The San Antonio Spurs want to be the first seed in the Western Conference this season, and Victor Wembanyama has said so openly, even as the team’s coaches and players stress taking things one day at a time.
On a muggy Sunday in September at Frost Bank Center, more than two weeks before San Antonio’s media day, the Spurs’ pull is obvious. Fans are vying for a spot in the Jackals, the supporters group Wembanyama handpicked, and the competition is intense.
“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 pressure of their own. Unless they earn designation as “pack leader,” their membership isn’t guaranteed this season. One of the group’s pack leaders put it plainly: “There’s a lot of competition. Being a part of it last season doesn’t guarantee you a spot this year.”
The same logic applies to the team itself. The Spurs are not assured a spot in the 2026-27 NBA Finals, even after a shocking run last season that ended a six-year postseason drought and captivated fans. The Western Conference is a gauntlet, the East has improved considerably, and no team has reached the Finals in consecutive seasons since the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors. San Antonio followed a 28-win improvement and a Finals appearance with sky-high expectations, and the players know it.
Wembanyama turned heads before last season when he revealed the team’s goal of reaching the postseason as a top-six seed. At media day, he went further. Coming off a 4-1 series loss to the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, he said, “I couldn’t imagine better motivation.” The 22-year-old was the only Spur that day to discuss specifics about expectations for the coming season.
“We have some goals between us that we’re going to keep between us as teammates,” 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.”
Process over promises
To reach that goal, San Antonio plans to rely on the process that has defined the franchise for decades. The Spurs used that approach last season, focusing on internal improvement and daily habits to manage an 82-game regular season and an extended postseason. In their view, it is the only way back to the game’s biggest stage.
The methodology dates to the tenure of former coach Gregg Popovich, who led the team for 29 seasons. Under him, San Antonio built a South Texas dynasty that produced five championships and 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 explained that, “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.”
That mindset hasn’t changed under the new 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.”
Searching for answers after the Finals
As the Knicks celebrated their first championship in 53 years on the Frost Bank Center floor, Wembanyama stood at a lectern a few feet away, scratching the back of his head. He was perplexed by how San Antonio fell short in a series in which the Spurs 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.”
In the days after the loss, Wembanyama, his teammates and the coaching staff set out to determine why. No one has fully divulged what went wrong, but guard Stephon Castle, who is one-third of the expected starting backcourt, said the team has gained clarity. “We have a lot of clarity on why we feel like we lost and what we can do to get better,” Castle said.
Much of the focus centers on the three-guard lineup. Castle, De’Aaron Fox and rising second-year guard Dylan Harper, who shined against the Knicks in the Finals as a sixth man, played just 69 minutes together last season, including 25 in the Finals. They were outscored by 47 points in those minutes, according to research reviewed for this report. By comparison, the Spurs posted a plus-9.4 net rating in the regular season when Fox and Castle shared the floor, plus-6.2 with Fox and Harper, and plus-11.0 with Harper and Castle.
Internally, the Spurs still believe in the three-guard construction. They think Castle and Harper have the size to consistently hold their own against wings, and all three can threaten opponents as penetrators who 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, who replaced Sean Sweeney when Sweeney took the head coaching job in Orlando, will help foster the on-court growth of the three guards. 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 built on togetherness
Wembanyama returned to work quickly after the Finals, making 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 tested that idea by inviting several teammates to Paris for more work on the court, along with sightseeing and fellowship. He wanted his teammates to see where he came from on the way to becoming a generational superstar. The group worked out at Palais des Sports Maurice Thorez, where Wembanyama’s professional career began as a gangly teenager with Nanterre 92. He described the experience as touching, 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 with Wembanyama on plane rides as a rookie last season, discussing “our personal goals, team goals, collective goals [and] off-the-court goals.” In France, he came away 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 River with the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop. One day, Bryant and his girlfriend biked 32 miles. Veteran forward Harrison Barnes arranged a tour of the Louvre for the visiting Spurs.
Wembanyama kept training while his teammates were in Paris. He took Barnes with him to train with a French rugby club, where the 7-foot-4 center said he worked on his balance.
Wembanyama became the NBA’s youngest and first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year last season, finished third in MVP voting and led San Antonio to the Finals for the first time in 12 seasons. Even so, Bryant was struck by how much Wembanyama wanted to include his teammates in his offseason work.
“With a franchise like this, the biggest thing is family having each other’s backs and understanding what we stand for as a unit,” Bryant said.
Staying focused on one day at a time
San Antonio understands the challenge of returning to the Finals. Even if the Spurs play at their peak, factors beyond their control could derail their season.
Injuries and a matchup with the upstart Spurs ended the Oklahoma City Thunder’s bid to return to the Finals last season. The Indiana Pacers’ hopes ended before the next season began, when Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of that series against OKC. Injuries also derailed the 2024-25 Boston Celtics’ potential return to the Finals, and the 2024-25 Dallas Mavericks gave up their 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, who used a once-in-a-generation cap spike to add Kevin Durant to a core that had already won a title in 2015. San Antonio’s 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 can’t simply jump back to the Finals to erase the mistakes that cost them the Knicks series. Across the organization, everyone has bought in to taking things 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.”
Early-season schedule
- Friday, Oct. 16: Nuggets at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. ET
- Wednesday, Oct. 21: Timberwolves at Heat, 7:30 p.m. ET
- Wednesday, Oct. 21: Warriors at Lakers, 10 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Oct. 22: Cavaliers at 76ers, 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Oct. 22: Nuggets at Thunder, 9:30 p.m. ET
Barnes and Luke Kornet have both reached the NBA Finals with previous teams. Golden State won a title in Barnes’ first Finals appearance in 2015, but fell the next season 4-3 to the Cleveland Cavaliers. 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, including one in a Chewbacca costume under a David Robinson jersey, and plenty in green alien garb. Wembanyama and his teammates, meanwhile, continue to temper expectations for the season.
“This isn’t pressure,” Sterling said. “This is passion.”