The Spurs may have more rotation questions than answers heading into the season, but Keldon Johnson isn’t interested in turning any of it into a storyline.
At Sunday’s annual Silver and Black scrimmage, San Antonio’s players wrapped up the team’s last lighthearted event before preseason begins. Victor Wembanyama even suited up for both teams, switching jerseys at halftime to keep the charity showcase balanced.
Once the game was over, the tone shifted. The group talked openly about the season ahead, with the pain of June’s Finals loss still hanging over them and the motivation to chase more wins clearly front and center.
That backdrop makes the lineup conversation easy to see coming. Tobias Harris’ arrival is expected to push Julian Champagnie to the bench.
Dylan Harper is also in the mix for the starting point guard job, even though that spot currently belongs to De’Aaron Fox. But Johnson made it clear he’s not paying attention to who starts and who doesn’t.
“We just want to win,” summed up Johnson. “We're a team, we're a pretty tight group.
Whether it's starting or coming off the bench, our main objective is to win. Win as many games as possible and put ourselves in the best situation to win, so whatever's asked of us, I know of myself, we go out there and do it no questions asked and get the job done.”
That kind of message carries weight coming from Johnson. He earned a starting role in his second NBA season in 2020, then took off the next year as his scoring climbed again through the 2022-23 season.
But after his inefficiencies caught up with him, Gregg Popovich moved him to the bench. Johnson once called that stretch a low point, yet he responded by becoming a valuable reserve.
Last season, that rebound was rewarded with Sixth Man of the Year honors. Now, as the Spurs sort through possible changes to the lineup, Johnson is taking on a bigger voice in the room. He’s the longest-tenured player in San Antonio, usually known for his energy, and the coaching staff wants that veteran presence to help keep everyone focused on the same thing: winning, not roles.
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Spurs Rotation Shift Could Cost Julian Champagnie A Bigger Role
The Spurs frontcourt picture got a little clearer this summer with the addition of Tobias Harris, and that has naturally started to reshape the rotation around him. Harris is expected to handle the starting power forward spot once healthy, which gives San Antonio a veteran presence at a position it had to address, while also putting Julian Champagnie in a spot where his role could shift depending on how the roster settles in around the new arrival.
Champagnie is still positioned to open the season in the starting five because Harris is dealing with an injury, but the long view is less certain. His place in the lineup may not last once Harris is available, and for now the more interesting part is how he handles the change after showing an acceptance of whatever role the Spurs ask of him as they sort out the minutes. [Read more 🡒]
Rockets Suddenly Linked To A De'Aaron Fox Move That Changes Everything
The Spurs have spent this stretch leaning into their young core, with guards Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle drawing a lot of attention as the organization keeps shaping its backcourt around Victor Wembanyama. Harper in particular has flashed enough to fuel the kind of optimism that usually comes with a premium draft pick, and the teams long-term picture appears to be getting clearer by the week as San Antonio continues to prioritize development over short-term fixes.
Thats where the DeAaron Fox conversation starts to get interesting, because the Spurs have more to sort through than just playing time at guard. If Harper is going to be part of the front line moving forward, Fox becomes the name that could alter the rotation and the roster balance in a hurry, with one scenario even sending him to Houston. For a team still defining its next version, the decision could say plenty about how quickly San Antonio wants to accelerate the timeline around Wembanyama and the young guards beside him. [Read more 🡒]
Victor Wembanyama Is Entering The Season With Massive MVP Pressure
Victor Wembanyama is walking into the season with a different kind of spotlight, and it is not hard to see why. NBCSports.coms analysts all pointed to the Spurs star as the early favorite for the NBAs Most Valuable Player award, leaning on what he already showed at an MVP level last season and the sense that there is still more room for him to grow. For San Antonio, that kind of recognition is a sign of how far the franchise has come in a short time, with Wembanyama no longer viewed as a future candidate so much as the standard everyone else is chasing.
The race will still have familiar heavyweights around it, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo all part of the conversation. But the real weight on Wembanyama is clear: this is the sort of projection that depends on him staying on the floor and the Spurs looking like one of the Wests best teams. For a player this young, the expectation is already enormous, and the season ahead could turn that buzz into something much bigger. [Read more 🡒]