progressed, Pop was better ... but that's not saying much. The rotation was still a question mark and the playcalling was lacking. I've always been a big supporter of Pop but this was an embarrassingly bad coaching effort. Now he faces the even more difficult task of leading the Spurs to a Game 6 win over the Thunder. From what we saw on Monday night, there's little reason to believe that Pop is up to the challenge.

And then we have Game 6 the elimination.
Granted it was ref rigged in the 2nd half but with an 18 point lead at halftime you lose?

[Dr. John R. Brinkley]

At this point I can't tell if it's Pop's inability to improvise in the playoffs or just the utter fragility of too many of his players, which to be honest he seems to prefer in the regular season for their obedience and general timid nature to fall in line.

He wants ballers in the playoffs but indirectly prefers soft obedient players to fill up his bench to get through the season. Sometimes you'll get obedient players who are also ballers (generally someone like Ferry or Bowen), but if he had to choose it seems he'll take the Matt Bonners.

Put another way: some of these players who have "gotten over themselves", in my opinion, never really had a high opinion of themselves in the first place. It's a game of confidence and on average these players that have gotten over themselves, for the lack of a better word(s), are big pussies.

[freetiago]

popovich needing to keep all his players on his teets by limiting their minutes and making them soft in the reg season
"oh no tony youve played 20 minutes I need to rest you"
"Pop im only 29"

the refusal to develop bigs and stick with what doesnt work
if boris didnt fall from the sky we would have seen more bonner/blair over tiago
the tiago storyline was bad enough for me
calls him a no skilled player
refuses to play him more then 15 minutes or with tim when the pairing would obviously work and be good defensively
then the finale of when he plays him 1 minute and berates him on national tv when he doesnt go double even though leonard is a good 1v1 post defender and they didnt double durant all night or even in the series

lack of playcalling or adjustments like simple double pick and rolls
inserting manu into the starting lineup was the only adjustment he made all series
not enough blair, too much bonner


people love him because of his overrated system
people dont realize his system is sticking players in the corner and letting the big 3 create for them
its what every team in the nba does but the spurs do the best so its a system

[tesseractive]

popovich needing to keep all his players on his teets by limiting their minutes and making them soft in the reg season
"oh no tony youve played 20 minutes I need to rest you"
"Pop im only 29"

And that's why Thibodeau has all those rings and Pop doesn't.

Oops.

[BackHome]

At this point I can't tell if it's Pop's inability to improvise in the playoffs or just the utter fragility of too many of his players, which to be honest he seems to prefer in the regular season for their obedience and general timid nature to fall in line.

He wants ballers in the playoffs but indirectly prefers soft obedient players to fill up his bench to get through the season. Sometimes you'll get obedient players who are also ballers (generally someone like Ferry or Bowen), but if he had to choose it seems he'll take the Matt Bonners.

Put another way: some of these players who have "gotten over themselves", in my opinion, never really had a high opinion of themselves in the first place. It's a game of confidence and on average these players that have gotten over themselves, for the lack of a better word(s), are big pussies.

Have to agree with you on you points Bonner being the biggest one of them all. As far as coaches and players well nothing last forever and we need to start not only looking at getting younger players but also getting a good coach who can take over Pop next year when he retires.

I love Pop but he lost my respect for what he did to Splitter that was a cowards way of deflecting blame from himself.

[therealtruth]

the refusal to develop bigs and stick with what doesnt work
if boris didnt fall from the sky we would have seen more bonner/blair over tiago
the tiago storyline was bad enough for me
calls him a no skilled player
refuses to play him more then 15 minutes or with tim when the pairing would obviously work and be good defensively
then the finale of when he plays him 1 minute and berates him on national tv when he doesnt go double even though leonard is a good 1v1 post defender and they didnt double durant all night or even in the series

I can't understand what went through Pop's head. We had Tiago as our 3rd big and swept through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Pop goes away from that and we end up getting backdoor swept. Why did he go away from that? Tim-Tiago worked in the Clippers series as well as minimizing Bonner/Blair minutes. Then the Thunder series starts and he wants to go back to Bonner. Does that make any sense? Pop never learns.

[cherylsteele]

I understand that fans are disappointed and you want another coach......but who (realistically) do you suggest replace him?

