The San Antonio Spurs have another dynasty to look forward to after dominating the NBA and winning three championships in the early 2000s. Many new things are coming to the Frost Bank Arena, including a new veteran point guard ready to mentor expandable young assets, a hustling forward who can do it all, and, of course, the greatest prospect since LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama. With the great Gregg Popovich still the head coach, Spurs fans have tons to get excited about.
The “Point God’s” Blessing
After watching their abysmal 2023-24 season, one thing was apparent to Spurs fans: they needed a true point guard. For most of last year’s season, coach Popovich experimented with putting forward Jeremy Sochan at the point guard position. While Sochan has the potential, defensive abilities, and size to be great at this position, his undeveloped decision-making and on-ball playmaking caused him to be very turnover-prone.
However, San Antonio fixed this in the 2024 offseason by bringing in a fringe top 3 point guard in NBA history, the “Point God,” Chris Paul.
Coach Popovich wanted a natural pick-and-roll distributor to throw accurate lobs to Wembanyama. Paul is known to throw impeccable lobs throughout his career.
Paul was brought in on a team-friendly contract worth around $10 million, his lowest pay grade in almost 15 years. This has allowed San Antonio to keep an exponential amount of cap space, making them the third-cheapest team in the league.
Many fans are nervous about Paul’s age, regression, and how much of an impact he can make on a struggling young team. However, the guard is no stranger to leading a young team to the playoffs, as evidenced by his production on the Oklahoma City Thunder. At age 34, Paul led a Thunder team with a 0.2% chance of making playoffs to the fifth seed, per CP3REGION. There is no doubt that with San Antonio’s young core, Paul has a shot of making the postseason as early as this year.
Young Assets
Alongside the addition of Chris Paul, San Antonio is also fortunate to have a young core ready to be developed into a super team.
The most significant part of San Antonio’s young core is the 7’4 alien-like Frenchman, Victor Wembanyama.
While “Wemby” could have a feature column of his own, it’s important to know what he has already done in the NBA and understand his humongous ceiling.
In his rookie year alone, Wembanyama received the coveted “Rookie of the Year” award by unanimous vote, meaning all 99 media panels voted him first place to win the title, per Yahoo Sports. Wemby also joined a list of only five other players to make an all-defensive team in their rookie year, per The New York Times. Some names to note that made this list include all-time NBA greats such as Tim Duncan, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Kareem Abdul Jabaar.
While Wembanyama is already a top-three center in the league, it is important to note the young teammates he has around him who will help this team rise to the top.
One of these players is rookie guard Stephon Castle, the No. 4 overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft.
Castle is a Shooting Guard from UConn who aspires to become the young playmaking point guard that the Spurs desperately need. Another thing Castle has going for him is his fit in the modern NBA. Castle is an athletic guard who is able to finish around the rim, switch onto defense, and guard the ball at an elite level. This is evident by his collegiate stats at UConn, where he made 55% of his 2-point shots and could get around a steal a game, per sports-reference.com.
So far, Castle has been able to average 11.5 points, 3.8 assists, and around a steal per game, and his numbers are rising after being thrust into a starting role following Sochan’s injury. The future is objectively bright for Castle as a scorer playing alongside Wemby for years to come.
Another rookie that San Antonio recently added is Harrison Ingram.
Ingram was one of the last picks in the draft, being picked 28th in the second round. Many analysts considered this an absolute steal, and if the Spurs give him real playing time, Ingram can develop into a stud.
Before declaring for the draft, the forward finished his junior year at the University of North Carolina (UNC), putting up the best statistics of his collegiate career. However, two parts of his game developed drastically, significantly benefiting the Spur’s depth: his rebounding and perimeter defense. During his final year at UNC, the junior’s scoring stayed about the same, but his steals and rebounding almost doubled. This had him finishing the year averaging over eight rebounds and 1.5 steals. Ingram also developed his shooting game, with his 3-point percentage increasing 7%, making him a far more efficient scorer. Although the plan for Ingram does not involve much playing time this season, he should play a key role in the future.
The Perfect “Glue Guy”
Another player San Antonio recently drafted is forward Jeremy Sochan.
