It’s been a very successful season for San Antonio, but there’s bound to be some questions for a team making their first playoff appearance in seven years.
SAN ANTONIO — The second-longest playoff drought in the NBA will officially be snapped when the No. 2-seeded Spurs play the No. 7-seeded Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs.
Spurs fans have waited seven years for this moment, but like every team in the playoffs, there’s several questions that have been asked regarding the Spurs’ upcoming playoff run.
Does lack of playoff experience matter?
It’s no secret the Spurs are young. Two of their leaders, Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle, are barely old enough to drink.
And for most of these players, this will be their first playoff appearances in their careers. Wemby, Castle, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie, Keldon Johnson, Dylan Harper, Carter Bryant–none have tasted a playoff atmosphere before. Even head coach Mitch Johnson is entering his first playoff series at the reins.
The only Spurs to have significant minutes of playoff experience are Harrison Barnes, De’Aaron Fox and Luke Kornet.
Barnes has the most, having played a total of 64 postseason games. Most of those were more than a decade ago when he was part of the early Golden State Warriors, resulting in one championship in 2015 that he contributed to.
His most recent playoff endeavor came with the Kings during the 2022-23 NBA playoffs. That resulted in a seven-game, first-round loss to his former team in the Warriors. He averaged 10.7 points and 3.4 rebounds at age 30.
All told, Barnes has averaged 10.7 points and 5.1 rebounds in his playoff career.
Fox, despite being in his ninth season, has only been to the playoffs once–coincidentally, the same one as Barnes when they were on the Kings together. In that seven-game series, Fox showed out against the Warriors, averaging 27.4 points, 7.7 assists and 2.1 steals at age 25.
For both Fox and Barnes, it’s been three seasons since then. So they’re likely hungry to get back to the dance following a riveting series against Golden State.
Backup center Luke Kornet made the playoffs in five straight seasons when he played for the Celtics from 2020-2025. He ended up winning a championship in 2024, averaging 10.2 minutes across 13 games in that run. He’s averaged 2.7 points and 2.4 rebounds in limited minutes during his playoff career.
So Barnes and Kornet both bring championship experience, but that’s it. And in the NBA, it’s been proven that you need playoff experience to truly be a contender in this league.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are perfect examples. Their first year back in the playoffs, in the 2023-24 campaign, saw them securing the No. 1 seed in the entire Western Conference. The question was the same for them: Can a team with almost no playoff experience truly make a championship run?
The answer was no.
OKC ended up losing to the No. 5-seeded Mavericks in six games in the second round. It was a tough way to go out, but ultimately it proved to be the punch in the gut they needed to take the next step.
Last season, they used that playoff experience to make a full run, resulting in an NBA championship when they beat the Pacers in seven games.
Playoff experience is important. Right now, the Spurs’ young core largely doesn’t have that.
So the question is: Does the lack of playoff experience matter for this Spurs team, or can they overcome that and truly have a magical run?
Can Wemby continue to dominate in a playoff setting?
Victor Wembanyama has been an absolute superstar for the Spurs this season, finishing the year averaging 25 points, 11.5 rebounds and a league-leading 3.1 blocks en route to 62 wins.
He’s more than likely going to win Defensive Player of the Year and could be a dark horse for the MVP trophy.
But like we mentioned in the previous question, this is the first playoff experience Wemby will be getting. Can he continue this dominance in a playoff setting?
The playoffs are a different monster than the regular season, and since you’re playing the same team over and over, teams now make adjustments. Can the Blazers implement their own “Jordan Rules” on Wemby? The “Wemby Rules,” if you will.
How would Wembanyama react to that?
He’s had his struggles against teams he could play later on in the playoffs (more on that later) but can he turn that around in the playoffs?
The same question can be asked of Castle, who has had a career year but has yet to step foot on a playoff court. Can he continue his trajectory as one of the best young guards in the NBA during this playoff run?
These questions can only truly be answered in the playoffs.
Who is the Spurs’ X-factor?
In every playoff series, there’s a player most fans wouldn’t expect who steps up to the plate and gives their team a much-needed boost, upping their play from the regular season. For the Spurs, that can be a multitude of players during their playoff run.
Is it Harper, the young rookie who’s been stuck behind Castle and Fox in the depth chart? Can he be the true field general many fans expect him to eventually be game in and game out?
Could it be Champagnie, whose 3-point prowess may remind you of Danny Green, who set a then-NBA Finals record for 3-pointers made in a Finals series in 2013? Champagnie can get hot like that, so can his 3-point shooting uplift the Spurs over opponents when they really need him?
Can it be the longest-tenured Spur in Johnson, who’s been waiting for his opportunity to taste the playoffs after seven seasons in San Antonio? He’s a Sixth Man of the Year candidate this season, so can he unleash his inner Manu Ginobili while Wemby and the rest of the starting lineup get some much-needed rest?
Or is it someone nobody would expect (normally the best kind of X-factors)? Bryant has shown some improvement throughout the season; could the playoffs be the place where the lottery pick finally and fully breaks out for the Spurs?
It could really be anyone, and if the Spurs truly want to be Finals contenders, they might need multiple to get past some opponents in their way.
Can the Spurs beat the Thunder and/or Nuggets in a seven-game series?
The two biggest threats to the Spurs’ championship hopes in the Western Conference are undoubtedly the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets.
The Spurs have beaten the Thunder a total of four times this season while losing just once. So San Antonio is as much of a threat to OKC as OKC is to San Antonio.
But the Thunder are defending champions for a reason. And, as we said earlier, they have championship experience that the most important Spurs currently lack. The regular season is one thing, but winning in a playoff scenario is another.
Wembanyama has also had his struggles against the Thunder this year, averaging a “pedestrian” 18.4 points, 9.2 rebounds and only 1.2 blocks a game in five games. Those are good stats for many players, but underwhelming by The Alien’s standards.
And the Thunder have been known to up their defense even more during the postseason, so it’s possible Wemby’s struggles continue if he sees OKC again.
If the Spurs were to see OKC, it would be in the Western Conference Finals in a No. 1-vs.-No. 2 seed matchup to determine who represents the West in the NBA Finals.
The Nuggets, on the other hand, were the biggest obstacle the Spurs faced in the regular season. They were the only team to beat the Spurs three times this year, crescendoing in a Nuggets win in the last game of the regular season.
The difference between the Nuggets season series and the Thunder season series is that Wembanyama has only played in one game against Denver–a matchup where he dropped 34 points and 18 rebounds in an OT Spurs loss.
Jokic has also had Wemby’s number during his career so far, averaging 37.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 9.1 assists in seven games against the possible DPOY. He’s been the one player in the league who has consistently outperformed Wembanyama.
Then again, if the one person who has consistently played better than you is a three-time MVP and surefire Hall of Famer, you’re doing something right.
Like the Thunder, the Nuggets also have championship experience, having brought home the Larry O’Brien trophy back in 2023.
It’s possible the Spurs play both the Nuggets and Thunder during this postseason. If San Antonio gets past Portland in the first round, they’d play the winner of the Nuggets-Timberwolves series in the second round, then would theoretically play the Thunder if they also make it there.
If they can get past both of these teams, it would truly be an extraordinary playoff run.
But the question: Do they have it in them?