San Antonio enters the new season with the residue of a 62-20 campaign and an NBA Finals loss still sitting in the gym. The Spurs finished second in the Western Conference, proved they can carry a championship-level regular-season load, and now have to answer the harder question: whether last June’s disappointment becomes fuel for another deep run.
Victor Wembanyama remains the center of that project after raising his offensive ceiling while continuing to erase chances at the rim last season. The roster around him is deeper, younger in key spots and built to give coach Mitch Johnson more options over an 82-game schedule.
Roster turnover and the rotation questions
The Spurs added Maliq Brown, Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Tobias Harris, Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed Jr. during the offseason. Harris brings an established veteran presence, while the younger additions could compete for minutes in a group that already has considerable internal growth to sort through.
The frontcourt backup work will be worth monitoring from camp onward. San Antonio managed Wembanyama’s workload last season, and it may again need dependable minutes behind him. Luke Kornet had difficulties in the Finals, leaving Reed and the other reserve-center candidates with an opening to challenge for a larger share of the rotation.
One of the more notable staff moves was bringing Donovan aboard as an assistant. His assignment is expected to center on improving the offensive flow, while also giving Johnson another experienced voice on the bench.
Harper has a case for a larger role
Dylan Harper looks positioned to be one of the club’s most interesting rotation pieces. He was reliable as a rookie, then found another gear under the pressure of the postseason. Harper averaged 14.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in the playoffs, improving on his regular-season marks of 11.8 points and 3.4 boards.
His Finals minutes were especially meaningful; there were stretches when he was San Antonio’s steadiest player on the floor. That experience should strengthen his standing with the coaching staff and teammates.
Harper could remain in a sixth-man job, a role suited to his downhill rim pressure and developing perimeter shot. But if an injury, matchup or performance shift creates a starting opening, he has a credible path to more minutes. The Spurs see a player with star-level upside rather than simply a useful reserve.
Castle and Wembanyama already have a connection
Stephon Castle made one of the league’s sharpest year-to-year passing gains after earning the 2024-25 Kia Rookie of the Year award. His assist average rose from 5.5 to 8.9 per 36 minutes, a jump of 3.4 that led 290 players who logged at least 500 minutes in each of the past two seasons.
Much of that progress showed up in his work with Wembanyama. Castle set up the big man 130 times last season. Their 3.9 assists per 36 minutes while sharing the court was the best mark among 56 teammate pairings in which one player delivered at least 75 assists to the other.
Castle is 21 and Wembanyama is 22, making the Spurs’ primary partnership unusually young for a team coming off a Finals appearance. If Castle continues to score and create at a higher level, San Antonio’s offense becomes far tougher to load up against.
Dates already circled
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Oct. 20 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder: Opening night immediately brings the West opponent San Antonio will view as a major obstacle.
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Oct. 31 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves: Wembanyama gets another demanding frontcourt test against Rudy Gobert and Minnesota’s reworked roster.
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Dec. 25 at New York Knicks: The Spurs return to Madison Square Garden for a Christmas Day Finals rematch.
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Feb. 28 vs. Denver Nuggets: Wembanyama and Nikola Jokić, two leading MVP candidates and arguably the league’s premier centers, meet in the opening game of a back-to-back.
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March 21 at Philadelphia 76ers: Wembanyama faces Joel Embiid as San Antonio begins a four-game road trip that continues through Indiana, Boston and Detroit.
The Spurs have already reached the point where a long season is the expectation, not the surprise. Their task now is balancing Wembanyama’s minutes, settling the second-unit center spot, integrating the newcomers and giving Castle and Harper enough responsibility to turn a Finals lesson into another June opportunity.
