NBA Announces 2025/26 All-NBA Teams
The league has officially announced its three All-NBA teams, recognizing the top performers for the 2025/26 season (all Twitter links).
A total of 100 media members voted on the All-NBA teams, with First Team votes counting for five points, Second Team votes counting for three points, and Third Team votes counting for one point.
This year’s All-NBA teams are as follows (each player’s point total is noted in parentheses):
First Team
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder (500 points)- Nikola Jokic, Nuggets (500)
- Victor Wembanyama, Spurs (498)
- Luka Doncic, Lakers (482)
- Cade Cunningham, Pistons (414)
Second Team
- Jaylen Brown, Celtics (384)
- Kawhi Leonard, Clippers (277)
- Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers (276)
- Kevin Durant, Rockets (241)
- Jalen Brunson, Knicks (197)
Third Team
- Tyrese Maxey, Sixers (168)
- Jamal Murray, Nuggets (149)
- Jalen Johnson, Hawks (125)
- Jalen Duren, Pistons (121)
- Chet Holmgren, Thunder (87)
Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic, this season’s Most Valuable Player and runner-up, respectively, were the only unanimous first-teamers, with Wembanyama coming a single vote away — he had one Second Team vote to go along with 99 First Team votes.
Doncic and Cunningham each technically fell short of meeting the 65-game minimum required to be eligible for All-NBA and other major awards, but they appealed that ruling and were deemed award-eligible by the league. Doncic would have met the criteria if he hadn’t missed time due to the birth of a child, while Cunningham fell short after suffering a collapsed lung, so both players were granted “extraordinary circumstances” exceptions.
Notably, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, who played 61 games, also applied for an extraordinary circumstances exception. However, his request was denied, so his name didn’t show up on award ballots even though he likely would’ve been voted onto an All-NBA team if voters could’ve selected him. Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and LeBron James – who had made 21 consecutive All-NBA teams – were among the other superstars who didn’t meet the 65-game criteria.
Outside of the 15 players who made All-NBA teams, another dozen players showed up on at least one ballot, starting with Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, who had 26 voting points (Twitter link).
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (14 points), Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (9), Cavaliers guard James Harden (6), Rockets center Alperen Sengun (6), Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (5), Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5), Heat big man Bam Adebayo (4), and Celtics guard Derrick White (3) all earned multiple votes, while Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg, Raptors forward Brandon Ingram, and Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley earned one Third Team vote apiece.
As usual, there are also financial implications worth noting related to the All-NBA teams. First and foremost, Duren will now be eligible to sign a contract with the Pistons that starts at up to 30% of the 2026/27 salary cap as a restricted free agent this summer. That means he could earn up to a projected $287.1MM over five years.
If he hadn’t made All-NBA, Duren’s maximum five-year contract with Detroit would’ve been worth a projected $239.3MM. Either way, the most a rival team can offer him is four years and $177.4MM.
Maxey and Cunningham are on their way to meeting the super-max (ie. Designated Veteran) criteria but would need to earn All-NBA honors again in 2027 to become eligible for maximum-salary extensions worth up to 35% of the cap instead of 30%.
Wembanyama is in a similar boat — despite making the All-NBA First Team and being named Defensive Player of the Year, he would need to achieve one of those feats again in 2027 in order to increase the maximum value of his next contract from 25% to the cap to 30% via the Rose rule. Wembanyama will be eligible to sign a rookie scale extension this offseason and is a lock to do so.
Paolo Banchero and Jalen Williams had Rose rule language in their maximum-salary rookie scale extensions, which were signed last offseason and will go into effect this July. They could’ve increased their respective starting salaries beyond 25% of the cap if they’d made an All-NBA team, but neither player did.
Interestingly, the maximum-salary rookie scale extension that the Thunder negotiated with Holmgren in 2025 did not include a Rose rule escalator, so the projected value of the big man’s contract (five years, $239.3MM) remains unchanged even though he earned a spot on the Third Team. It’ll go into effect this year and will be identical to Williams’ deal.
