The Spurs may have stumbled out of the gate, but Dylan Harper has already started to look like the piece that can pull the whole offense into place.
Harper didn’t have a perfect night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, yet he still gave San Antonio a jolt when it needed one most. While the Spurs were missing shots all over the floor, he kept pressuring the rim and finished with 18 points without making a three.
He added 7 rebounds and 5 assists, defended well, and then backed it up with a 20-point outing against the Houston Rockets. For a team trying to find its footing, that’s exactly the kind of punch Harper can provide.
That’s why the move to start him looks increasingly important. With Harper in the first five alongside De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, and Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs are working through a lineup with obvious growing pains and a pretty clear ceiling. It’s a small group, and spacing will be a constant issue, but Harper gives San Antonio another handler who can get Wembanyama the ball and another slasher who can attack the basket whenever he wants.
Last season, the Spurs’ strongest two-man combination was Harper and Wembanyama, not Castle and Wemby. Part of that came while they were facing second units, but the impact carried over even in the playoffs.
Harper’s game helps explain why. He blends Fox’s playmaking, control, and craft with Castle’s downhill force, and when those traits are added to Wembanyama, the offense suddenly has more people who can create, not just finish.
There are still issues to sort out. Vassell is the best all-around shooter on the roster, but he’s now at power forward and picked up foul trouble against OKC. If that becomes a pattern while he’s trying to handle bigger matchups, it could make San Antonio’s already shaky 3-point shooting even tougher to live with.
That’s where Harper’s development as a shooter matters. If he keeps growing in that area, the Spurs’ trio of ball handlers could really start to click next to Vassell and Wembanyama.
For now, Harper’s job is pretty clear. He looks like the attack dog in this setup, the guy who can lower his shoulder, get into the paint, and score. Starting him also forces defenses to deal with another threat instead of letting them stash their weakest defender somewhere harmless.
That’s one of the quieter advantages of this lineup: San Antonio can hunt mismatches and keep pressure on defenses without giving opponents an easy path to loading up on Wembanyama. The Thunder game wasn’t the cleanest example, but Oklahoma City has been the NBA’s best defensive team over the last two seasons, and the Spurs also suffered through rough outside shooting. That combo can make almost any offense look clunky.
Houston offered a cleaner look at what this can become. The Rockets are known for swarming Wembanyama in the paint, but San Antonio pushed the pace instead of settling into post-ups. That matters, because it keeps Houston-and everyone else-from packing the lane around Wemby.
Going forward, Harper is central to that approach. He can grab and go, then attack in transition or in the half-court. The spacing still needs work, but he showed late last season that he can hit from outside, and the Spurs are hoping that carries over now.
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For San Antonio, that matters because the next step for Wembanyama is not just about recognition, but about becoming more dangerous offensively and helping push the team closer to a championship. The talent is already obvious; the question now is how much further his scoring and overall attack can grow as he tries to turn a painful finish into fuel for the season ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Wembanyamas Early Spark Cant Hide One Spurs Concern
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Still, the early spark has not erased the larger worry around this teams start, and the second quarter in Houston has only added to the sense that there is more work to do. The Spurs now head toward a meeting with the Mavericks looking for something more complete than a fast opening from Wembanyama, because the real question for San Antonio is whether the rest of the roster can match his urgency soon enough to steady the season. [Read more 🡒]