Popovich to monitor minutes, staying focused

As the NBA went into a media frenzy last week because of the Chris Paul trade and Dwight Howard rumors, one coach in the NBA continues to stay GPfocused only on his team and not get caught up in the NBA rumor mill.

That coach is San Antonio Spurs’ Gregg Popovich who is staying focused on his current Spurs and keeping out of all of the trade rumors.

“I can only handle the Spurs. It’s tough enough for me as I get older. I’m going to remember everybody’s names this year. That’s my goal,” Popovich said jokingly.

“I don’t really want to get involved in the middle of the brouhaha,” Popovich said. “Since I don’t control it and can do only what I do here, I do my best to not worry about it or think about it. Even if I didn’t like it, I couldn’t fix it.

“We have a certain way we’ve got to do things based on finances and our philosophy. That’s how I spend my time. I’ll think more about making my practice plan for tomorrow than I will the recent trades.”

Part of making a plan for the season, will be monitoring his players minutes. Especially his older players like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Popovich remembers how the teams fate ended last season because of a late injury to Ginobili, he made a reference to the risk of injuries this season with “Pop” humor.

“For us, that means starting a little less aggressively because I’m paranoid about an early injury,” Popovich said.

“So I’m thinking about maybe whacking Manu the first week. Life’s always fair, right? Then he won’t get injured again the rest of the year,” Popovich said.

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