SA Spurs’ heartbreaking Finals collapse has sparked major debates across the globe, with many pointing fingers at Coach Mitch Johnson and De’Aaron Fox. However, former NBA guard Patrick Beverley took a different route. While many analysts focused on Fox’s shooting struggles in the Finals series, Pat Bev argued that the Spurs’ biggest mistake may have been how it handled Fox’s return from injury.

Appearing on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back, Beverley stated that the Spurs coach Mitch Johnson could have benched Fox following his return from injury. He even took a leaf from his own career involving Coach Tyronn Lue to draw parallels.

“I think De’Aaron Fox was trash, I think he was God-awful, I think, and I don’t think that was because of him, I think it was because he was injured a little bit, I think the coach should have had him come off the bench and kind of went with what he had against OKC, right?” Beverley said.

“I didn’t like him just putting him in the starting lineup, but, you know, you live, and you learn. That’s the difference between, as we know, and been around good coaches and elite coaches,” the former NBA guard said. “That’s no disrespect to coach Mitch, but, you know, an elite coach would have put De’Aaron Fox on the bench, let him get his rhythm, and went with what they had.”

Beverley’s criticism didn’t land in a vacuum. By the time he made these comments, Johnson had already made his position public. After Fox’s blocked layup in the final seconds of Game 4 helped open the door for New York’s historic comeback, Johnson was asked directly whether he’d consider a change at the position.

He waved off the idea, telling reporters the previous day’s defense had cost the Spurs more than any one player and that he had complete faith Fox would close out games the way he had all season.

Rather than treating the moment as a rotation problem, Johnson framed it as a loyalty test, that outside noise wouldn’t change how the people inside the building felt about each other. That’s the specific call Beverley is pushing back on. Johnson’s stated, on-the-record decision to keep running the offense through Fox at full speed.

Chandler Parsons, hosting the show, immediately asked how early he would have made that adjustment with Dylan Harper as the possible replacement. Also, brought in the money spent on Fox. ($229 Million/ 4 years)

Beverley pointed to the Western Conference Finals run and pondered on his own experience under Ty Lue.

“Once we beat OKC, he’s (Harper) my starting guard into the series. So we beat the number one team. Why am I playing with house money? We beat the number one team, right? De’Aaron Fox, you coming back”

“Because, you know, I was the starting point guard with the Clippers. I was coming off an injury. I wasn’t all the way right, but I played Dallas first. Game 1, Game 2, Luka (Doncic) cooked me, right? I had to go to the bench. I sat on the bench until we got past Dallas, and I ended up starting in the Western Conference Finals. So, like, that’s Ty Lue.”

To explain his point, Beverley turned to a playoff lesson from his own career under championship-winning coach Ty Lue.

The Ty Lue blueprint for De’Aaron Fox

Beverley’s argument stemmed from a similar lived experience during his 2021 playoff run with the Clippers. Following a fractured hand and sore knee injury, Pat returned to the starting lineup in the postseason. The return wasn’t effective, as he struggled with his matchups against Luka Doncic in the First Round. After two games, Coach Lue replaced him with Reggie Jackson as the starting guard.

It wasn’t an isolated call for Lue, either. From steering Cleveland back from a 3-1 deficit in the 2016 Finals to reshaping the Clippers’ backcourt around what was working in real time rather than who was supposed to be the starter, Lue has built his coaching identity on making the uncomfortable swap before the series demands it.

That willingness to bench a name over a slump, more than any single substitution, is what Beverley means by the gap between a “good” coach and an “elite” one.

The move worked. The Clippers defeated the Mavs and the Jazz in the semis. Beverley didn’t return to the starting lineup until the Conference Finals series against the Suns.

He applied a similar logic for the Finals series.

De’Aaron Fox injured his ankle in the Western Conference semis when Ayo Dosunmu landed on his leg. The lingering injury forced him to sit out in the first two games of the Conference Finals against the OKC Thunder. The Spurs, in response, pushed rookie Dylan Harper as the starting guard. And, they stole Game 1 against the best team in the league. 

Once Fox returned, Mitch Johnson again put him back as the starter. 

This decision came under scrutiny, especially in the Finals series against the Knicks. Fox put up disappointing numbers, averaging 12.8 ppg, shooting at 34.2% FG and 25% 3-pt FG. Harper, on the other hand, averaged an impressive 18.0 ppg and shot 49.3% from the field. 

Beverley’s argument was simple. Playoff rotations must reward production, not reputation.

What happens next is the bigger question for San Antonio. Fox is only two years into the four-year, $229 million extension he signed with the Spurs, so the front office isn’t walking away from that investment because of one Finals loss. And Johnson has already shown he isn’t inclined to walk away from Fox mid-series either- his Game 4 comments make clear he sees the issue as one of belief, not personnel.

But Harper’s production on the league’s biggest stage as a rookie gives San Antonio real leverage heading into the offseason.