Gregg Popovich has a reputation for getting the most out of his players. What he did with DeMar DeRozan might be one of his more underrated jobs.
When the San Antonio Spurs acquired DeRozan in the 2018 Kawhi Leonard trade, most of the league saw a high-volume scorer with a defined ceiling. What followed over three seasons was something different. DeRozan rebuilt his game from the ground up, going from a pure shooting guard to one of the more complete point-forwards in the league.
He averaged 21.6 points, 6.2 assists and 5.3 rebounds across 206 games as a Spur, and his efficiency climbed well above what it had been during his Toronto years.
The man behind that transformation had a plan. And according to DeRozan, it started with a trick.
Former Chicago Bulls guard DeMar DeRozan hugs former San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich Scott Wachter-Imagn Images Scott Wachter-Imagn Images
How Coach Popovich Turned DeRozan Into a Playmaker
During a recent appearance on the "Ball in the Family" podcast, DeRozan opened up about the moment Popovich flipped a switch in how he approached the game.
"He tricked me. It was a crazy thing," DeRozan said. "I remember my first shootaround when I got to San Antonio. We were going through a walkthrough. Pop told everybody I'm the point guard. I had never played point guard in my life. But it put me in a position of like, 'Man, I got to get everybody else going.' And it opened up a different type of vision that I didn't know I had. So it made me a playmaker first. And fourth quarter, he'd always say, 'Do what you need to do. Go win the game.'"
DeRozan admitted he showed up in San Antonio with a scorer's mindset and not much else on his agenda. Attack, get shots up, carry the load.
Popovich pushed him to slow down, read defenses differently, and trust his teammates earlier in possessions. The idea was that making the game easier for everyone else would make it easier for DeRozan when it mattered most, in the fourth quarter, when Popovich would hand the reins back to him anyway.
It worked. DeRozan became a different player. The results on the court didn't translate into team success, though. In his first season, DeRozan helped lead the Spurs to a 48-34 record and a seven-game playoff series loss against the Denver Nuggets.
However, San Antonio finished 32-39 during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season and missed the playoffs. The first time a DeRozan-led team had been on the outside since 2013. The following year the Spurs reached the play-in tournament but lost to the Memphis Grizzlies ending DeRozan's run in San Antonio on a frustrating note.
The winning never came in San Antonio. But the player Popovich built there carried that version of DeRozan forward for the rest of his career.
Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved