The San Antonio Spurs finished the season with the NBA’s fifth-worst record at 22-60, but while the teams around them at the bottom of the league are searching for their identity for the future, the Spurs have little doubt about how to proceed.
That’s because the Spurs have Victor Wembanyama and other teams do not. The presumptive Rookie of the Year had a spectacular first season in the league, averaging 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks, and 1.2 steals per game on 46.5/32.5/79.6 shooting splits. What’s terrifying is Wembanyama is just scratching the surface (he said he’s at 15 percent of his potential after the season) and is still one of the NBA’s most impactful players already. This season confirmed the Spurs have their superstar of the future, and now the challenge begins to build a real contender around him.
Both the Spurs and Wembanyama have pledged patience, but his rapid growth means there’s some incentive to begin looking for core pieces this summer. In an interview with the Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor this week, the young star did confirm that he’s had players (both veterans and in this draft class) reach out to him with an interest in joining the Spurs — while also insisting he’s not planning on stepping on the toes of the Spurs front office.
“Yeah, I’ve received some messages,” Wembanyama responded. “Even from prospects. But I try to sustain my role. It’s a whole new world that I’m eager to discover. For sure, one day or the other, I’ll have to be involved in this, I guess, even though I’m staying in my role as a player.”
Wemby declined to discuss specific front office moves. “I trust the front office and coaches,” he said.
The most notable thing here is that players don’t tend to want to join forces with young guys, even potential stars, this early in their career. Veterans want to compete for titles, and typically they don’t see a path to doing that in the window they have with guys on rookie deals. However, Wembanyama certainly seems to be an exception, as his ability to impact the game on both ends is already pretty incredible and he certainly seems to have the work ethic and ability to add things to his game quickly. That means the Spurs might be in play for bigger names than a team typically would in a similar situation, and we’ll see how quickly they are willing to act on that. Knowing what we do about how San Antonio operates, I would guess they won’t be super aggressive hunting big names, but will be patient until someone they think is an ideal fit alongside Wemby comes available.