Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Fox, Harper, Kornet, M. Johnson

Victor Wembanyama made an enormous impact in his first game back from a calf strain, helping lead the Spurs to a victory over the defending champion Thunder and a berth in the final of the NBA Cup. The star big man came off the bench on Saturday and was on a minutes restriction, with head coach Mitch Johnson suggesting on Monday that may be the case again for Tuesday’s matchup with New York.

“It’ll be something that Victor and I will continue to talk through,” Johnson said, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN. “It’s hard. He wants to play. He wants to start. He wants to finish. Wherever you put some minutes, that means you have less over there.

“We still have to think about what’s best for the team, unfortunately. That decision can’t be made in a vacuum, even though it’s a very impactful and influential decision. We still have to make sure it fits with the other rollout of who’s playing with who and how that affects others.”

Johnson confirmed prior to Tuesday’s game that Wembanyama would come off the bench and receive a similar amount of minutes to the 21 he played against Oklahoma City, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic.

We have much more on the Spurs:

• Wembanyama raised some eyebrows after Saturday’s win when he said he was “just glad to be a part of something that’s growing to be so beautiful. So pure and ethical basketball.” As Weiss writes for The Athletic, “ethical basketball” could be interpreted as a slight at the playing style of the Thunder, who are now 24-2 after having their 16-game winning streak snapped. But the first part of Wembanyama’s comment was a reference to San Antonio’s play while he was injured — the team went 9-3 — and he clarified what his ideal version of basketball looks like on Monday. “In modern basketball, we see a lot of brands of basketball that don’t offer much variety in the dangers they pose to the opponents. Lots of isolation ball. Sometimes kind of forced basketball,” Wembanyama said. “We try to propose a brand of basketball that can be described as more old school sometimes, the Spurs’ way, as well. It’s tactically more correct basketball, in my opinion.”
• According to Weiss, many Spurs players entered the season simply hoping to make the playoffs, but their goal has become more ambitious after an 18-7 start. “We want to play in the playoffs. We want to put ourselves in a position to win a championship,” guard De’Aaron Fox said. “Obviously, that’s always a goal. How many teams are true contenders? Most would say three, maybe a fourth team. But for us, we’re just, like I said, going day by day. We know with the talent that we have in our locker room that we are a playoff team, yes. But we have to continue to do the little things that help us become a contender.”
• Fox has nothing but good things to say about the Spurs, telling Marc J. Spears of Andscape that he hasn’t “stopped smiling” since he was traded to San Antonio last February. “There is just so much talent in this locker room, and guys like seeing other guys succeed,” Fox said. “That is where it starts and you trust the other guy behind you. We’re going out there and playing together. We have a lot of individuals that could go into a lot of different gyms and put the ball in the basket and play in a lot of different scenarios. But everybody is sacrificing for each other. And this [versus the Thunder] is our first game with everybody, and I think we made a statement.”
• While Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel have put up the gaudiest stats thus far among the rookies from the 2025 draft, a rival Western Conference executive tells Mark Medina of Athlon Sports that he still views Spurs guard Dylan Harper as the second-best player (behind Flagg) in the class. “He plays with force,” the executive said of the No. 2 overall pick. “He’s not afraid of the moment. He believes in himself, and he’s competitive.”
• In an interview with Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, veteran center Luke Kornet discusses his first few months with the Spurs. Kornet signed a four-year deal with San Antonio as a free agent, though only the first two seasons are fully guaranteed. “I definitely feel like it’s a different part of life and career,” Kornet told ClutchPoints on Tuesday. “Overall, I just feel like I am in a different place in my career now. It’s about wanting more responsibility, and with a generally younger team as well, I embrace being someone who can help guide my teammates since I was once in their shoes. Becoming a member of the Spurs had definitely been a personal transition for me, not just on the court, but in terms of me and my family life.”
• Johnson has the full trust of the team’s players, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News, as well as the respect of opposing coaches. “I trust in Mitch a hundred percent,” said Spurs guard Devin Vassell, who had a game-high 23 points against the Thunder. “Mitch was my player development coach when I first got here, so me and him have an even better connection than the outside sees. But we all trust him. He’s the brains of all of this.”