Finally, Edwards would have become eligible to sign a super-max extension with the Timberwolves during the 2027 offseason if he had been named to an All-NBA team this season. Because he didn’t qualify, he’ll need to make All-NBA next season in order to meet the performance criteria for a Designated Veteran extension.
Spurs Notes: Barnes, Wembanyama, Fox, Backcourt
While most of the Spurs‘ key players have never played this deep into the postseason, veteran forward Harrison Barnes has appeared in 85 playoff games and found himself in a situation during Golden State’s 2015 championship run that’s similar to the one San Antonio is currently facing.
The Warriors trailed LeBron James and the Cavaliers 2-1 in the 2015 NBA Finals and came back to win the series, with their young star Stephen Curry leading the way. Can Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, down 2-1 against the defending champion Thunder, pull off a similar feat in this year’s Western Conference finals?
“It’s a matter of saying, ‘Look, however many games the series goes, are we going to play to our standard when we look back at those games?'” Barnes told Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “The last few games, can we have said that? No. And so going into this next game, what is it going to take for us to do that?”
Here’s more on the Spurs ahead of a critical Game 4:
- Wembanyama averaged just over 29 minutes per game during the regular season and just shy of 33 minutes per game in the first two rounds of the playoffs (not counting the two games he left early due to an injury or suspension). Through the first three games of the third round vs. Oklahoma City, he has played 41.7 MPG and the Spurs have outscored the Thunder by 21 points during his time on the floor. Although San Antonio has been outscored by 38 points when Wemby hasn’t been on the court, further increasing the big man’s playing time isn’t a viable strategy, according to head coach Mitch Johnson. “The idea is there,” Johnson said with a smile, per Raul Dominguez of The Associated Press. “But, yeah, I think as we’ve seen it, him fresh or somewhat fresh is still the best. … We don’t want to sacrifice our style of play and the identity that we’ve been building since October.”
- In an interesting story for ESPN, Baxter Holmes explores how difficult it is to quantify the fear that Wembanyama’s interior presence instills in opponents and how many plays he prevents from ever happening. “Everyone likes pointing out the videos where guys drive into the paint and then just dribble it out,” an Eastern Conference analytics staffer said. “I think it’s even more than that. I think it’s whether they drive in the first place. They’ve got a menu in their head of, ‘This is what I can do in this possession,’ and driving to the rim is just not on the menu.”
- While De’Aaron Fox will be active for Game 4 on Sunday, it’s obvious he’ll be playing through pain, tweets Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “I’m the same as I was before the series started, but I’m able to play,” said the Spurs guard, who missed the first two games of the Western finals due to a high ankle sprain. “… I don’t feel great, but I’m able to play.”
- While there are questions outside the organization about Fox’s long-term fit in San Antonio due to his maximum-salary contract and the presence of rising stars Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, neither the Spurs nor Fox’s camp appear concerned about the issue, writes Sam Amick of The Athletic. As Amick points out, this is the same organization that managed Manu Ginobili coming off the bench for a significant portion of his Hall-of-Fame career.
Spurs Notes: Guard Health, Wembanyama, Fouls, Game 4
The Spurs are attempting the difficult feat of beating the reigning champions while their primary and secondary point guards are battling through leg injuries. The good news is that both Fox and Harper are expected to be available to play in Game 4 on Sunday, per head coach Mitch Johnson (Twitter link via ESPN’s Tim McMahon).
De’Aaron Fox returned from his high ankle sprain for Game 3 but clearly wasn’t moving as well as usual, writes Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. Dylan Harper, who injured his adductor in the third quarter of Game 2, seemed similarly limited, finishing Game 3 with just six points on seven shots, far less than the 15.5 PPG he’d been averaging in his previous 11 outings.
To make matters worse, Fox came up hobbling in the third quarter after Luguentz Dort fell onto his ankle while diving for a loose ball. He was able to finish the game despite the scare.
