By all indications, this is the year of the San Antonio Spurs great leap forward. After missing the back half of last season, Victor Wembanyama is now clot-less, in mind and body. Beyond Wembanyama’s return, the Spurs have beefed up their backcourt, adding De’Aaron Fox at last year’s trade deadline and Dylan Harper with the second pick in the draft. While most front offices spent their summer hemmed in by restrictive luxury tax aprons, the Spurs are in the midst of a cultural revolution. They could be anything.
So what do they want to be?
Even as Wembanyama immediately established himself as a brilliant defender from the moment he was drafted, he still has an elusive, evolving quality on offense. As a scorer, what makes him useful now isn’t necessarily what will make him great in a few years; the weakest parts of his game create his flashiest highlights.
Through his first two seasons, Wembanyama has been much better as a play-finisher than a playmaker. In 46 games last year, he had just a 49.8 percent True Shooting on self-created shot-attempts, compared to a 62.5 percent mark when he shoots within two seconds of touching the ball. Whereas elite bigs like Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo all generate around 30 shots per game (either for themselves or for teammates), Wembanyama averaged 7.6 self-created shots and 9.7 potential assists per game, putting him closer to B-listers like Jaren Jackson Jr. and Bam Adebayo.
Accordingly, Wembanyama was significantly more productive when Chris Paul could spoon-feed him open shots. With Paul on the floor, Wembanyama scored 28.7 points per 100 possessions on 60.8 percent True Shooting, compared to just 20.8 points on 54 percent True Shooting without Paul.
At this point in his development, Wembanyama’s skill as a ball-handler outpaces his ability to actually handle the ball. He’s graceful in open space, but he can’t threaten the juiciest, most congested areas of the court. Since the ball has to travel so far on its journey from his hand to the floor and back again, each dribble is a prayer. Notably, low-minute backbenchers like Jake Laravia and Trendon Watford drove more often than Wembanyama.
For Wembanyama, the next step is to become as adept at creating points as he is at compiling them. Splitting his usage across every and all playtypes, Wembanyama is already the league’s most varied offensive player. Despite his relative inefficiency on the whole, the individual elements of his game are astounding. Only three players shot a better percentage in the restricted area than Wembanyama and only four made more catch-and-shoot jumpers; he’s simultaneously among the 20 most prolific roll men and lob passers, per BBall Index.
Even more encouraging, Wembanyama seems to level up each season. Last year, he emerged as one of the league’s highest volume three-point shooters. In the preseason this year, he’s demonstrated some needed brawn attacking the paint.
If Wembanyama is defined by boundlessness, De’Aaron Fox has a much more defined skillset. Fox has grown into an elite scorer by being an uncomplicated one. Averaging more than 25 points per game over the last three seasons, he makes basketball look simple because his world-class speed inherently simplifies things. He has the privilege to attack the rim in straight lines; he rises into clean airspace for jumpers over defenders who’ve been forced into a permanent retreat.
In 2023 and 2024, Fox ceded the heavy-duty playmaking to Domantas Sabonis and grew into a star by shedding his early-career frippery. Freed from the administrative duties of organizing the offense, Fox narrowed and sharpened his scope. He touched the ball less, but did more with it. Swapping a few pick-and-rolls each game for easier dribble handoffs and transition chances, he saw his efficiency and versatility rise in tandem. By rejecting the constraints of point guard-dom, he evolved into an All-NBA point guard.
Fox and Wembanyama both thrive in structure, yet can’t provide it on their own. Wembanyama is at his best when a disciplined point guard can serve as his editor. Fox needs more expansive teammates so his specificity can shine. But pairing Wembanyama with Fox (and, to a lesser degree, Harper and Stephon Castle) fundamentally misuses Wembanyama.
Rather than fostering Wemby’s unique all-around brilliance, the Spurs seem determined to contort his gifts around the jagged games of lesser players. His powers are too special to be spent on absolving his teammates’ flaws, like Osetra caviar piled on H-E-B deviled eggs. The main draw of having Victor Wembanyama on your team is not that he makes it easier to cram three ball-dominant combo guards into the same backcourt, but that he’ll be one of the best players in basketball history.
As such, in their five games together before Wembanyama’s deep veins thrombosized, Wemby and Fox posted a negative net rating when they shared the court. It’s telling—or at least as telling as 120 minutes can be—that Wembanyama scored fewer points on worse True Shooting next to Fox, while Fox improved on both accounts.
Although the Spurs are clearly better than they were at this time last year, their roster seems poised to be less than the sum of its composite parts. A team with two All-NBA tentpoles, the reigning Rookie of the Year, the most exciting point guard prospect in the league and a deep, multi-talented wing rotation shouldn’t be projected to win fewer games than the Atlanta Hawks. Still, Wembanyama continues to reach new heights. The mystery is whether the Spurs can join him there.
