Gregg Popovich is not a big fan of shootarounds.
The San Antonio Spurs coach said that his team hasn’t consistently done shootarounds for “two decades,” and that generally they’re a pointless exercise.
“I just think it was the modus operandi for every organization. It was habit. It was what everyone did. If you didn’t do it, you were recalcitrant or you weren’t doing your job,” Popovich said, via Dan Woike of the Orange County Register. “Some owners would look and say ‘Why aren’t you doing a shootaround?’ If you were a young coach, you have to have a shootaround because you’re doing what you have to do. And, basically, half of them are total crap – a total waste of time. In general, shootarounds could be kaputskied.”
Popovich said that instead of shootarounds, his team works in the film room.
“With us, film is short and directed – very specific on certain items,” he said. “You can’t do a coaching clinic every time you do a film session or you lose them all. But if something is directed, like pick-and-roll defense, transition defense or how the ball was shared or not shared and you get after it and do it, it makes sense to most players. That’s our way.”
It’s rare that Popovich is so open about the Spurs’ methods, and it’s always fascinating when he is. It seems that Popovich’s opinion has grown more shared in recent years, though the same cannot be said of all of his unpopular opinions.
