NBA: Popovich Still Fuming Over Unprofessional Deals Last Summer

The San Antonio Spurs were not among the busy teams last NBA offseason although head coach Gregg Popovich knew he had to make some moves. The sad part is that one of those moves left a bad taste in the mouth. This is with reference to Marcus Morris. After agreeing verbally, the 29-year-old made a u-turn and signed with the New York Knicks instead.

Morris claims that he did the necessary things, informing the Spurs of his decision to join the Knicks instead. Unfortunately, there were already a lot of precedents to his supposed acquisition. San Antonio had traded away Davis Bertans, a move that they needed to do to open up the mid-level exception room for the veteran forward.

Until now, it was never really known how Popovich reacted on the matter. It turns out that the five-time NBA champion coach was pretty much displeased. He said that it was difficult to lose a promising player like Bertans, adding that the whole thing was handled unprofessionally. It placed the Spurs in a predicament and apparently something that did not sit well with the 70-year-old mentor, The Athletic reported.

“It was more than difficult to lose Davis,” Popovich said. “Let’s just say that was an unfortunate situation that was handled unprofessionally on a couple of different levels. We made that move to make the signing that we did and got blindsided.”

The Spurs ended up signing Trey Lyles after Morris opted to go to New York. It, however, remains that the situation may have not been this complicated in the first place. It would have also meant keeping Bertans, a player that Popovich could turn to off the bench.

For his part, Morris is fully aware of the mess he created in the NBA offseason. He cited unknown reason behind it all to NBA reporter Mike Vorkunov. He added that he wanted to be closer to Philadelphia, his hometown.

“My free agency didn’t go as planned,” Morris said. “A lot of the specifics came off a lot of unknown — unknown situations. I kind of committed very early.”

Morris summer was truly rocky. Aside from going back on his word, he also cut ties with his agent, Rich Paul. Looking towards the 2019-20 NBA season, it will be interesting how things will be when the Knicks face the Spurs. Better yet, how will Morris and Popovich be if they do cross paths.