The Spurs have spent the last few years stacking talent, and now the payoff is obvious: San Antonio can make a serious argument for the NBA’s best young core, maybe even the best four-man group in the league.
CBS Sports recently put Victor Wembanyama and either Stephon Castle or Dylan Harper atop its duo rankings, and nobody around Spurs Nation is going to flinch at that. Wembanyama is the Alien.
Castle and Harper are the Slash Bros. The names are catchy, but the basketball is what makes the case real.
Push past the duo discussion, though, and the Spurs’ situation gets even more interesting. Instead of asking whether it’s Wembanyama and Castle or Wembanyama and Harper, San Antonio can credibly argue it has the best trio in the league - and maybe the deepest top four, too.
Start with Wembanyama, the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-NBA superstar with no obvious limit. Pair him with Castle, who posted 18 PPG, 5 RPG, and 6 APG in the postseason, won Rookie of the Year, and has already become one of the league’s best defenders. Then add Harper, whose postseason breakout was so strong that people are already debating whether he should start over a former number one option who made the All-Star team in February of the same year.
That three-man group brings scoring, defense, power, clutch play, and fearlessness. The playoffs only reinforced it. Each of them delivered in big moments, and that matters when you’re trying to sort out which young core is actually built to matter.
The only real challenger for best trio is Oklahoma City, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren. That group is loaded, no question. But if you asked most people to pick one, plenty would land on San Antonio - and a lot of that starts with how absurd Wembanyama is.
Once De’Aaron Fox enters the picture, the Spurs’ argument gets even stronger. Fox gives them a fourth player with real star credentials: a 2x All-Star and Clutch Player of the Year winner who led Sacramento’s 2023 postseason appearance, their first in nearly 20 years. Last season, as the third option, he still averaged nearly 20 points per game and shot 48% from the field.
That kind of top-end depth is rare. Philadelphia would at least enter the discussion after LeBron James and Jaylen Brown joined Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, but that group comes with age and injury questions that keep it from the top spot. The fit also has to prove itself.
Most teams simply can’t keep up beyond their top two or three players, especially with the league’s apron rules tightening the financial screws. San Antonio has handled those constraints well, drafted and developed at a high level, and built itself into a team that can legitimately claim the league’s best trio - or even the best four-man core.
In Other News...
Spurs Already Learned The Finals Lesson The Knicks Should Fear
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San Antonio's own lesson from the 2026 Finals is the part that still hangs in the air. The Spurs were in position to close out the title, only to let the chance slip away, and that kind of experience tends to travel with a team. If these two franchises cross paths again, the Spurs would have the benefit of having lived through the mistake once already, while the Knicks would be left wondering whether the same pressure points are waiting for them again. [Read more 🡒]
Kevin Garnett Nostalgia Is Creating A New Timberwolves Debate
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For Spurs fans, the intrigue is less about nostalgia than about what it says regarding Duncans standing in the games collecting economy. Recent auction results and sharp price increases have shown that there is real demand building around his cards, but the market is still sorting out just how high that ceiling can go as the hobby reassesses players whose prime came before todays boom in card speculation. [Read more 🡒]
Wembanyama Just Lost A Must-See International Matchup Spurs Fans Wanted
Victor Wembanyama has already gotten a couple of exhibition tuneups with the French national team against Serbia as the buildup to FIBA World Cup qualifiers continues, and the next date on the calendar had obvious appeal for Spurs fans following along from afar. France is set to meet Slovenia at the Accor Arena in Paris, a stage that would have offered another early look at Wembanyama in a marquee international setting.
The matchup is now missing one of the biggest names that made it so intriguing. Luka Doncic will not play against France as he works through personal issues and injury recovery, which strips some of the star power from what had shaped up as a must-see game. For a player like Wembanyama, these are the kinds of nights that help define the spotlight around him, so the absence leaves the international showcase feeling a little less complete. [Read more 🡒]