The Spurs are more than just Victor Wembanyama – and the way they were built may never happen again

Summary

• The San Antonio Spurs defied expectations by winning 62 games and reaching their first Finals since 2014.
• Victor Wembanyama’s extraordinary offseason training and stellar play anchored their unexpected rise to championship contention.
• New NBA anti-tanking rules mean no team will likely replicate how the Spurs built their roster through consecutive top draft picks.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

As Game 1 of the NBA Finals concluded with the New York Knicks stealing a win in Texas in a back-and-forth contest against the Spurs, much of the chatter on social media and among some league commentators centered on the disappointing performance from San Antonio. But rewind to the end of last season and it would have seemed impossible for this team to even be in the Finals. That is, until the Summer of Wemby.

If you were a member or lurker of basketball fan social media over the summer, there appeared to be one storyline that slowly took over the narrative as the months progressed: Victor Wembanyama’s anime-like training arc following his 2024-25 season-ending diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Whether it was kung-fu and meditation training for 10 days with Shaolin monks in Zhenzhou, China, playing soccer with kids in Costa Rica and Tokyo, hosting a chess tournament in France, training underwater or learning from legendary NBA big men Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin Garnett, Wemby’s summer prep for the season looked more and more like something out of Dragon Ball Z when Goku and Vegeta go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to train for a big fight – an effort to push himself into NBA title contention far and fast. And people couldn’t get enough.

Still, many people wrote off the Spurs’ chances as the year tipped off, with ESPN experts ranking the team 16th out of 30 franchises and projecting 41.8 wins in their season preview. While the cautionary lack of enthusiasm was merited, given that San Antonio had finished Wemby’s first two seasons with 22 and 34 wins, respectively, little did they know that the Frenchman’s training had worked.

He finished the regular season averaging 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.0 steals and a league-leading 3.1 blocks per game, earning himself the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year Award and third place in MVP voting.

And he’s stepped it up in his first playoffs with some history-making performances, including a 35-point, 15-rebound, 5-block Game 3 in the second round against the Minnesota Timberwolves and an extraordinary 41-point, 24-rebound Game 1 performance against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.

But what this incredible evolution by Wembanyama obscures to the casual fan is a key subplot, arguably more important than the DBZ summer main story: the development of the Spurs squad as a whole – and why we might never see another team happen organically like this again.

Climbing the mountain through luck and smarts

There is no questioning that the Spurs’ fortunes turned when they won the rights to draft the 7-foot-4 Frenchman with the No. 1 pick in 2023, but while Wembanyama unanimously won Rookie of the Year and finished runner-up in the Defensive Player of the Year race, San Antonio finished 22-60 and it was clear Wemby needed help.

That offseason, the team acquired veteran leadership in Harrison Barnes and future Hall of Famer Chris Paul, and drafted guard Stephon Castle out of UConn when he fell to them at No. 4 in the 2024 player draft. Unfortunately, head coach Gregg Popovich suffered from health issues, including a stroke, and the team announced he was out indefinitely, replacing him with assistant coach Mitch Johnson.

The franchise made a shrewd move when it traded for point guard De’Aaron Fox from the Sacramento Kings just before the trade deadline. Castle would also go on to be named Rookie of the Year, impressing many with his athleticism, tenacity and talent, but San Antonio once again failed to make the playoffs after Wembanyama missed the final 36 games of the season with his DVT diagnosis in early 2025.

To make matters worse, Popovich stepped down as head coach in May of last year after 29 incredible seasons leading the team, though he remained with the organization as its president of basketball operations and unofficial mentor.

While the Summer of Wemby had just begun, the Spurs were fortunate enough to be able to bolster the roster into the title contender it is today; the franchise owned the No. 2 and No. 14 picks in the draft, which it used to pick Dylan Harper out of Rutgers and Arizona’s Carter Bryant.

