The San Antonio Spurs want to return to the NBA Finals, and Victor Wembanyama has already set a bold target: finishing as the No. 1 seed in the West. Speaking at September’s media day, Wembanyama said, “We won the West last year. We don’t want to do anything less this year. We want to be the first seed, and then we want to keep fighting for this top spot.”
On a muggy Sunday at Frost Bank Center, more than two weeks before media day, the Spurs’ expectations were already the talk of the building. Fans were competing for spots in the Jackals, Wembanyama’s official handpicked supporters group. Aidan Sterling, the Jackals’ president, said the tryouts reflected a new level of demand. “This is something that hasn’t been done to this level,” Sterling said. “All the people who weren’t Jackals last year, all the new guys, I know there’s nerves amongst them.” Membership is not guaranteed for returning members either unless they earn the designation of “pack leader.”
That same caution runs through the organization. San Antonio returns after a season that included a 28-win improvement, a six-year postseason drought ended, and a Finals appearance. The Spurs then lost the series 4-1 to the New York Knicks. No team has advanced to the Finals in consecutive seasons since the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors, and the Western Conference remains difficult. Wembanyama, 22, was the only Spur at media day who openly discussed specific season goals, and he said the team would keep most of them private.
Process over hype
The Spurs plan to rely on the same process that has defined the franchise for decades. That approach focuses on internal improvement and day-to-day work, which the team used to manage an 82-game regular season and an extended postseason. The method traces back to Gregg Popovich’s 29 seasons as coach, which produced five titles and a record-tying run of 22 consecutive playoff appearances.
At Popovich’s final media day as head coach during Wembanyama’s second season, the Hall of Famer said, “Even when we were a championship-caliber team, we never said we’re going to win this many games. It was never a point of discussion.” That mindset has carried over under new leadership. Coach Mitch Johnson said, “Our expectation is to continue to try to improve and be the best version of this team we can be. The expectations are kind of like big games, right? There’s added enthusiasm, excitement, criticism, opinion. I’ve been on both sides of it now in this league, and I’ll take the expectations.”
Learning from the Finals loss
While the Knicks celebrated their first championship in 53 years on the Frost Bank Center floor, Wembanyama stood nearby, puzzled by how San Antonio lost a series in which it held double-digit leads in every game. “[All] five games this series had the same scenario,” Wembanyama said. “[It was surprising] how relentless we were in our mistakes, and [how] they were in punishing them.”
The Spurs have studied what went wrong, though they have not shared specifics. Guard Stephon Castle, one-third of the expected starting backcourt, said, “We have a lot of clarity on why we feel like we lost and what we can do to get better.”
One key question involves the trio of Castle, De’Aaron Fox and rising second-year guard Dylan Harper. The three played just 69 minutes together last season, including 25 in the Finals, and they were outscored by 47 points in those minutes. By comparison, the Spurs posted a plus-9.4 net rating when Fox and Castle shared the floor in the regular season, plus-6.2 with Fox and Harper, and plus-11.0 with Harper and Castle. The organization still believes in the three-guard lineup, noting that Castle and Harper have the size to hold their own against wings and that all three can penetrate into the paint at will.
Johnson said the team is fortunate to have options. “We’re very fortunate to have such a dynamic roster where you can really get creative in terms of puzzle pieces and how you want to build out the puzzle,” Johnson said. “We saw it at times with the three guards in addition to what you can do around Victor. … There’s definite growth for those three guys just in terms of playing off each other and continuing to complement each other.”
New lead assistant Billy Donovan, who replaced Sean Sweeney when Sweeney took the head coaching job in Orlando, will help develop that trio. During the brief portions of practice open to the media, Donovan worked with Fox, Castle and Harper on the floor at the same time. Fox said Donovan’s experience helps. “One thing we’ve talked about is him being able to coach three guards at the same time,” Fox said. “When he was [head coach] in OKC, he had Dennis [Schroder], Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] and [Chris Paul]. So, he’s been able to make it work.”
A summer built around togetherness
Wembanyama started working right after the Finals, making the most of the shortest offseason of his young career. He returned to work with Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon for the second straight summer. He and several teammates, including free-agent addition Tobias Harris, visited Fox for workouts at his home gym outside Houston. Fox said the time together matters. “We had a long season, but you don’t want to go the entire summer without being able to be around your teammates and getting in the gym together,” Fox said. “We have a group of guys that like being around each other.”