Coming out of Baylor University, Sochan was picked ninth overall by the Spurs in the 2022 Draft due to his excellent defense and rebounding. In college, Sochan averaged nine points, six rebounds, and 1.5 steals. With his rebounding, Sochan also has a great hustle, which helps with his defense and ability to get to the rim.
While an athletic, defensive-minded player is already valuable to a team, San Antonio is trying to develop an untouched part of Sochan’s game to make him someone who can do it all. That is his on-ball playmaking.
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As of last year, Coach Popovich has been experimenting with running the point through Sochan. Suppose San Antonio is successful with their experiment. In that case, Sochan should be able to be a guy who can do virtually anything for the Spurs, much like four-time champion and Olympian Draymond Green.
Athlon Sports agrees that Sochan is very versatile. “Sochan might not be an elite shooter, but his skill set is vast, making him the ultimate glue guy. “He’s Jeremy!” said Popovich. “He runs the floor, he rebounds, he does his best job on defense, he’s just out there to win and compete.”
As of this year, Sochan has soared above expectations, averaging six points more than last year and almost double the rebounds.
The Wisest Coach in the League
Head coach Gregg Popovich is essential to developing San Antonio’s ongoing core.
Popovich has been with the Spurs for almost 35 years, beginning his career as an assistant coach and moving up to head coach in the 1996-97 season. In his time with the Spurs, Popovich has won 4 championships and 3 Coach of the Year awards. If this wasn’t impressive enough, Popovich was also honored with being named to the NBA’s “Top 15 coaches in league history” list.
Popovich is familiar with coaching vital defensive pieces. Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, and Dennis Rodman were all coached under the legend, each earning many defensive awards during their time with the Spurs. Because of his outstanding defensive coaching, the team is very high on the development of their defense and how it compares to other teams in the league. Coach Popovich has very high aspirations for the team’s defensive abilities but believes it will take longer than just this season: “We’re not ready to be a top-five defensive team by any stretch of the imagination, but we know that is the focus and we have played good defense throughout the season. We picked up where we left off from last year. I am really impressed with their understanding and enjoying what the defense can do for them,” said Popovich.
Due to Popovich’s elite defensive coaching abilities, all of his players are critical contributors to the Spurs’ defense. The most significant contributor is Wembanyama, whose defense has blossomed under Popovich’s coaching.
This year, in only his sophomore season, Wembanyama has been averaging 3.5 blocks per game with 1.5 steals to go with them. These stats place him in the top 50 in steals per game and first (by a wide margin) in blocks per game. Being able to average these numbers as a 7’4 center is insane and makes the center one of the league’s best post and perimeter defenders.
Wembanyama is one of many players benefiting from Popovich’s elite defensive coaching. With his experience, success, and mindset, the Spurs should be able to keep the coach around for a while longer and benefit from these traits during their rebuild.
So What’s To Expect?
While it’s no secret that the Spurs have a lot of significant young assets under their belt, they also have a boatload of draft capital going forward. Starting in the next draft class alone, the Spurs have four first-rounders and 2 second-round picks. This should benefit their future, seeing as they have an unprotected pick from the Atlanta Hawks this year, a team ranked 20th in ESPN’s NBA power rankings. If that pick, or their own, can go high enough in the lottery, the Spurs would at least have a small chance at drafting generational talent Cooper Flagg, which would be “game over” for the rest of the NBA. Regardless, the 2025 draft class is filled with high-caliber players in general who could only help the Spurs’ future.
It’s also important to mention the many other draft picks the Spurs own. In the next five years alone, the Spurs own 14 first-round picks, not to mention the 17 second-round picks as well, per Sports Illustrated. Having this much draft capital with an already stacked young core is dangerous to other teams.
It often takes years to rebuild a team after almost a decade of failure. One example is the Orlando Magic, who won over 45 games for the first time in over 13 years, per Basketball Reference. Despite this being a clear rebuilding season, the Spurs currently have a winning record (14-13) as of this writing, so they can complete for the playoffs as early as this season.
However, the peak of this team is what’s most important. If San Antonio’s pieces develop correctly, their coach can remain coaching through age/health, and their draft capital can turn into valuable players, there is little doubt that San Antonio is approaching another dynasty.
Published by lucarodas2026
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