5 Bold Predictions for the Spurs' Final 2022 Stretch

When the San Antonio Spurs resume their season on Friday, they will have 23 games to determine their destiny.

Just two games behind the 10th-seeded Portland Trail Blazers, who shipped off Norman Powell and CJ McCollum recently, they have a decent chance to find themselves in the play-in tournament. Even surpassing the Los Angeles Lakers, who are just 3-7 in their last 10 games, isn't out of the question.

On the other side of the coin, the Spurs are still tied for having the seventh-worst record in the league, keeping them in the hunt for a prime lottery pick in this year's NBA Draft.

There's an undeniable division among fans about which path the team should take, but as Coach Popovich, Dejounte Murray, and Devin Vassell said recently, this organization isn't about to purposely tank.

While it remains to be seen if the Spurs make any kind of shift to their strategy once Gregg Popovich gets the all-time wins record, I wanted to go on record with five bold predictions for the final stretch of games.

While some might be more daring than others, here they are in no particular order.

1. Gregg Popovich will give the keys to Becky Hammon one more time

Ok, I'm starting off with my least bold take here, since Coach Popovich has many ejections to his name. Sometime over the final few weeks of the season, he'll either get himself ejected early on or have a reason to miss a game down the stretch.

If I had to choose between those options, I'd say him getting fiery and being tossed is probably a more likely scenario, as that's happened plenty of times in the past. In doing so, he'll be giving Becky Hammon another crack at serving as head coach before the season finishes.

Hammon is set to become the WNBA's highest-paid coach when she joins the Las Vegas Aces after this season.