Last Updated on June 18, 2026 11:53 am by Mike Passador | Published: June 18, 2026

The Spurs looked ready to make a breakthrough last season before Victor Wembanyama’s extended absence changed the calculus. It ended up working to San Antonio’s benefit, as another year outside the postseason resulted in the second overall selection in the draft and a long summer for the team to get on the same page with new coach Mitch Johnson at the helm. Observers expected the Spurs to make a little noise but they ended up exceeding even the most optimistic of projections en route to a Western Conference championship.

How’d It Go?

The Spurs were able to add Dylan Harper with their third straight top-five draft selection, adding to a core that headlined by Victor Wembanyama as well as De’Aaron Fox — playing his first full season with San Antonio — Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell and sixth man Keldon Johnson. Add in strong role players like Julian Champagnie and offseason signing Luke Kornet and the Spurs were ready to keep moving forward. After missing the playoffs in Wembanyama’s first two seasons, progress was expected, but what the Spurs did was a wake-up call for the rest of the league.

They got out to a 5-0 start and Wembanyama’s tour around the league just proved that he was basically impossible to stop, especially with the bevy of talent around him after a couple seasons of draft luck and the bold move to add Fox last year. They were winning their games with ease and chose to attack regular-season matchups with the Thunder, laying waste to the defending champs multiple times. OKC got off to a 24-1 start that had everyone on record watch but the Spurs basically ended those conversations on their own with three wins over the Thunder, including 20- and 15-point wins in consecutive games. The Spurs were young and inexperienced but they were also undeniably great. Wembanyama, Fox and Castle all missed a little time due to injury but it didn’t seem to matter. The Spurs swapped out Harrison Barnes for Julian Champagnie and continued to roll.

San Antonio really found their stride down the stretch and rode two separate 11-game win streaks to a relatively comfortable standings cushion. They only lost consecutive games five times all season and their longest losing streak was just two. The Spurs went 24-4 after the All-Star break, winning 19 of those games by 10 points or more. They lost three games to Denver, including a meaningless regular season finale, by five, two and 10 points… and one game to the Knicks by an 89-114 score. Surely that wouldn’t come into play later!

The Spurs dismantled an overmatched Portland team in the first round, even missing Wembanyama for one game due to concussion protocol. They got hit in the mouth in Game 1 vs. Minnesota but responded to that with a tidy six-game series win as the Wolves were missing multiple key rotation players by the end of the battle. That set up a clash of the titans in the Western Conference Finals with the Thunder waiting for a more battle-tested Spurs team after a pair of sweeps in the first two rounds. It was a superb series though both teams were impacted by injuries, as the Spurs missed Fox for a couple games while the Thunder were without Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell. A double-OT thriller set the stage for a great series that saw a handful of blowout wins in either direction as the teams traded haymakers, with Wembanyama and the Spurs’ guard depth ultimately too much for the depleted Thunder to handle.

The Spurs earned themselves a Finals trip and a date with the red-hot Knicks and while they were dispatched in five games, the team will rue its many missed opportunities. San Antonio had double-digit leads galore thanks to great starts and crumbled each time, turning what should’ve been blowout wins into nail-biter losses. The Spurs lost the series by 12 total points and lost three of those games by a combined six points. They were one make away from completely changing the course of the series but never found that clutch shot, and the massive blown leads are a painful reminder of how close San Antonio actually was despite the five-game tally. Obviously the Spurs would’ve liked to win the title but nobody expected them to be here so soon. The sting of the Finals loss will last for a while but this team is just getting started.

Coaching

The quality of the roster and the caliber of the organization means that the Spurs job is an appealing one, but trying to fill the shoes of the legendary Gregg Popovich is no small task. Mitch Johnson got 77 games of experience last season and while there was some uncertainty about Popovich’s status going forward, he decided to step down in May. With the full-time job officially his, Johnson was tasked with bringing this young, ultra-talented squad up to speed as the rebuilding window closed. In Johnson’s defense, the Spurs were a brilliant regular season team. All through the year they were the only team who could give any challenge to the mighty Thunder and they held up in the playoffs when OKC was going full throttle after the matchups featured two different intensity levels during the regular season. San Antonio ran into a very difficult matchup in the Knicks, who had the size and versatility to contend with the unique challenges the Spurs offer.