San Antonio also stayed the course and kept its young core together despite media pressure and speculation that the Spurs should move some of their picks and talent to trade for a star veteran like Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo to pair with Wembanyama.

The team didn’t pull the trigger on the high-profile move for the Greek phenom. Then Fox put in an All-Star season, Harper emerged as a gem off the bench in his first season, Castle continued to thrive after a superb rookie year, while Wemby turned into arguably the best player on the planet, despite not winning MVP this year.

Spurs could get swept, lose the next three by 20 each but trust me when I tell you, this run is nothing but a positive in the book of Wemby. He and the Spurs are ahead of schedule and a finals run is never going to be a negative talking point for me.

— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) June 4, 2026

Add in the big contributions of the supporting cast of Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie and Luke Kornet and the Spurs won 62 games in the regular season – second-best in the league behind the Thunder – storming into the playoffs for the first time since 2019.

Since February 1 through Game 1 of the Finals, San Antonio has posted an incredible 42-11 record and hasn’t lost more than one game in a row in that stretch except for one two-game skid against the Thunder (Games 2 and 3 of the WCF).

As a result of their faith in their specific process, the Spurs appear to be on the precipice of finalizing a rebuild but also to be entering a championship-now window.

Wembanyama (22), Castle (21) and Harper (20) are all young and have potential for long-term success in the league and in San Antonio. Barring any serious injuries, this team has its set core for a generation. The franchise’s front office is also arguably the best in the league and should be savvy enough to continue to put pieces around the new Big 3 to keep it in contention.

NBA legend Paul was clear that one of the keys to the Spurs’ success is the work ethic of everyone in the organization.

“I got a chance to go play for Coach Pop and then getting a chance to go play with Vic and be a part of his process. The coolest thing about seeing the Spurs right now, is obviously people see the team, but it’s the people every single day,” Paul told Pat McAfee on his show Tuesday.

“If we had practice at 10 or 11 a.m., the people that was on the court with us at 8 a.m. every single day. Them people grinding. That’s why you see Wemby the way he is & all them guys on the team.”

While everything is rosy in the Alamo City, teams looking to emulate the Spurs’ franchise-rebuild model appear to be out of luck.

The league has recently approved new anti-tanking rules, which take effect at the 2027 draft, in an effort to ensure teams do not purposely scuttle seasons to increase chances at securing high draft picks.

Teams will now not be allowed to win the No. 1 pick in consecutive years, nor will they be allowed to pick in the top five in three consecutive years, which is what happened to San Antonio at the 2023 to 2025 player drafts when the franchise selected Wembanyama (1st pick), Castle (4th pick) and Harper (2nd pick).

While the Spurs were lucky with the odds in those years, they were incredibly unlucky with the circumstances surrounding their poor seasons.

In 2022-23, the team had its worst campaign since 1996-97 (the year before NBA legend Tim Duncan was drafted No. 1 by the franchise); in Wemby’s first year, he didn’t have much help; and last season, he was diagnosed with DVT.

All of this presents the odd situation that the NBA’s new rules don’t really seem to address what happened in San Antonio, but they do pull up the ladder on the Spurs’ strategy of building through the draft.

So what does this mean? While the 2024-25 NBA champion Thunder did organically grow their championship-winning team through trades and draft pick accumulation – showing it’s still possible to do so without signing superstars – we likely won’t see a team roster being built up from years of futility like the Spurs have managed through the draft.

The NBA is set to re-evaluate its new anti-tanking regulations in 2030, but if the rules prove successful, bad luck won’t be enough to turn around a franchise or make it a championship contender.

For the Spurs, though, this is not their concern. They are now reaping the rewards for their patience and serendipity. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, Wembanyama, Castle, Harper and the rest of the team are highly likely to get even better in the coming years and compete for multiple championships.

Even if San Antonio doesn’t manage to win four more games this postseason and lift the sixth title in franchise history, this might just be the start of a dynasty that will live long in basketball memory.