Welcome to the new era of the NBA: Spurs is not just Wembanyama
What the Thunder started in 2024-25, Mitch Johnson’s team is beginning to go through. With the exception that the French unicorn plays for the Texans.
The San Antonio Spurs They are the sensation team of the start of the t2025-26 NBA season. They are also a perfect magic trick: Victor Wembanyama It is what is seen, the surprise of the extraordinary, but what is dangerous for the league are the intrinsic mechanisms that cannot be perceived without investigating the fine detail with a magnifying glass.
The revolution that exists in the best basketball in the world is not with the ball in our hands. It’s in defense. And Mitch Johnson, with the whisper of Boss named Gregg Popovichhas the pieces to continue the doctrine that began Oklahoma City Thunder on their way to the title last year. Fresh legs, intensity on the front line and, of course, the monster at the end of the level, who today, near the Alamo, speaks in French.
NBA 3.0 is among us. long ago, Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors They revolutionized everything with rhythm and distance shooting from any position. Today basketball has to do with something else: intense pressure on the transfer and dizzying pace to the other side. If we add to that important options in the midfield offense, as may be the case with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams or Chet Holmgren In the Thunder, we are already talking about something surpassing. We could then be, in Spurs, in the presence of a team that breaks the predictions. It would not be the first nor the last to be a copycat of an already successful model.
San Antonio is second in defensive efficiency throughout the NBA (102 points per hundred possessions), only behind Chicago Bulls (98.6), also undefeated at 3-0, and above the Thunder (105.1), undefeated at 4-0, who still do not have Williams in the rotation.
Johnson’s team, moreover, is accomplishing all this without De’Aaron Fox, Jeremy Sochan and Kelly Olynik, absent in the first three presentations. He was also not present Luke Kornet in victories against Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors.
Spurs’ new idea works with Stephen Castle as a primary perimeter defender (his growth in this section is magnificent), and with the collaboration of Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Harrison Barnes and rookie Dylan Harper, Great start as a two-way player.
You can see, if you follow closely, how similar it is to OKC. What they do Alex Caruso, Cason Wallaceor Williams, still out at the start of this regular series, San Antonio does so with the aforementioned pieces. That intensity, with a thin-limbed big man (see Holmgren on the Thunder and Wemby on the Spurs) waiting near the rim, is a common pattern.
That said, Wembanyama is no Holmgren. It’s something else. A Wilt Chamberlain of postmodernism. Because if the opponent surpasses the first line, finding Wemby with sharp fangs is a nightmare. For the covers he places and for the shots he deflects. It is not only what is seen on the scoresheet but also the fear it provokes in rivals, which forces them to get confused, make wrong decisions and take alternative routes to the hoop that differ from the usual ones. AM850’s statistics department informs us that the French unicorn was the first to score 100 points, get 30 rebounds and make 10 blocks in the first three games of a season since blocks began to be recorded (1973-74).
It is also the franchise’s first 4-0 start since 2017-18. Wembanyama is the first San Antonio player to score 30 points per game on average in the first four games since he achieved it Tony Parker in 2008.
The explanation for this beginning is surprising, but it is logical. What works, what changed in San Antonio, is not the solitary presence of Wembanyama after a summer of hard work, but the presence of such a talent within a dynamic structure that knows how to take advantage of that advantage. It’s a crucial difference, because not everyone knows how to get the most out of a weapon of mass destruction that can do everything. Which works like 360° basketball: create from dribbling, with your back to the rim, dunk it with ease, shoot three-pointers or assist. And in defense, being, due to his size, the most decisive player in the League. If his health is not affected, it would not be unreasonable to sign him with the J award.Defensive Player of the Season.
The Spurs suffered sudden changes last season. From the departure of Gregg Popovich from the head coaching position due to health problems, to the departure of Wembanyama due to a thrombosis in his right shoulder. However, they used the teaching of Yin and Yang: in everything bad there is something good, and in everything good there is something bad. Harper’s pick, which for some could be overpopulation of the perimeter due to the presence of Castle, complies to the letter with the franchise’s general strategy. It is a perfect piece to connect the dots and complete the drawing.
The basketball that Stephen Curry once changed with distance shots, with rhythm as a genuine expression, is being modified again with more flexibility. With more polyfunctionality. The revolution is no longer in attack, but in defense. If OKC uses Holmgren and Isiah Hartenstein as background, the Spurs use Wembanyama and Kornet. The double tower reappears in basketball as a support for an ultra-intense perimeter, which confuses, suffocates and, as a consequence, enervates.
This new style will have consequences. It is no longer enough to be physically fit: you have to be fit for this style of play that is at the speed of Tron. The years will weigh more and more. Young blood to power: with this imprint, it will be increasingly difficult for aging stars like James Harden, Kawhi Leonard or Kevin Durant. We saw it in the first game of the season, KD suffered in the outcome the wear and tear resulting from the suffocating pressure that Oklahoma City proposed on the front line.
Sport is action and reaction. There is no single way to win, but the advancement that began with multi-position play today embraces the effort. It is not enough to have everything, you have to put in the maximum effort. Wide rotations, fired quads, consistent catches. Mismatch players, who do not need a first block to make a difference: shoot over if the defender is smaller or attack him quickly if he is heavier.
The era of the triple is already part of the past. Thanks to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to what the Thunder built, lives the middle distance again. Today, basketball is not marked by a dividing line: there are no doubles or triples. We have begun the era of dynamics. Defend well up, run and hurt with multiple hands. What OKC started, the San Antonio Spurs, among others, want to continue.
Victor Wembanyama He is the new Aleph of the NBA. But it’s not enough with him alone. It’s not all for one: it’s all for all.
The Spurs then reveal their new skin. From a team of the future to a team of the present.
Everything, of course, with caution. Patience, in the era of highlights and impact, is not only the most precious commodity: it is the most necessary asset that a franchise with aspirations of greatness can have.
