As part of her team-by-team series previewing the Rockets’ Southwest rivals, Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) spoke to Spurs beat writer Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News, who weighed in on San Antonio’s offseason moves, reasons for optimism entering the fall, and what a successful Spurs season would look like.
According to McDonald, the Spurs would likely consider 2025/26 to be a success if they increase their win total into the 40s and are at least in the play-in picture, if not among the Western Conference’s eight playoff teams.
While a full season from mid-season trade acquisition De’Aaron Fox, another step forward from Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, and a promising first year from Dylan Harper would help the team achieve that goal, McDonald stresses that the Spurs’ fortunes will ultimately hinge on what they get from Victor Wembanyama after he missed the second half of the ’24/25 campaign due to a blood clot.
Here’s more on the Spurs:
- Although Wembanyama hasn’t played in a game since February, having sat out the ongoing EuroBasket tournament, he has taken part in some full-court runs recently at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link). “Just so you know, (he) is said to have looked quite stellar,” Stein writes.
- The Spurs announced on Friday that their annual open scrimmage at Frost Bank Center will take place on October 4, McDonald writes for The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required). As McDonald notes, while there’s no guarantee Wembanyama will participate in that scrimmage, it could very well be the first opportunity that Spurs fans will have to see the former No. 1 overall pick in game action in nearly eight months.
- In a subscriber-only story for his Substack, Paul Garcia of The Spot Up Shot weighs the likelihood of a Jeremy Sochan rookie scale extension, exploring what the forward brings to the table for the Spurs, what a deal might look like, and whether it makes sense to put if off until the summer of 2026, when Sochan can become a restricted free agent. We also considered the possibility of a Sochan extension in our Spurs offseason check-in last week. October 20 is the deadline for him to sign a new contract.