San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich doesn’t throw around compliments very often, but he does give credit to those who earned it.
Despite the team’s current struggles, the multi-titled coach recently had high praise for his former player-turned-deputy Tim Duncan. After hanging up his sneakers in 2016, the two-time MVP joined coach Pop’s stable as an assistant coach in the offseason.
“His demeanor is as it was as a player, pretty much vanilla right across the board, doesn’t get high, doesn’t get low, no matter what happens. Like we have lost, I don’t know, 17 in a row now….and you wouldn’t even know it. He coaches like it’s the first game,” he said of Duncan, per Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News.
Tim Duncan has been a steadying force in the midst of the #Spurs' early season struggles, Pop suggested.
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) November 19, 2019
Pop, of course, is exaggerating as the team is currently experiencing a horrible five-game slump at the moment – the current longest active losing streak in the league.
Their putrid effort on the defensive side of the floor seems to be the main culprit, as San Antonio is giving up 121.8 points per game. They are currently ranked 22nd in the league in terms of defensive rating.
Stars LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan continue to embrace a mid-range game, as the Spurs rank dead last in three-point attempts at just 25.1 per game.
Duncan, meanwhile, has always been the type of leader to let his actions do the talking. He has been more vocal now that he’s a coach, and several Spurs players have already claimed that Duncan has helped them immensely to improve their craft.
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