The Spurs ranked third in net rating and were top-10 in assist rate and turnover rate. They won their games by controlling the ball and funneling offenses into the paint, where Wembanyama was able to block out the sun. It’s a bit of a cheat code but you can’t fault the Spurs for that, and Johnson certainly got a young group firing on all cylinders quickly, even with some key figures missing time throughout the year. Johnson also switched up his starting lineup, dialing back on Harrison Barnes in favor of Julian Champagnie. Young coaches don’t always have the guts to bench a respected veteran but all parties involved get acknowledgment for how they handled this situation for the betterment of the team.

The playoffs were more of a mixed bag. Johnson’s decision to change up the defensive scheme against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander helped put the Spurs in the Finals, though in those Finals Johnson was largely outmaneuvered by Mike Brown. The staggering blown leads fall partly at Johnson’s feet, as does his decision to lean on Fox as heavily as he did when Harper and Castle were both playing well. There’s a fine line between letting your players work through struggles and letting them drag everyone else down with them, and Johnson dipped a little too far over it against the Knicks.

Johnson was technically a rookie coach after all, and it’s a little unfair that his mistakes were on display on the biggest possible stage. The Finals portrayed questionable timeout usage — again, those blown leads are hard to look past — and dicey in-game adjustments, if any, but this was Johnson’s first foray into truly elite-level hoops. He was outclassed in the Finals but gets credit for helping a young team get that far even though his relative shortcomings played a large role in their ultimate demise. After one full season in charge it’s hard to say where Johnson’s work ends and the team’s talent takes over but he has most certainly earned some time to see this thing through. The nature of their elimination has clouded a lot of the early postseason discussion, but this is a team that was very much ahead of schedule at the end of the day.

The Players

Victor Wembanyama

PF, San Antonio Spurs

ADP: 3.5 / 3.5 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 3/3 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 2/2 (8/9-cat)

Wembanyama was brilliant in his third season, finishing second in MVP voting and taking home Defensive Player of the Year in a unanimous decision. The only stumbling block was a 12-game absence due to a left calf strain suffered in November and the lower-minute games that followed. When Wembanyama was on the floor, he was absolutely dominant despite missing some of the things that most elite players tend to have — he doesn’t quite have a go-to move on offense yet, unless you want to count dunking over everyone after one step — and carried the Spurs to a tremendous season. The Spurs were expected to be good but their young core proved to be ahead of the game a bit and fans were allowed to start thinking about a title run when San Antonio smoked the reigning champion Thunder multiple times in the regular season. Wembanyama finished with new career-highs in points, rebounds and FG% despite a career-low in playing time. The efficiency was a nice boost and resulted from a drastic reduction in his number of 3-point attempts, down from 8.8 to 5.5 as a great guard room helped him find more shots at the rim. Wembanyama also managed a top-3 fantasy season despite career-low output in steals and blocks, though his 3.1 blocks per game still led the league. He was elite from wire to wire and held down the top spot in the rankings at times, including the month of March when he averaged 26.8 points (.512 FG%, .846 FT%), 2.5 triples, 12.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.3 steals, 3.7 blocks and 2.4 turnovers in 29.9 mpg. That landed Wemby atop the fantasy rankings for the month, which isn’t totally shocking aside from the fact that Luka Doncic averaged over 37 points per game for all of March. Wembanyama is basically the complete package for fantasy and any shortcomings are more than made up for by the fact that he laps the field in blocks.

The playoffs were a little more up and down as Wembanyama was the unquestioned focal point of every defense he faced. He missed one game in the first round after falling and whacking his head on the court but returned with 27 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and seven blocks against an overmatched Blazers squad. He had some difficulties against a Wolves team that sported elite size and frontcourt depth but rose to another level against the Thunder, dominating the series and basically taking Isaiah Hartenstein off the floor and shoving Chet Holmgren into another dimension. Wembanyama had decent numbers vs. the Knicks but still played a part in his team’s various blown leads, struggling to score efficiently and looking out of gas down the stretch. You could speculate that Wemby was not prepared to log massive postseason minutes after just 29.2 during the regular season, but you could just as easily argue that a lighter workload early would’ve left him with more gas in the tank for the playoffs. Whatever the case, we would expect Wembanyama to keep improving for at least a handful of seasons in the future and that’s a scary prospect for the league. Fantasy GMs already have an unarguable No. 1 pick option but Wemby could end up lapping the field if he continues on his current trajectory.