“Once the pain subsides for a little bit, I felt like I was fine,” he said. “I was able to move a little bit, so I wanted to still be out there.”
We have more notes from the Spurs:
- Victor Wembanyama is challenging conventional wisdom about how experience trumps young talent in the postseason, writes ESPN’s Ben Golliver. At just 22 years old, Wembanyama has been perhaps the best all-around player in the 2026 playoffs. However, he knows there’s more he can do to get the Spurs back on track after losing back-to-back games to the Thunder, their first consecutive losses since January. He says it starts with him being a better team player, Michael C. Wright writes for ESPN. “I feel like I’m having trouble making my teammates better right now,” Wembanyama said. “My shooting splits aren’t terrible. I need to be more of a team player, facilitate better, rebound the ball better, push their defense a little bit further and see how much they need to help with my teammates and [then] feed them.“
- One area of the game that Johnson is focused on improving is keeping the Thunder off the free throw line, which hurt San Antonio in Game 3, Orsborn writes. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the charge with 12 free throw attempts, and Johnson was unhappy with how many of those were self-inflicted. “I think probably half of them were from us being undisciplined first off the floor,” the Spurs coach said. “He got us out of position and took advantage of it. I can’t remember how he got all 12 free throws, but I know a few of them were pretty good defense it felt like up until that point.“
- Wembanyama believes Game 4 will be a good measuring stick game, both for himself and the team, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The Defensive Player of the Year noted that this series is a new experience for most of the players on the roster and that everyone can be better. “It was the first playoffs for many of us,” he said. “Of course, there was going to be hard trials. It is to be expected. But now, we’re going to see what we’re made of.” Johnson noted that the team has to adjust its offensive approach, since it spent the season having Harper, Fox, and Stephon Castle attack the advantages drawn by Wembanyama’s presence, a playing style that’s difficult to maintain with two of the three guards banged up, per Jeff McDonald of the Express-News (via Twitter).
NBA Announces 2025/26 All-Defensive Teams
The NBA has officially announced its All-Defensive teams for the 2025/26 season (Twitter links).
The teams are determined by a panel of 100 media members, with players receiving two points for a First Team vote and one point for a Second Team vote.
Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama was this season’s lone unanimous First Team pick, earning the maximum allowable 200 points after being named to the First Team by all 100 voters. DPOY runner-up Chet Holmgren fell short of being a unanimous pick, earning 93 First Team votes and four Second Team votes.
The honorees are as follows, along with their point totals (Twitter link):
First Team
- Victor Wembanyama, Spurs (200 points)
- Chet Holmgren, Thunder (190)
- Ausar Thompson, Pistons (166)
- Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves (151)
- Derrick White, Celtics (146)
Second Team
- Scottie Barnes, Raptors (130)
- Cason Wallace, Thunder (94)
- Bam Adebayo, Heat (71)
- OG Anunoby, Knicks (67)
- Dyson Daniels, Hawks (50)
The All-Defensive teams have been positionless for the last three years. Previously, each team was required to have two guards, two forwards, and a center, but that’s no longer the case. This season’s First Team leans more heavily toward rim protectors, while the Second Team features a wider variety of guards and wings alongside forward/center Adebayo.
This year’s All-Defensive squads feature a number of first-time honorees. Holmgren, Thompson, Barnes, and Wallace had never previously been named to an All-Defensive team. Wembanyama (2024) and Daniels (2025) had earned First Team honors once apiece prior to this year, while Anunoby made a Second Team in 2023.
Gobert is the most accomplished of these defenders — the four-time Defensive Player of the Year has now made nine total All-Defensive teams and is an eight-time member of the First Team. Adebayo is also no stranger to All-Defensive recognition either, having now made two First Teams and four Second Teams. White, meanwhile, got a First Team nod for the first time after previously making the Second Team twice.
