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Where do the San Antonio Spurs go from here? Victor Wembanyama's young team ahead of schedule by making the finals, shocking the world by coming back from 3-2 down to eliminate the previously defending champion Thunder, but then absolutely wetting themselves and blowing it when the stakes were at their highest on the biggest stage in basketball in the finals. The San Antonio Spurs led for more than 72% of the finals and somehow only managed to win one game. They just whether you want to call it experience, youth, whatever, they were not composed enough. They didn't have the composure, the intestinal fortitude, the basketball IQ, a combination of all those things to close out forget four games, to close
out two games like in this series. Um there it was a comedy of errors from start to finish. De'Aaron Fox was a disaster. We touched on that in a previous episode and yet continued to get clutch minutes, uh including when Wembanyama was on the bench at one point. I didn't really understand that. There was a time late in game five when Devin Vassell grabs a defensive rebound and with no challenge or Nick around him whatsoever, bobbles it instead of coming down with it cleanly. That's a turnover and ends also ends with Vassell committing a three-point attempt foul that helped the Knicks in their comeback. Then the Knicks failed to foul Mitchell Robinson when they could have sent him to the free throw line and instead gave Mike Brown a
chance to call timeout and get Mitchell Robinson off the floor. I mean, the hits kept coming. Dylan Harper leaves a layup short in transition. Wembanyama gets bullied by Robinson for an offensive rebound. Just there were so many examples of the Spurs just straight up not being ready for this. And even head coach Mitch Johnson, who had a great year, good young coach, um made some lineup decisions and substitution pattern decisions and honestly even some out of timeout play calls that didn't make a lot of sense. Actually made no sense. So, he's going to wear some of the blame, too. And again, this gets us back to the question I asked at the beginning of the video, which is where do the Spurs go from here? So,
obviously, they are still ahead of schedule, even though the lights proved too bright on the biggest stage. Um Wembanyama wore down, the Spurs offense looked out of sorts every time things got dicey. But, you can look at this team and look at just how good Wembanyama is, and probably say they can run it back as presently constructed, and hope that another year of seasoning and the lessons learned from playoff heartbreak will get them over the hump. And that's on that's not a bad thought and a bad strategy. Like, Wemby is that good. He's probably going to enter next year as the MVP favorite, and deservedly so. He might be the best player on the planet by the time next season tips off.
Uh Dylan Harper, obviously, we know how good he can be. And if you don't know the playoffs and even the finals when he was probably San Antonio's best player and their most composed, most poised player. Dylan Harper is on the verge of superstardom. Stephon Castle is already one of the best two-way guards in the league. I think Carter Bryant's going to get a lot better. So, the Spurs are going to be good. Um but look, Oklahoma City's not going away. In fact, they're if they're healthy, they're probably still better than the Spurs. And the Spurs kind of caught a break by Jaylen Williams and AJ Mitchell and some of those Thunder players being beat up in the Western Conference Finals. Um the Knicks, as I
mentioned in the previous episode, just won the title and just beat the Spurs in five games, aren't going away. Uh the West is going to continue to be as unforgiving as ever. So, nothing should be taken for granted, and though the Spurs could just rely on the status quo and their young guys developing and getting right back there, they cannot rest on their laurels. You know, this kind of reminds me of when LeBron James dragged the Cavs to the Finals in 2007. And much like that spring run of 2007, I think Victor Wembanyama's 2026 run, just like the 2007 run was the beginning of the LeBron era in the sense that was the beginning of LeBron really becoming the best player in the world and holding that title for a long time,
I think what we saw in the spring of 2026 in dragging the Spurs to the finals was the beginning of the Wemby era. But if you remember, the 2007 Cavs got swept by the Spurs in the finals. And even though that was the beginning of the LeBron era in a lot of ways, LeBron didn't win a title for another 5 years and had to switch teams before doing that. And again, I'm I'm not that's not going to be the case with Wemby, I don't think. And James' Cavs were not set up anywhere near as well as Wemby's Spurs currently are with Harper and Castle and all those guys. But again, they still just can't rest on their laurels. The Spurs are built to sustainably contend better than any team
outside of Oklahoma City, but that doesn't mean they will, you know, just be handed a championship. Their general manager Brian Wright has to sniff around every prized trade target. And yeah, at least leaves no stone unturned and that includes Giannis Antetokounmpo and free agent target. And I think this is where it gets back to that guy I was talking about in 2007, LeBron James. LeBron, as we know, is a free agent and you know, has to make a decision whether he's going to play, whether he's going to retire. I still think he's going to keep playing and I still think the Lakers make the most sense, but the Spurs have some financial