De'Aaron Fox

PG, San Antonio Spurs

ADP: 41.7 / 37.0 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 47/55 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 66/79 (8/9-cat)

Fox’s first full season with the Spurs and alongside Wembanyama had fantasy GMs dreaming of an unstoppable pick-and-roll combination that was supposed to drive him way up the rankings. It all made sense on paper but an offseason hamstring strain cost him the first eight games of the year. There was reason to believe that Fox, who is so reliant on elite quickness, would get off to a slow start as a result of that injury, but he had no trouble putting points on the board. Fox averaged 24.5 points on .495 shooting in his 11 November games and it all looked to be coming together after that delayed start. Some of that was a mirage, however, as Stephon Castle and Wembanyama were out of the lineup around that time, inflating Fox’s usage. As the team got healthy, Fox’s numbers dipped. He was at 20-plus points in nine of his 11 November contests but hit the 20-point threshold only 22 times over his remaining 61 games — and five of those came within his first six games of December. Castle and Dylan Harper being so productive allowed the Spurs to dial things back with Fox, resulting in his lowest playing time since his rookie season and associated decreases in points, rebounds and steals. Fox shot it better from the field but also shot it much worse from the line, and more than anything it was troubling to see how passive he was as a scoring threat. It was a disaster for GMs that took him on the cusp of the early rounds as Fox rarely took it out of first or second gear. There were late-game flurries that reminded you of his best days but the Spurs just didn’t have to go to that well very often.

The postseason was not good for Fox, who was routinely outplayed by at least one of Castle or Harper, and often both. Fox also missed a pair of games with an ankle injury that clearly impacted him after; he averaged 18.8 points per game before getting hurt and just 12.0 points after returning. His Game 4 gaffe will haunt Spurs fans forever and he followed it up with seven points on 3-of-15 shooting in his final opportunity for redemption. The difference between Fox and Harper in the playoffs was notable to say the least but the Spurs have thus far maintained that Fox is part of the core moving forward.

Stephon Castle

SG, San Antonio Spurs

ADP: 115.5 / 103.0 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 75/127 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 89/170 (8/9-cat)

Castle got a chance to shine down the stretch in his rookie season and while the counting stats were solid, we needed to see improved efficiency before he could make the climb up to legitimate 12-team territory. He answered the bell in a big way in his sophomore season, benefiting from more time alongside the team’s best players. Castle lacks the shooting touch to make him a perfect fit as the team’s off-ball guard but he does enough defensively to make up for it and then some. Predictably, Castle’s increased role led to a big spike in turnovers, which is something that 9-cat managers weren’t exactly bargaining for, but the rest of his line moved in the right direction. If you needed points, assists, steals and rebounds, Castle was a strong choice. Punting FT% alone put him up to top-125 in 9-cat; punting FT% and turnovers launched him into the top-70. That might not be quite enough to justify his ADP in 9-cat leagues, as you were probably hoping to avoid such an extreme punt in general, but it was workable and Castle displayed crazy upside throughout the season. He had 18 double-doubles and five triple-doubles to go with 24 multi-steal games while starting in all but one of his appearances.

Castle was also great through the first three rounds of the playoffs before running out of steam in the Finals, though he’s far from the only Spurs player to wear that tag. He basically closed out the Wolves himself with a hot start and 32 points in Game 6 and was also clutch in the team’s only win against the Knicks, so it wasn’t all bad, but there were a lot of teachable moments. Cleaning up the turnovers is the big ask for Castle this summer and if he can do that, the Spurs will have a true embarrassment of riches — if they don’t already — in the backcourt.

Devin Vassell

SG, San Antonio Spurs

ADP: 97.2 / 123.3 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 120/98 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 154/123 (8/9-cat)

This is just a sneak peek of the Season Wrap. The entire roster is covered, as well as the Fantasy Star, Letdown, One to Watch and One Burning Question for this team. You’ll need to have an Ethos 360, All-Sport or NBA FantasyPass membership. Click here to learn more and sign up! Premium Access Required

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Mike Passador

Mike graduated from Boston University’s Dual Degree Program with a BA in Economics and a BS in Business with Concentrations in Marketing and Operations Management. He is a faithful supporter of Toronto sports and the Detroit Lions and is always ready to be let down. Tweet to him @Mike_Pandador, but if you badmouth Jose Calderon you might get blocked.

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