With Wemby entering Year 3, some tantalizing rookies and much-needed additions at center, the days of 20-win seasons should be behind San Antonio.
SAN ANTONIO — So, is the Spurs’ rebuild over? I wouldn’t say that, no.
Are the days of 20-some wins a season over? I’d say yes to that. Definitely.
Get ready, Spurs Nation: The good days, again, are as close as they’ve ever been in the Silver & Black’s ongoing journey to get back to the NBA mountaintop.
I find myself thinking: Has it really been six years since the San Antonio Spurs last made the playoffs? And yup, it has really been that long. That’s OK, because these things happen in professional sports when dynasties (i.e. the Duncan/Ginobili/Parker Era) retire.
And rebuilds take time. And one has to get lucky like the Spurs did the night they won the draft rights to Victor Wembanyama. General Manager Brian Wright said as much that night two years ago.
But the question remains. What does all that good draft fortune over the 24 months – including subsequent first-round selections Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant – really mean?
Well, it means that better days are coming, sooner rather than later.
Like, 2025-2026 sooner rather than later? I wouldn’t necessarily say that from the standpoint of an appearance in the Western Conference Finals or NBA Finals. But the days of watching the playoffs from high-end comforters needs to be basketball dead and buried. The Spurs need to, at the very least, qualify for the postseason next spring.
And by the numbers, it looks like they will.
Consider the bottom of the Western Conference for the coming season as it looks right now. The Jazz won’t be ready yet. You can say the same about Portland (even with their reunion with Damian Lillard). Phoenix is trying to re-tool things, and that’ll be without Kevin Durant. The Sacramento Kings made the play-in last year, but they’ll play this full season without De’Aaron Fox, now a Spur. The Pelicans are… hmmmm, I’m not really sure? A wild card, we can say.
So that’s five teams, which is the number that miss the play-in and the playoffs. Should the Spurs be better than those five teams?
I think they should be.
The West of the NBA, however, is still the West. The Thunder will be the favorites to win the conference and back-to-back titles (although I’m not really convinced they will repeat).
The Houston Rockets look stacked this summer.
The Lakers still have Lebron and the new-look, trimmed-up Luka—for the moment anyway. Lebron James opted into the final year of his Laker deal even though he seemed offended at the talk of preferring the youth movement or his career twilight. It’s August and I’d bet he stays when all is said and done.
The Nuggets were busy for the free agent summer, and with July now in the rear-view mirror they look primed for another push with Jokic in the middle.
The Clippers are paying James Harden $80 million over the next two years and also have Kawhi. You remember him, right?
The Timberwolves will be good again as Ant-Man enters his prime with Minnesota looking for their third straight WFC visit in as many years.
And then there’s, as we like to call them ‘round these parts, the Little Brothers To The North—the Dallas Mavericks. Kyrie Irving will miss the majority of the regular season recovering from an ACL tear, but Anthony Davis will be healthy, for the start anyway. And they landed, of course, Cooper Flagg. How good might they be? How overrated might they be? Really interesting summer question.
I’ve seen different Spurs social media sites publishing their thoughts on the San Antonio starting five this fall. We all have opinions these days. Wemby/Fox/Castle/Vassell/Sochan in the starting five seems like the logical thought. (Harrison Barnes may have select feelings on this).
Scary? I’m not dismissing the word, but before we get all the way there let’s see what they do off the top.
And if we’re gonna be fair, and honest, there are other starting fives around the league that are scarier at this point. Plus, we need to remember: Injuries change everything in sports, and they will happen, unfortunately. Knock on wood that it doesn’t happen to the Spurs. Mix in Keldon Johnson’s energy off the bench with the likes of newly acquired big man Luke Kornet and the two rookies, there are some things to work with.
I’d boldly predict the Spurs will at the very least make the postseason play-in tournament in the ninth or tenth spot. But with wild cards in Sacramento, and I’ll throw Memphis in there, maybe the Spurs could climb into the top eight? I realize that’s still playing in the play-in as seeds seven through 10 draw that assignment, but, hey, that would be progress!
You’d take that, right? You’d take it over another year of being in the NBA Lottery, wouldn’t you? I would. I’ve had enough of that. It’s time to graduate to playing into late April, if not early May.
It is time to put all these rebuild pieces to work.