Now on one hand, anyone could've seen this coming. We've never had a player like San Antonio Spurs rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama come into the NBA and deliver on the hype so impressively and so quickly, and any time a player remotely near Wemby's caliber comes into the league, he is going to be nurtured and cared for by a large portion of the NBA fanbase. We, as a collective unit, want whatever is best for that player. We want to see Wemby succeed. We want to see the heights he can reach. We want to see if he's actually an alien. And anything or anyone that is deemed as a threat to his trajectory receives swift and unforgiving pushback, no matter what it is they've managed to accomplish.

On the other hand, one would assume that five NBA titles, an Olympic Gold Medal, and the most wins in NBA history might be weighty enough career accomplishments for San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich to avoid the critical eye of fans, analysts and former players who are unsure about whether the veteran coach is the best available option to be overseeing the career progression of Victor Wembanyama. But that just hasn't been the case. The Spurs' struggles during Wemby's rookie season, and Gregg Popovich's direct involvement in those struggles, have been called into question not just by folks like me, but by former members of the San Antonio Spurs who once shared locker rooms with Coach Pop.

“I'm not sure, I don't know, I don’t know what Pop you're getting over there right now,” Rudy Gay answered when asked by Michele Beadle of the ‘Run It Back' podcast if he believed playing under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio was the perfect situation for Victor Wembanyama. “You know he's a little older now, so you know I don't know what's going on. You know the game has changed a little bit, you know, so I don't know, you know? I haven't been in the locker room or been back but I know he has the knowledge to help the kid and obviously he has, this guy is running away with the Rookie of the Year and also putting up some historic stats.”

Let's start here: Some of Gregg Popovich's early-season coaching decisions were indeed worthy of criticism. From the jump, it didn't make sense that, A) Victor Wembanyama would be starting at power forward alongside center Zach Collins, and B) Jeremy Sochan would be starting at point guard. It didn't make sense then, and it makes less sense now that we've seen Wemby playing center and playing alongside a point guard who can run an NBA offense.

Zach Collins was removed from the starting lineup in the middle of December, allowing Wembanyama to move from power forward to his rightful spot at starting center. Additionally, ever since Tre Jones was inserted into the starting five on January 4th — putting a permanent end to the experiment of Jeremy Sochan running the point — Wembanyama is averaging 22.9 points, 10.9 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 3.9 blocks and 1.3 steals per game, with 48-34-80 shooting splits. That's over 41 games, a half-season sample size for a 20-year-old rookie playing with a roster that won't be nearly as good as it will be three years from now.

It would be remarkably naive for anyone to believe that 75-year-old Gregg Popovich will coach Victor Wembanyama for the duration of his NBA career, but it would be just as foolish to think that Wemby would've been better off in Portland, Detroit, Houston or Charlotte. There is a track record of organizational stability in San Antonio, and Gregg Popovich has oversaw all of it. No, he hasn't won an NBA Title in ten years, but he won five of them in the sixteen seasons prior to that. He was there for David Robinson. He was there for Tim Duncan. And his early involvement in the career of Victor Wembanyama will help to create a through-line that connects Wemby to the great Spurs big men of the past.