The Dylan Harper conversation in San Antonio has already turned into one of the team’s biggest roster questions: does the Spurs’ point guard future belong to the All-Star in De’Aaron Fox, or to the younger talent with the higher ceiling?
That debate is going to hang around until the Spurs make a call, because both cases are easy to see. Fox gives San Antonio steadiness and control.
Harper brings the kind of upside that can make a team rethink its entire timeline. But if Harper is going to force his way into the starting five, the first step is less about talent and more about opportunity.
He has to spend real minutes next to the group San Antonio already trusts.
In 2025-26, the Spurs’ most reliable starting five was Stephon Castle, Julian Champagnie, Fox, Devin Vassell, and Victor Wembanyama. That unit did the kind of damage that makes coaches hesitate to mess with it: it outscored opponents by 18.5 points per 100 possessions and sat in the 94th percentile or better in defensive, offensive, and net rating, according to Cleaning the Glass.
That is the obstacle Harper has to climb over. This is not a case of choosing upside over a shaky present.
The present was excellent. The Spurs won more than 60 games and reached the NBA Finals in the first season with that starting five fully in place.
So the path for Harper starts with something simpler than a starting job: he needs minutes with the four-man core that already worked so well. He rarely got that in 2025-26.
By databallr’s count, Harper played only 54 possessions alongside Castle, Champagnie, Vassell, and Wembanyama, which came out to 24 minutes. That is not nearly enough time for a player trying to show he can fit into, and eventually lead, a lineup like that.
Mitch Johnson will have to make room for it in 2026-27. The regular season will always bring some chaos, especially with injuries reshaping rotations, but the Spurs need to be intentional about getting Harper on the floor with those starters.
The playoff usage gives a hint of what that could look like. San Antonio’s most-used four-man group in the postseason was Castle, Champagnie, Vassell, and Wembanyama, and the next four most-used lineups all included some combination of those pieces and Fox. The Castle, Champagnie, Fox, Vassell, and Wembanyama five-man group also logged 150 more minutes than any other Spurs lineup in the playoffs.
Harper did start to see time with that core during the postseason, but that mostly happened because Fox missed two games with injury. That is the key point for next season: Johnson cannot let Fox’s availability be the only reason Harper gets a chance to play with the very players he may eventually join in the starting five.
It is a tricky balance for San Antonio. But if the Spurs want Harper to grow into the player they believe he can become, they have to give him reps in the role he might one day inherit.
In Other News...
Spurs Suddenly Have A Tobias Harris Question That Actually Matters
Tobias Harris landed in San Antonio on a two-year, $31 million deal in July, giving the Spurs another veteran forward to plug into a roster trying to make the most of its recent run to the NBA Finals. At 34, Harris arrives after two seasons with Detroit, where he remained a steady scoring and rebounding presence and posted averages of 13.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists last season.
The fit matters because the Spurs are no longer just collecting talent around Victor Wembanyama and De'Aaron Fox, they are trying to shape a rotation that can hold up in real games. Harris is expected to be part of that mix, and early offseason work has already started to show how the new pieces are being blended together, with the Spurs keeping a close eye on how a veteran like Harris meshes with familiar names and a group still figuring out its pecking order. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Rookie Fit Next To Wemby Suddenly Carries One Big Concern
Jayden Quaintance arrived with the kind of tools that can make Spurs fans dream about a long-term frontcourt pairing next to Victor Wembanyama. He is widely viewed as a promising defender with real athletic upside, and his profile makes sense for a team that always wants length, activity and switchability around its star. Even with the setbacks that have already followed him, the idea of what he could become in San Antonio is still easy to see.
The concern now is less about the fit and more about the timeline. Quaintance is expected to miss extended time this season because of knee injuries, which clouds when he can actually start building that case on the floor. And while the defensive potential is there, his offensive game remains a work in progress, so his eventual impact will depend not just on getting healthy, but on how much development he can show once he finally gets a run of consistent basketball. [Read more 🡒]
De'Aaron Fox Faces One Spurs Question That Could Change Everything
De'Aaron Fox arrives in San Antonio with the kind of reputation that can still shape a team's plans long after the headline move is over. The Spurs see him as part of their guard rotation and, for now, there is no expectation that they would move him during the season, especially with his contract situation and the reality that teams around the league are not exactly lining up to chase him right now.
The more interesting question is what happens if Fox looks more like himself again. A stronger stretch could change the way he is viewed, both inside the building and on the trade market, giving the Spurs a different kind of flexibility down the road. For now, the path is simple enough: keep him in place, let him settle in, and see whether his play starts creating options that do not exist today. [Read more 🡒]