The Spurs look to a bright future as they continue building around a promising core.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs‘ 2024-25 season is over, but the rebuild continues as their offseason gets underway.
The team ended the season with a 34-48 record, going 3-7 in their last 10 games. But that record represents a 12-win improvement over the previous campaign, and despite another missed postseason, forward Keldon Johnson sees considerable upside to the team and the roster’s makeup.
“I feel like obviously the year didn’t go as planned for us,” he said after the Spurs’ April 8 meeting versus the Clippers. “We’ve got some great pieces.”
Those main pieces consist of All-Star Victor Wembanyama, likely Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle and newly acquired star De’Aaron Fox all on the team heading into next season.
That trio did not get to play significant time together last season due to Fox (finger surgery) and Wembanyama (blood clots) getting shelved for the season with several weeks of games to go. But their potential to help lead the Spurs out of the rebuild and into contention is tremendous.
“I feel like we had a lot of things that took place in our season and a lot of ups and downs, a lot of things that we could not control,” said Johnson.
It’s not just the core three players that that should create optimism in even the most cynical Spurs fan. Johnson also proved he was an X-factor en route to setting a new team record for most bench points in Spurs history.
He excelled as the team’s sixth man this past season, posted 12.7 points per game, 4.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists while shooting 48% from the field. He also had an incredible month of March, averaging 14.6 points per game and 5.5 rebounds in 17 matchups.
There are also Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vassell, a pair which the team views as part of the franchise’s rebuild after they helped lead the team’s improvement. (The team not only won 12 more games this year, but they did so without losing Wembanyama, Fox and head coach Gregg Popovich at various points of the season.)
“I feel like we keep the main thing we are going to keep building, and we are going to attack this offseason,” Johnson said.
The Spurs are expected to take another step out of the rebuild and return to winning seasons next year.
The team will have multiple picks in the 2025 NBA Draft, where they have the luxury of selecting an impact player in what many are saying is a talent-rich prospect pool. They can also trade the picks or trade for an established NBA star to add to their promising core of players.
Either way, the future is bright in San Antonio after going through another tough season.
Said Johnson: “We are going to be ready for next year.”