The Spurs are putting together something that doesn’t look loud from the outside, but the pieces are there. Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox already give San Antonio two legitimate stars, and Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper may be right behind them.
Castle looks like a future All-Star, and there’s a real chance he gets there as soon as next season. Harper may have an even higher ceiling.
Based on what he showed as a rookie, he may even have All-NBA potential. That’s the kind of upside that makes this roster feel bigger than it first appears.
San Antonio didn’t go into the offseason and overhaul everything. The Spurs made only minor tweaks, adding more depth at power forward and changing up their center rotation, but the main structure of the team stayed intact. That means the jump has to come from the core four: Wembanyama, Fox, Castle, and Harper.
If those four all level up, the Spurs could be a nightmare for the rest of the league. Wembanyama would need to become the best player in the NBA.
Fox would have to get back to form. Castle and Harper would need breakout seasons.
If that happens, San Antonio could hang with anyone.
There’s also something unusual about the way this team is being built. It’s a homegrown super team in a pretty literal sense.
Fox came in via trade, but Wembanyama, Castle, and Harper were all drafted by the Spurs in consecutive years. That makes the foundation feel more organic than the usual superstar shopping spree.
The comparison points are already out there. The Sixers may have LeBron James, Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and Jaylen Brown. The Oklahoma City Thunder could fit the conversation too, though the Spurs beat them eight times last year, including in the Western Conference finals.
San Antonio could eventually find itself in the NBA Finals against Philadelphia, or maybe the New York Knicks, but that’s getting ahead of things. The West still runs the show, and the Spurs can’t be crowned anything until they actually win a championship.
Even so, next season might be the one where all of this starts to look real. If the core four keeps rising the way the Spurs are hoping, they could own the West and push all the way to the title.
In Other News...
Spurs Arena Plan Now Hinges On A San Antonio Funding Fight
San Antonios push for a new Spurs arena has hit a fresh political snag, even after the city council had already approved $489 million in municipal bond funding for the project. The issue now sits inside a wider budget squeeze, with the city facing a projected deficit and council members preparing to vote on whether the arena question should be sent back to voters.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is looking to have residents reauthorize the citys share of arena funding on the November ballot, a move that would put the project back in front of the public before construction moves any farther. Even if the council declines to add it now, the arena plan would still run through another resident vote later on to issue city bonds for the first phase of construction, leaving the financing picture very much unsettled. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Face One Big Question Behind Their Offseason Momentum
The Spurs spent the offseason adding to a roster that already looked sturdier than it did a year ago, bringing in Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed through the draft, signing Tobias Harris and keeping Julian Champagnie and Harrison Barnes in the fold. For a team built around Victor Wembanyama, the moves were all about reinforcing a group that should be better positioned on both ends and giving the new-look bench and rotation more options as the season approaches.
Still, the biggest test of all may not come from the personnel San Antonio added. The staff took a hit when associate head coach Sean Sweeney left for a head coaching job in Orlando, and his absence leaves a real question about how much of the Spurs defensive identity can carry over as Billy Donovan takes over the sideline duties. With a strong foundation already in place, the challenge is less about whether the Spurs can defend and more about how smoothly that edge survives the change behind the scenes. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Just Got A Real Chance To Keep Wembanyama Dominant
The schedule is starting to look like a quiet advantage for the Spurs, and for a young roster coming off a deep postseason run, that matters. San Antonio has among the highest number of rest days and one of the fewest back-to-back sets in the league this season, a setup that should help keep legs fresher and decision-making sharper as the grind of the year builds. With Victor Wembanyama at the center of everything, the club has reason to welcome every extra day between games.
San Antonio also added more frontcourt help in Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed Jr., a move that should ease some of the nightly load on Wembanyama and give the staff more ways to manage his minutes and matchups. The bigger picture is pretty clear: the Spurs and the league both seem intent on handling his workload with care, which makes sense for a player viewed as the NBAs next major centerpiece. The only real question is how far that built-in cushion can carry them once the season starts to tighten. [Read more 🡒]