The past two seasons, Popovich had the Spurs playing at all-time great levels despite either a broken-down Duncan (2015-16) or no Duncan (2016-17). Even in the Spurs' final title, Duncan was well off his prime and not at a dominating Hall of Fame level. I think Pop has done plenty to illustrate that he's a fantastic coach. He and RC Buford have also done a tremendous job of keeping talent flowing into the team over the years. Duncan alone would never have produced 5 titles--it took the coaching (Popovich) and the talent evaluation (partially Popovich).
22 and 8 while being the featured scorer on their team? That's not even matching his numbers in his final season in Portland. Not even close. Kawhi is injured, so their next highest scorer is Rudy Gay averaging a whopping 11.5 points per game. That's super impressive.
He's back to being the focus of the offense, which is why he's happy. He's taking double the field goal attempts of anyone else on the roster, but are they a legit threat to the Warriors? No. Are they a threat to Houston? I doubt it. Frankly, I'd take the TWolves over a Spurs team with LMA as their best player.
Aldridge and James are the only players to average at least 12 points per game in each of the past 11 seasons? Well, I guess if you pick the end points carefully enough, you can create some small clubs. Aldridge has managed to avoid missing huge amounts of time, I guess, so that's good.
