Victor Wembanyama wants the San Antonio Spurs to be the first seed in the Western Conference next season, and the team is determined to chase that goal without saying too much about it. Speaking at September’s media day, Wembanyama said, “We won the West last year. We don’t want to do anything less this year. We want to be the first seed, and then we want to keep fighting for this top spot.”
Media day at Frost Bank Center took place on a muggy Sunday, more than two weeks before the Spurs open their media day schedule. Outside, the humidity sat at 86%, and inside, fans were competing for a spot in the Jackals, Wembanyama’s officially handpicked supporters group.
“This is something that hasn’t been done to this level,” said Aidan Sterling, president of the Jackals. “All the people who weren’t Jackals last year, all the new guys, I know there’s nerves amongst them.”
Returning members face their own pressure. Unless they earn designation as “pack leader”, their membership is not guaranteed this season.
“There’s a lot of competition,” said one of the Jackals’ pack leaders. “Being a part of it last season doesn’t guarantee you a spot this year.”
The Spurs face a similar challenge on the court. They must measure their prospects against a difficult Western Conference and a much-improved Eastern Conference. No team has reached the NBA Finals in consecutive seasons since the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors. San Antonio’s expectations have risen sharply after a 28-win improvement and a Finals appearance that ended a six-year postseason drought. Wembanyama drew attention before last season when he set the team’s goal of reaching the postseason as a top-six seed, and he has been careful with his words since.
Process over predictions
Wembanyama was the only Spurs player at media day who openly discussed specific expectations for the coming season. “We have some goals between us that we’re going to keep between us as teammates,” he said.
The club plans to rely on the process that has guided it for decades. The Spurs focused on internal improvement and day-to-day habits last season to manage an 82-game regular season and a long postseason. That approach, which dates back to the 29-season tenure of former coach Gregg Popovich, built a South Texas dynasty that won five titles and recorded a record-tying run of 22 consecutive playoff appearances.
At Popovich’s final media day as head coach during Wembanyama’s second season, the Hall of Famer said, “even when we were a championship-caliber team, we never said we’re going to win this many games. It was never a point of discussion.”
The approach remains unchanged under a new coaching regime. “Our expectation is to continue to try to improve and be the best version of this team we can be,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “The expectations are kind of like big games, right? There’s added enthusiasm, excitement, criticism, opinion. I’ve been on both sides of it now in this league, and I’ll take the expectations.”
Lessons from the Finals
The Spurs lost the Finals 4-1 to the New York Knicks. Wembanyama sat at a lectern a few feet away from the Knicks’ championship celebration, puzzled by how San Antonio fell short in a series in which it held double-digit leads in every game.
“[All] five games this series had the same scenario,” Wembanyama said. “[It was surprising] how relentless we were in our mistakes, and [how] they were in punishing them.”
The team has spent the summer trying to understand what went wrong, but nobody has shared the details. Spurs guard Stephon Castle, one of three guards expected to start, said, “We have a lot of clarity on why we feel like we lost and what we can do to get better.”
The three-guard group of Castle, De’Aaron Fox and rising second-year guard Dylan Harper drew particular scrutiny. Harper shone as a sixth man against the Knicks in the Finals. The trio played just 69 minutes together last season, including 25 in the Finals, and was outscored by 47 points in those minutes. By comparison, the Spurs posted a plus-9.4 net rating when Fox and Castle shared the floor in the regular season, plus-6.2 with Fox and Harper, and plus-11.0 with Harper and Castle. The organisation still believes in the three-guard construction. It sees Castle and Harper as big enough to hold their own against wings, and all three can penetrate and drive into the paint at will.
“We’re very fortunate to have such a dynamic roster where you can really get creative in terms of puzzle pieces and how you want to build out the puzzle,” Johnson said. “We saw it at times with the three guards in addition to what you can do around Victor. … There’s definite growth for those three guys just in terms of playing off each other and continuing to complement each other.”
New lead assistant Billy Donovan will help the three guards develop their on-court chemistry. Donovan replaced Sean Sweeney when Sweeney took the head coaching job in Orlando. During the brief portions of practice open to the media, Donovan worked with Fox, Castle and Harper on the floor at the same time.
“It’s been great,” Fox said. “One thing we’ve talked about is him being able to coach three guards at the same time. When he was [head coach] in OKC, he had Dennis [Schroder], Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] and [Chris Paul]. So, he’s been able to make it work. That team wasn’t supposed to go to the playoffs at the time and then ended up playing well because they figured it out. That’s one thing he’s bringing to us.”
A summer of togetherness
Wembanyama returned to work quickly after the Finals and made the most of the shortest offseason of his young career. He worked with Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon for the second consecutive summer. He and several Spurs, including free agent addition Tobias Harris, also visited Fox for workouts at his home gym outside Houston.
“We had a long season, but you don’t want to go the entire summer without being able to be around your teammates and getting in the gym together,” Fox said. “Just being able to be around each other, I think, is big. We have a group of guys that like being around each other.”