[therealtruth]

I understand that fans are disappointed and you want another coach......but who (realistically) do you suggest replace him?

Outside of Phil Jackson how about Mike Budenholzer. He's got the Pop pedigree but I am sure he's got his own ideas about how we could improve. I liked what he did when he won the last few games in the season.

[silverblk mystix]

Pop's grade = FAIL

[SA210]

Pop's grade = FAIL

[cd98]

Good thing coach of the year is for regular season.

[therealtruth]

Good thing coach of the year is for regular season.

Pop's probably the greatest regular season coach in NBA history.

[SA210]

Good thing coach of the year is for regular season.

[Sean Cagney]

Pop's probably the greatest regular season coach in NBA history.

Ehhhhhhhh, I would say he has done some in the playoffs too being he has them with 4 les, he is not just regular season. What other coach would manage minutes like this all year and have this older Spurs team as good as they were later and healthy? Name me one? Stop the hate they went as far as they could to say the least, did all they could and lost to a better younger team. I hated some rotations yes and so on, but they don't get this far without a great COACH TBO, period.

[therealtruth]

Ehhhhhhhh, I would say he has done some in the playoffs too being he has them with 4 les, he is not just regular season. What other coach would manage minutes like this all year and have this older Spurs team as good as they were later and healthy? Name me one? Stop the hate they went as far as they could to say the least, did all they could and lost to a better younger team. I hated some rotations yes and so on, but they don't get this far without a great COACH TBO, period.

Note I said nothing about Pop's playoff record but you assumed I was taking a swipe at it.

However, if we are going to discuss playoff record I can't stand going into a playoff series being the favored team and wondering if we really are the underdog because of Pop. He's now on the list of 2-0 blown leads twice. It's hard to win 4 straight games without help from the other team. If the Spurs even win one of those games it's a different series. Heck, even luck would favor you to win at least one game.

It's not like the Thunder were that much better than the Spurs. Yes they have great individual talent but as the Mavs showed last year team can overcome talent if the coach keeps them playing as a team and makes the right adjustments.

[DMC]

Based on what he had to work with, I give him an A across the board. I didn't understand some of his moves but I cannot imagine any other coach in the league making better moves with those pieces.

[DMC]

Note I said nothing about Pop's playoff record but you assumed I was taking a swipe at it.

However, if we are going to discuss playoff record I can't stand going into a playoff series being the favored team and wondering if we really are the underdog because of Pop. He's now on the list of 2-0 blown leads twice. It's hard to win 4 straight games without help from the other team. If the Spurs even win one of those games it's a different series. Heck, even luck would favor you to win at least one game.

It's not like the Thunder were that much better than the Spurs. Yes they have great individual talent but as the Mavs showed last year team can overcome talent if the coach keeps them playing as a team and makes the right adjustments.

Pop's teams of late have been over achievers and those eventually go belly up and it doesn't matter how hard Pop squeezes them, you don't get blood from a turnip.

[Sean Cagney]

Based on what he had to work with, I give him an A across the board. I didn't understand some of his moves but I cannot imagine any other coach in the league making better moves with those pieces.

..............

[slayermin]

At this point I can't tell if it's Pop's inability to improvise in the playoffs or just the utter fragility of too many of his players, which to be honest he seems to prefer in the regular season for their obedience and general timid nature to fall in line.

He wants ballers in the playoffs but indirectly prefers soft obedient players to fill up his bench to get through the season. Sometimes you'll get obedient players who are also ballers (generally someone like Ferry or Bowen), but if he had to choose it seems he'll take the Matt Bonners.

Put another way: some of these players who have "gotten over themselves", in my opinion, never really had a high opinion of themselves in the first place. It's a game of confidence and on average these players that have gotten over themselves, for the lack of a better word(s), are big pussies.

Great post. It's hard to argue with his success but I think he is a control freak. What pisses me off is that he got out-coached by Scott Brooks. Pop should be held accountable for his performance.

[TampaDude]

Great post. It's hard to argue with his success but I think he is a control freak. What pisses me off is that he got out-coached by Scott Brooks. Pop should be held accountable for his performance.

It's more the Spurs got outplayed than outcoached. Several Spurs that performed well in the regular season shriveled and disappeared when the got real.

[100%duncan]

C+

Scotty brooks? Seriously pop?