In August, Wembanyama invited several teammates to Paris for training, sightseeing and fellowship. He wanted them to see where his career started. The team worked out at Palais des Sports Maurice Thorez, where Wembanyama played as a gangly teenager with Nanterre 92. Wembanyama described the trip as touching and emotional. “They were willing to make this trip, and they were also curious about what I wanted to show them,” Wembanyama said. “So it matters because these people matter to me. This place matters to me. Having the two of them together is kind of the same as when family comes to visit here.”
The group shared meals on several occasions, including a dinner on a riverboat on the Seine River with the Eiffel Tower in view. Carter Bryant and his girlfriend biked 32 miles one day, and Harrison Barnes arranged a tour of the Louvre for the visiting Spurs. Wembanyama kept training during the trip, taking Barnes to work out with a French rugby club, where the 7-foot-4 center said he focused on improving his balance.
Bryant, a second-year forward who sat beside Wembanyama on plane rides as a rookie, said the trip showed how Wembanyama has grown. “[It was big] for us to take the time out of our summers after we had been together longer than anybody, then come to his home and for him to educate us about where he’s from, [to] just be around him in his element,” Bryant said. “For him to get to that point and come back to where he started and then have the people around him that are like, ‘Yo, next year we’re going to take that next step.’ Not too many people get that experience.”
Wembanyama became the NBA’s youngest and first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year last season, finished third in MVP voting, and led San Antonio to the Finals for the first time in 12 seasons. Bryant said the team’s approach comes down to family. “With a franchise like this, the biggest thing is family having each other’s backs and understanding what we stand for as a unit,” Bryant said.
Obstacles on the road back
The Spurs know that even at their best, outside forces could derail their plans. Injuries and a matchup with the Spurs stopped the Oklahoma City Thunder from returning to the Finals last season. The Indiana Pacers’ hopes ended before the next season began when Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 against OKC. Injuries also derailed the 2024-25 Boston Celtics, and the 2024-25 Dallas Mavericks gave up their chances by trading Luka Doncic.
The last team to win the title after losing in the Finals the year before was the Warriors, who added Kevin Durant through a once-in-a-generation cap spike. San Antonio’s only notable free-agent signing was Harris, a 15-year veteran who has never advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs.
Still, the Spurs understand they cannot skip steps. Devin Vassell summed up the mindset. “It’s human nature, right,” Vassell said. “You want to be back in that situation, but you can’t skip a day. You can’t skip training camp. You can’t skip the preseason. You can’t skip opening night. You can’t skip the lone back-to-backs. You can’t sit here and snap your fingers [and] you’re back in the Finals. It just doesn’t work like that. Nothing is guaranteed. So, we’ve got to keep implementing what we were doing last year, stuff that carried over and just building good habits. We can’t fast forward anything. So, just take it day by day.”
Veterans Barnes and Luke Kornet have both reached the Finals before. Golden State captured the 2015 title in Barnes’ first Finals appearance but fell 4-3 to the Cleveland Cavaliers the following season. Kornet played for the Celtics in the 2022 Finals, a series the Warriors won in six games, and he returned in 2024, when Boston beat the Mavericks in five games to end a sixteen-year title drought, three years longer than San Antonio’s current titleless run.
Barnes said the path forward starts with daily focus. “For us, it’s a matter of focus that we have every single day in terms of what’s our standard we’re setting for ourselves and comparing it against that,” Barnes said. “I don’t think it’s one of those things where you simply carry momentum from one season to the next. You have to come back and start the journey from day one again.”
He added, “I do think there’s something that sharpens your focus, like shared heartbreak. And mind you, health is always a major factor. Those things are out of your control. But for the things that are in your control, having that experience helps you frame how you approach every single day.”
Upcoming games
- Friday, Oct. 16: Nuggets at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. ET
- Wednesday, Oct. 21: Timberwolves at Heat, 7:30 p.m. ET
- Wednesday, Oct. 21: Warriors at Lakers, 10 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Oct. 22: Cavaliers at 76ers, 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Oct. 22: Nuggets at Thunder, 9:30 p.m. ET
Fans at Jackals tryouts showed their commitment in creative ways, including one in a Chewbacca costume under a David Robinson jersey, and others in green alien garb. For now, Wembanyama and his teammates continue to temper expectations. As Sterling put it, “This isn’t pressure. This is passion.”