In August, Wembanyama invited several teammates to Paris for more work on the court, as well as sightseeing and fellowship. He wanted them to see where he came from before becoming a generational superstar. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year and his teammates worked out at Palais des Sports Maurice Thorez, where his professional career began as a gangly teenager with Nanterre 92. Wembanyama described the experience as touching and even emotional.
“They were willing to make this trip, and they were also curious about what I wanted to show them,” Wembanyama said. “So it matters because these people matter to me. This place matters to me. Having the two of them together is kind of the same as when family comes to visit here.”
Second-year forward Carter Bryant sat beside Wembanyama on plane rides as a rookie last season, discussing “our personal goals, team goals, collective goals [and] off-the-court goals.” In France, Bryant said he was impressed by how far Wembanyama has come and by how he has stayed humble, which has helped him grow as a leader.
“[It was big] for us to take the time out of our summers after we had been together longer than anybody, then come to his home and for him to educate us about where he’s from, [to] just be around him in his element,” Bryant said. “For him to get to that point and come back to where he started and then have the people around him that are like, ‘Yo, next year we’re going to take that next step.’ Not too many people get that experience.”
The Spurs shared meals on several occasions in Paris, including a dinner on a riverboat on the Seine with the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop. Bryant and his girlfriend biked 32 miles during one day of the trip. Veteran forward Harrison Barnes arranged a tour of the Louvre for the visiting Spurs. Meanwhile, Wembanyama kept training by taking Barnes to work out with a French rugby club, where the 7-foot-4 centre said he focused on improving his balance.
Wembanyama became the NBA’s youngest and first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year last season. He also finished third in MVP voting and led San Antonio to the Finals for the first time in 12 seasons. Bryant said the biggest lesson is clear. “With a franchise like this, the biggest thing is family having each other’s backs and understanding what we stand for as a unit,” he said.
The road back to the Finals
The Spurs understand how hard it is to return to the Finals. Even if they play at their peak, factors beyond their control could derail their season. Injuries and a matchup against the Spurs ended the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Finals hopes last season. The Indiana Pacers’ bid ended before the next season began, when Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of that series against OKC. Injuries also ended the 2024-25 Boston Celtics’ chances of returning to the Finals, while the 2024-25 Dallas Mavericks ruined their own prospects by trading their best player, Luka Doncic.
The last team to win the title after losing in the Finals the previous year was the Warriors. They used a once-in-a-generation cap spike to sign Kevin Durant to a core that had already won a title in 2015. The Spurs’ only notable free agent signing was Harris, a 15-year veteran who has never advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs.
The Spurs know they cannot simply leap back to the Finals and erase the mistakes that cost them the series against the Knicks. Throughout the organisation, everyone has accepted the idea of taking one step at a time, the same approach they used last season.
“It’s human nature, right,” Spurs forward Devin Vassell said. “You want to be back in that situation, but you can’t skip a day. You can’t skip training camp. You can’t skip the preseason. You can’t skip opening night. You can’t skip the lone back-to-backs. You can’t sit here and snap your fingers [and] you’re back in the Finals. It just doesn’t work like that. Nothing is guaranteed. So, we’ve got to keep implementing what we were doing last year, stuff that carried over and just building good habits. We can’t fast forward anything. So, just take it day by day.”
Upcoming games
Friday, Oct. 16
- Nuggets at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. ET
Wednesday, Oct. 21
- Timberwolves at Heat, 7:30 p.m. ET
- Warriors at Lakers, 10 p.m. ET
Thursday, Oct. 22
- Cavaliers at 76ers, 7 p.m. ET
- Nuggets at Thunder, 9:30 p.m. ET
Veterans Barnes and Luke Kornet have both reached the NBA Finals at previous stops. Golden State won a title in Barnes’ first Finals appearance in 2015, but fell 4-3 to the Cleveland Cavaliers the following season. Kornet played for the Celtics in the 2022 Finals, which the Warriors won in six games. He returned in 2024, when the Celtics beat the Mavericks in five games to end a sixteen-year title drought, three years longer than San Antonio’s current titleless run.
“For us, it’s a matter of focus that we have every single day in terms of what’s our standard we’re setting for ourselves and comparing it against that,” Barnes said. “I don’t think it’s one of those things where you simply carry momentum from one season to the next. You have to come back and start the journey from day one again.”
Barnes added, “I do think there’s something that sharpens your focus, like shared heartbreak. And mind you, health is always a major factor. Those things are out of your control. But for the things that are in your control, having that experience helps you frame how you approach every single day.”
Several fans at the Jackals’ tryouts showed their dedication to Sterling. One wore a Chewbacca costume over a David Robinson jersey, while others wore green alien garb.
Wembanyama and his teammates continue to temper expectations for the season. “This isn’t pressure,” Sterling said. “This is passion.”