5 reasons Kevin Durant signs with San Antonio Spurs
By John Buhler
2. Gregg Popovich
While Billy Donovan is an excellent head coach, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is one of the three greatest head coaches in the history of the NBA. He’s made a small market team like the Spurs into a perennial power house since the mid-1990s. As the head coach of the Spurs, Popovich has won five NBA Championships and been to a sixth NBA Finals.
Popovich’s footprint is all over the NBA. His late 2000s Spurs teams were one of the first to use the three-point shot efficiently. Popovich is always doing something cutting-edge that the rest of the league at first gawks at before adopting a few years later.
From the three-ball to draft international players to resting his stars, Popovich is playing chess while all other organizations don’t realize that they are playing checkers. Though blunt with the media, Popovich is a coach that players want to play for and up-and-coming coaches aspire to be.
Durant hasn’t always been the most coachable player, getting by on sheer talent for most of his NBA career. Though a lethal shooter, he can still grow as a passer, use his wingspan to his advantage on defense better, and become a better on-court leader.
Popovich has the coaching acumen and perhaps most importantly to break bad habits in Durant’s game to help him on his quest to becoming an NBA champion.
Next: 1. Kawhi Leonard.