Gregg Popovich noncommittal about coaching future beyond 2018-2019 season

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is typically obtuse with the media, so it can be often hard to interpret his true intentions. But with the legendary coach in the final year of his contract, his future with the franchise has come up.

Despite massive changes to the team’s typically steady roster, Popovich has the Spurs effectively tied for the No. 5 seed in the West after winning seven of their last 10 games.

The Spurs are eager to keep their head coach of 23 years around, as team president R.C. Buford told the New York Times’ Marc Stein: “He’ll coach as long as he wants to coach.” The question then becomes what Popovich’s plans for next season are.

“I don’t know the answer,” Popovich said after Wednesday’s 105-101 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

How much longer can Popovich coach?

No one doubts that Popovich will coach for the Spurs if he returns for the 2019-20 season, but with him turning 70 at the end of the month, there is a question about how much longer Popovich wants to remain on the bench.

Before Popovich, only Bill Bertka, Hubie Brown and Larry Brown coached into their 70s in the NBA, and none of them coached beyond 71. However, Popovich is by far the most accomplished of that group with five championships and a career .686 winning percentage. The only year his team hasn’t had a winning record was in his first season in 1996-97, when he took over midway after firing Bob Hill as head coach.

Although Popovich has not committed to returning to the Spurs, he has committed to coaching Team USA at the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Those two summer jobs would not interfere with his ability to coach in the NBA, but they do show that he’s not done yet.

Popovich has shown the ability to adapt

Some had speculated that Popovich might retire alongside his longtime center Tim Duncan in 2016, but he’s kept chugging along. Manu Ginobili retired and Tony Parker departed for the Charlotte Hornets this offseason, but he’s still here.

Kawhi Leonard was supposed to be able to bridge the different eras after the franchise’s latest championship in 2014, but he asked out, and Popovich traded him to the Toronto Raptors for DeMar DeRozan. And despite all this turnover, Pop has continually been able to remake his teams and keep the Spurs afloat.

While the rest of the league zigs to high-speed offenses heavy on three-pointers, the Spurs are zagging to mid-range jumpers. No team shoots a higher percentage of shots from inside the arc (72.2 percent), and San Antonio is still able to find success.

Time will tell whether Pop returns for a 24th season, but his advanced age doesn’t seem to be slowing him down. And as long as he’s coaching the Spurs, they seem like a safe bet to be in the playoff hunt.

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