The Athletic spoke to three current …

The Athletic spoke to three current coaches on the condition of anonymity and they — two assistants and one head coach — provided a few theories on why Duncan and not Hammon coached the Spurs on Saturday. One assistant with ties to the Spurs reasoned that “San Antonio is struggling and didn’t want to create a story now where the coach becomes a bigger story than the team. That’s not the Spurs way.” Of course, the case can be made that Popovich has been bigger than the entire franchise for quite some time.