There are four players across the league who would’ve earned bonuses if they’d made an All-Defensive team, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), but none of them made the cut. That group includes Thunder wing Luguentz Dort, whose $500K bonus for All-Defense had been considered “likely” because he made the First Team in 2025.
That $500K will come off Dort’s cap hit this season and will reduce his 2026/27 team option by $500K to roughly $17.7MM, since the bonus is considered “unlikely” going forward. If Dort’s team option is exercised, his $500K bonus would continue to count for apron purposes next season despite not counting toward his cap hit, and he could still earn it if he makes an All-Defensive team next season.
Besides the 10 players who made All-Defense, 15 other players showed up on at least one ballot. That group was led by Spurs guard Stephon Castle (46 points), Rockets guard Amen Thompson (46), Warriors forward Draymond Green (40), and Trail Blazers forward Toumani Camara (28), each of whom was named to the First Team on between four and eight ballots.
Clippers guard Kris Dunn, who had 14 points, would have rounded out a hypothetical “third team.” Notably, his $5.7MM salary for 2026/27 would have become fully guaranteed if he had made an All-Defensive team. Still, it’s a pretty safe bet that Dunn will be retained through June 30, at which time his full salary will become guaranteed anyway.
The rest of the players who received All-Defensive votes, including Dort and former Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley, can be viewed here (Twitter link).
And-Ones: Wemby’s Impact, FAs, World Cup Qualifiers, Okobo
Rival teams are watching what Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs are doing in this postseason with interest and trepidation, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic. As Amick details, front offices around the NBA – recognizing that Wembanyama will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come – are thinking hard about ways to combat him.
“Teams will definitely have to start figuring out, ‘How do we get through this guy?'” an Eastern Conference executive said. “So you look at it, and it’s like, ‘What do we need? How do we build our team to get better to compete against (Wembanyama and the Spurs)?’ Trust me, it’s on everybody’s mind. Teams will try to find ways that they can build a roster out to beat the Spurs, just like they are to beat OKC.”
That executive pointed to Utah’s mid-season acquisition of Jaren Jackson Jr. as a move that may have been made with Wembanyama in mind, since the Jazz now have three athletic frontcourt players – Jackson, Walker Kessler, and Lauri Markkanen – to throw at the Spurs star. That same exec also suggested that a prospect like 7’3″ Michigan center Aday Mara could see his draft stock rise as teams seek players capable of slowing down Wembanyama.
Wembanyama’s impact could even have a ripple effect on Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s trade value this offseason, as one Western Conference executive told Amick: “Giannis is a matchup solution for Wemby, so I could definitely see teams factoring that in when they’re discussing trading for him.”
Still, there’s no obvious answer for stopping this sort of unique player who looks capable of becoming one of the league’s all-time greats.
“He’s a problem from inside the half court, and there’s just no one like that,” an exec said to Amick with a laugh. “At least Shaq was human in the sense that you needed three centers to bang with him. You’ve got 18 fouls (to work with). Maybe one was skilled, and the other two could hold him up while the other guys get rest. But there’s no archetype like (Wembanyama) — no player ever. It’s a problem, and it’s going to be a problem for 15 years.”
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks takes a closer look at 20 of this summer’s top free agents, breaking down what sort of contract he’d offer each player. Marks’ hypothetical offers include five years and $180MM for Pistons center Jalen Duren, four years and $155MM for Lakers guard Austin Reaves, three years and $130MM for Wizards guard Trae Young, and two years and $40MM for Warriors forward Draymond Green.
- Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, Wizards big man Alex Sarr, and Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher are among the players included on France’s preliminary roster for this July’s FIBA World Cup qualifying games (Twitter link). Meanwhile, Serbian head coach Dusan Alimpijevic told Mozzart Sport that Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is expected to suit up for the Serbian national team during both World Cup qualifying windows this offseason, as Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops relays.
