Victor Wembanyama is about to get another crack at the kind of defense that has already given him trouble.
France is set to face Serbia in exhibition games on August 20 and 23, and the matchup comes with a very specific test for Wembanyama. Serbia found a way to bother him in their 2024 meeting, forcing him into discomfort in the paint or keeping him away from it entirely. He finished that loss with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
That approach is familiar across the NBA, too. Teams try to keep Wembanyama from the rim, raise the physicality early, and make him beat them from farther out. He can score from the perimeter, but that also leaves him dependent on whether the shot is dropping.
The real question this time is what he’s added since then.
Wembanyama has already shown more playmaking and half-court creation in his game since his last matchup with Serbia, and this is the first chance to see whether that growth shows up against a defense that already knows how to make life difficult for him. If he can answer that pressure with more efficient offense, it would be a meaningful sign for the Spurs.
San Antonio’s season turned on Wembanyama, and so did its late push. The Spurs reached June hoops ahead of schedule largely because of him, and they fell short largely because he ran out of gas. Some of that is easy to explain - it was his first time carrying that kind of workload - but his style of play also plays a part.
He uses a huge amount of energy on both ends, especially when he goes into dribble ISO mode and drives through contact from the perimeter into the lane. For a player his size, that’s a lot to ask over the long haul.
That’s why the way he handles Serbia matters. If he can establish himself on the block more often and work from a quicker, more efficient touch point, it could help him conserve energy and stay fresher.
So yes, the headline is Wembanyama against Nikola Jokic. But the deeper story is whether Wembanyama has found a better answer to the kind of defense that has already frustrated him - and whether that answer can help keep him dangerous all the way through June.
In Other News...
Spurs Face A Brutal Stretch That Could Reshape Their Rotation
November is about to test the Spurs in a way that goes beyond wins and losses. San Antonio is staring at a stretch of 16 games in 30 days with no two-day breaks, and even if only a handful of those matchups come against top conference opponents, the grind alone figures to push Mitch Johnson into some interesting decisions about how he uses his roster.
For Johnson, the month looks like more than a survival exercise. It should be a chance to mix and match lineups that have barely shared the floor, give young players a longer runway, and keep workload management at the center of the plan as the season wears on. The upside for San Antonio is that a brutal schedule can also become a laboratory, and the next few weeks may tell the staff a lot about which combinations are worth carrying forward. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Could Face A Tough Keldon Johnson Decision Around Wembanyama
The Spurs have already been linked to plenty of roster tinkering around Victor Wembanyama, with DeAaron Fox and Luke Kornet both part of the broader conversation as the front office weighs how to keep sharpening the fit around its young star. In that kind of setup, Keldon Johnson naturally becomes one of the more interesting names to watch because he has been part of the teams core for years and still represents real value in any discussion about reshaping the roster.
What makes Johnson especially tricky is that he sits at the center of a larger balancing act for San Antonio, one that involves present-day usefulness, future upside and the kind of defensive versatility that matters next to Wembanyama. A recent mock proposal imagines the Spurs moving him for a younger wing package, a reminder that the organization may have to decide whether Johnson is better kept as a proven piece or used as the sort of trade chip that can bring back a cleaner long-term fit. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Raised The Bar And Now Expectations Are Getting Real
After a season that showed just how quickly the Spurs can turn promise into wins, the conversation around San Antonio is no longer about patience. The roster is young, the chemistry is real, and there is enough depth on hand to make a jump feel less like a dream and more like the next logical step. Add in a schedule that looks manageable and both ends of the floor carrying room for growth, and it is easy to see why expectations have started to shift.
Victor Wembanyama and the rest of the core have given the organization a foundation that already feels sturdier than outsiders expected, and player development could push it further. Still, the leap from a strong season to elite territory is where the caution comes in, because projection and reality are rarely the same thing. The idea of a 70-win season hangs out there as a bold marker, but for now it remains exactly that, a bold marker, with plenty left to prove before San Antonio gets anywhere close to it. [Read more 🡒]