flexibility. I mean, they could, you know, they could give LeBron maybe 20 plus million if they make some moves to clear up a little bit more cap space, but they could also get to the cap and then use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which is going to be around $15 million to put themselves in a pretty competitive um position in terms of the offers LeBron James will have in front of him. And if the Spurs are in a competitive position in comparison to some of the other offers LeBron has in front of him, and you have the chance to play with a Victor Wembanyama, and you have as clear a chance as you're going to get to contend for a title. If you're LeBron James and you're looking at your options this summer, and you're looking at a
Spurs team that could use some front court help beside Wembanyama, that could use um another forward, a legit forward, a guy who can, you know, even play some power forward, all due respect to uh Champagnie, who was a good three-point shooter and was great for them, but I think they still need um some reinforcements in the front court with Wemby. Things are starting to line up where it makes a lot of sense for the Spurs to be one of the teams, if not the most aggressive team, in on LeBron. But again, whether it's LeBron in the free agent market, whether it's at least kicking the tires on a Giannis or another big name in the trade market, the Spurs need to stay aggressive and be aggressive and not just rest on their
laurels and assume that, you know, youth and seasoning and all these things will kind of come together and get them over the hump next year or the year after. It doesn't always work like that, and just ask those 2007 Cavs, who again, I admit weren't set up as well. Now, before we go, and I again, I know I've touched on this in another video, but it needs to be repeated. If there's one long-term concern the finals highlighted, it's De'Aaron Fox and that damn contract of his. Because the two-time All-Star and former Clutch Player of the Year was by far San Antonio's worst decision-maker and least trustworthy guard, despite their guard room being a room of young guys, when he was supposed to be the
adult in the room and the better decision-maker and the offensive caretaker. That is not how it played out. Castle, Harper are probably better than Fox already. Not probably, they are better than Fox already, especially if he's going to be making the decisions he was making in the finals. And when you consider that he was their least untrustworthy guard, that is so unsettling for a Spurs team that is set to pay him roughly $222 over the next 4 years. That extension only kicks in next season. It's worth about 30 to 32% of the salary cap over the next 4 years. The Spurs are young enough and cheap enough to overcome one big negative value contract for now, but that albatross of a deal could seriously
complicate things for San Antonio down the road as they start having to pay some of these other young guys. And that is another reason why I think they should get aggressive now and try to really drive this thing home in the next year or two while some of these other guys are still on rookie scale contracts because you know, once Wemby's extension kicks in, you know, his inevitable extension, and then they got to pay Kessel and Harper, and then you got Fox making 30 to 32% of the cap. It's going to be harder at that point to kind of fill in the gaps and plug the holes um and get better along the margin. So, I think the Spurs should be looking to do it right now while they have this opportunity. And the more I think about
it, the more LeBron James in free agency might make the most sense because you don't have to mortgage any of your future to do it. You don't have to break the bank to do it most likely. So, don't be surprised if this finals loss and the way they blew it and the heartbreak that Wemby and the Spurs and San Antonio are feeling right now perhaps leads to a really unlikely union or what we thought would have been an unlikely union a couple weeks ago between the Spurs and LeBron James, who of course has history, uh finals history against San Antonio, those two epic series, Miami versus San Antonio, uh a third finals series against San Antonio back in 2007, which I mentioned his Cavs got swept by San
Antonio, and then we obviously know the relationship and the admiration that exists between LeBron James and Gregg Popovich, who is, you know, the unofficial El Jefe in San Antonio still. So, I think that's a really interesting subplot that might have come out of the Spurs blowing the finals the way they did. Anyway, those are my thoughts on where the Spurs go from here. Don't forget to let us know your thoughts in the comment section about what's next for the Spurs, whether that's LeBron James, Giannis, maybe someone I haven't even mentioned or thought of to get them over the hump and to get Victor Wembanyama that first title. You can follow all of my content and all of our
content in here at Score on the Score app, so don't forget to download the Score app. Follow us on all of our social channels. You know, the NBA season is done, but between the draft and free agency and trades and trade rumors, there's still a lot to follow, so making sure you're doing that on our social channels. If you liked and want more video content like this, make sure you're liking all of those videos and that you're subscribed to this YouTube channel. Don't forget to click the bell so you get notifications when new content emerges. For From the Logo, my name is Joseph Cachero. We'll catch you next time.