- Former NBA guard Elie Okobo has been named the Most Valuable Player of France’s top basketball league (LNB Elite), Askounis writes for Eurohoops. Okobo, who appeared in 108 regular season games for Phoenix from 2018-20, averaged 16.7 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.3 rebounds per game with an outstanding .621/.506/.883 shooting line in 24 domestic league games for AS Monaco in 2025/26.
- Kevin Sweeney of SI.com explores how new eligibility requirement guidance distributed by the NCAA could impact international players looking to play college basketball going forward.
Spurs, Pelicans To Play Two Games In Europe Next Season
May 20: The NBA has officially confirmed that the Spurs and Pelicans will face one another at the Accor Arena in Paris on January 14, 2027 and at Co-op Live in Manchester on January 17. The latter contest will be the first regular season game to be played in Manchester.
May 17: Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs will return to Paris, France during the 2026/27 season, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line, who reports (via Substack) that the Pelicans are San Antonio’s expected opponent.
The Spurs split a pair of games in Paris against the Pacers in January 2025. This coming January (2027), they’re slated to play one game in Paris and one in Manchester, England, Stein writes.
Orlando and Memphis split this year’s NBA games in Europe, which took place in Berlin, Germany and London, England. Magic forward Franz Wagner and his older brother Moritz Wagner are both Berlin natives.
Stein hears the league has targeted Berlin and Paris as the 2028 hosts of the two European games.
After going 62-20 during the regular season and dispatching Portland and Minnesota in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Spurs are set to face the defending champion Thunder on Monday in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. The Pelicans went just 26-56 in 2025/26, tied for the seventh-worst record in the league.
Spurs Optimistic De’Aaron Fox Will Return For Game 2
5:25 pm: Fox is officially listed as questionable, The Oklahoman’s Justin Martinez tweets.
12:13 am: The Spurs were playing without All-Star point guard De’Aaron Fox in Monday’s thrilling Game 1 victory at Oklahoma City, but the team is optimistic he’ll be available for Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, sources tell Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link).
San Antonio pulled off a double-overtime upset over the defending champion Thunder on Monday. Dylan Harper, last year’s second overall pick, started in place of Fox and had a stellar game, finishing with 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and seven steals in 47 minutes.
According to the NBA (Twitter link), Harper became just the second rookie to record at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals in a playoff game since 1973/74, when steals became an official statistic. He joined three-time MVP and five-time champion Magic Johnson, who accomplished the feat in 1980.
As impressive as Harper was, his performance was overshadowed by a spectacular showing from Victor Wembanyama, who had 41 points, 24 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks in 49 minutes. The 22-year-old center joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in league history to have 40-plus points and 20-plus rebounds in their conference finals debuts (Twitter link via the NBA).
Wembanyama, who was a game-high plus-16 in the seven-point win, admitted afterward that he was motivated by the pregame ceremony awarding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander his second straight MVP trophy.
“I want to get that trophy,” said Wembanyama, who finished third in MVP voting (Twitter link via Dan Woike of The Athletic).
The French star said he was understandably tired after setting a new career high in minutes, tweets Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. However, a few minutes before that he said the Spurs would have time to recuperate in the offseason if they reach their ultimate goal.
“We’ll rest in July,” Wembanyama said, per Orsborn (Twitter link).
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Named 2025/26 NBA MVP
6:52 pm: Gilgeous-Alexander has officially been named MVP of the 2025/26 season, the NBA announced (via Twitter).
According to the league, the Canadian superstar received 83 of a possible 100 first-place votes and 939 total points (Twitter link). Nuggets center Jokic (634 points) was the runner-up, with more first-place (10) and second-place votes (48) than Spurs center Wembanyama, who finished third at 569 points.
Lakers guard Luka Doncic (250 points) was a distant fourth in voting, while Pistons guard Cade Cunningham was fifth (117 points).
8:57 am: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will win his second straight Most Valuable Player award, multiple sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). The formal announcement will be made Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, just before the start of Game 7 of the Cavaliers–Pistons series.
