How the Spurs went from Wemby lottery winners to NBA Finals threats in 3 decisions

It may only be Victor Wembanyama's first playoff run, but the San Antonio Spurs look like they don't need to pay their dues and are ready to win an NBA Championship. They lost Game 2 against OKC, but going home with the series at 1-1 against the defending champion means the Spurs are way ahead of schedule.

A lot of this has to do with Wembanyama, who is only 22 years old, looking like the best player in the world. But basketball is a team sport. No one player, no matter how great they may be, can do it on their own. Teams win NBA titles, not individual players. And to their credit, the Spurs' front office has done an excellent job building a strong support system around their generational star.

Here are three great moves that brought them to this point, outside of the lucky bounce that gifted them Wembanyama.

An eye for the future

When the Spurs decided to pair Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, and De'Aaron Fox, many people (myself included) worried about their fit. This is mainly because they seemed to have a redundant skill set and lacked in two major areas: size and spacing.

Good thing the people running the Spurs are a lot smarter than some journalist who has never been part of an NBA organization. They had the foresight to see the direction the game was going in. In the postseason, spacing/shooting has become overrated. It is more about having sturdy players who can deal with the excess physicality that is allowed in postseason basketball.

Castle and Harper are improving as shooters, but what really stands out about them is how impressive their frames are and how good they are at absorbing contact and maintaining control of the ball and their bodies. Also, despite them being "guards," both of the are pretty big dudes (Castle is 6'6 with a 6'9 wingspan, Harper is 6'6 with a 6'10.5 wingspan).

They also understood the unique advantages that having Wembanyama presents. It doesn't matter that you have a bunch of below average shooters on the floor because, no matter how congested the paint is, Wembanyama will rise up and catch lobs over pretty much anyone. And playing three guards at once isn't as detrimental to your paint protection when you have the ultimate rim guardian in Wembanyama manning the middle.

Hiring Mitch Johnson

It can be hard to resist the urge to go big name hunting when it comes to a head coaching search. And I'm sure the Spurs would have had no problem attracting accomplished people with Wembanyama on the roster and the opportunity to be the successor to arguably the greatest coach in NBA history available to whoever took the job.

Fortunately, the Spurs exercised great discipline when it came to filling this role. Mitch Johnson spent six years learning from Gregg Popovich before ultimately filling in for him after a medical emergency five games into the 2024-25 NBA Season.

Johnson had absolutely no pedigree as an NBA coach before stepping in as the interim head coach. This sort of mystery can be scary. But he knows all of Popovich's teachings and all the central tenets that have made this Spurs organization so sound for the last three decades. And now, he is a finalist for the 2026 Coach of the Year (COY) award.

Getting a strong backup

One thing the Denver Nuggets have never really been able to do with Nikola Jokić is find a strong backup to help occupy the times that The Joker can't be on the floor. Fortunately, Jokić has been incredibly durable for most of his prime. Still, there have been instances where not having a good backup center behind Jokić has bit them in the butt.

The Spurs learned the lesson the Nuggets are still trying to solve and made sure to prioritize that position this past offseason by signing Luke Kornet to a four-year, $41 million contract.

Kornet has done a great job of allowing the Spurs to be conservative with Wembanyama's minutes (he averaged just 29.1 minutes per game during the regular season), and donning the mantle of starting center when the 7-foot-4 Frenchman was injured/ramping back up (Kornet logged 25 starts this season). And while teams are definitely been more comfortable attacking the paint when Kornet is on the floor instead of Wembanyama, he is still doing a great job of altering their shots (as evidenced by the tweet above).

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