The back thing is a baffler Supe.
I was tracking with at least the reasonableness of the JT camp until that came out. Like you, I don't think it was a good strategy likely to yield the desired outcome, but the back thing, if he told them he hurt his back in the off season, that's a shocking level of incompetence by the JT team, and a just mystifying lack of critical thinking skills by the Harvard level philosopher.
His premises seem flawed to the nth degree. I guess the logic from there to here could be sound lol.