The Thunder guard put up similar numbers to his MVP campaign from last year. In 68 games, he averaged 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists while shooting 55.3% from the field and 38.6% from three-point range. He helped Oklahoma City post a league-high 64 regular season wins and sweep its way through the first two rounds of the playoffs.
SGA is the 14th player in NBA history to claim back-to-back MVP honors and the first since Nikola Jokic did it in 2021 and 2022. Charania notes that he’s the first guard to win consecutive MVPs since Stephen Curry and the first backcourt player ever to average at least 30 PPG in a season while shooting better than 55% from the field. He also joins Michael Jordan as the only players to average at least 30 points and five assists while shooting 50% for four straight years.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored at least 20 points in every game he played this season, reaching a milestone previously only accomplished by Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. His league-leading plus/minus rating of +788 for the season is far ahead of runner-up Victor Wembanyama, who was at +682.
Gilgeous-Alexander has a chance to move into the record book alongside Jordan, Bill Russell and LeBron James as the only players ever to win consecutive titles and back-to-back MVP trophies, per Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints (Twitter link).
ESPN’s Bobby Marks points out that SGA currently ranks 34th in the league in salary, and that his current figure at 24.8% of the cap will dip to 24.6% next season (Twitter link). He’ll move near the top in 2027/28 when his super-max extension kicks in.
Jokic and Wembanyama are the other finalists for this year’s award. Although Charania’s report takes the drama out of tonight’s announcement, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press states that Jokic still has a chance to join Russell and Larry Bird as the only players ever to finish in the top two in MVP voting for six consecutive years (Twitter link).
And-Ones: Social Justice Award, Wemby, Leg Injuries, McGrady
Heat big man Bam Adebayo, Spurs forward Harrison Barnes, Celtics wing Jaylen Brown, Pistons forward Tobias Harris, and Cavaliers big man Larry Nance Jr. are the five finalists for the 2026 Social Justice Champion award, the NBA announced in a press release.
“The annual award honors a current NBA player for pursuing social justice and will receive the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar trophy for advancing Abdul-Jabbar’s life mission to engage, empower and drive equality for individuals and groups who have been historically disadvantaged,” the release states.
“The NBA Social Justice Champion will be announced during the Conference Finals of the 2026 NBA Playoffs and receive a $100,000 donation from the NBA for a non-profit organization of his choosing.”
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is unlikely to suit up for the French national team for a pair of 2027 FIBA World Cup qualifying games in early July, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops, but the former No. 1 overall pick is expected to be available during the second qualifying window in late August. San Antonio’s deep playoff run — the Spurs are set to face Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals — is the reason why Wembanyama probably won’t play for Team France in July.
- Kirk Goldsberry of The Ringer takes a data-focused look at the NBA’s significant rise in soft-tissue leg injuries and considers what measures the league could take to mitigate them.
- Hall-of-Famer Tracy McGrady relaunched his Ones Basketball League at Oak Ridge High School in Orlando on Friday, writes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. “I thought it was a great atmosphere,” McGrady said of the rowdy crowd. “Orlando showed a lot of support. I thought the guys played extremely well, played hard. … All in all, I think it was a great showing. And hopefully the crowd that was here got an opportunity to see some good basketball and understand what we’re trying to build.” Beede passes along more details about the one-on-one league, which will conclude on July 1 with a prize of $100,000.
Spurs Notes: Castle, Harper, Fox, Conference Finals
The Spurs didn’t need much time to grow into a contender. Three years after the lottery win that brought Victor Wembanyama to San Antonio, the team is headed to the Western Conference finals with several rotation players who are even younger than he is.
After eliminating the Timberwolves on Friday with a 30-point win at Minnesota, coach Mitch Johnson said his players never focused on any issues their inexperience might cause, relays Dave Campbell of The Associated Press.
“I understand the general expectations of what we were supposed to do in October aren’t necessarily aligned with where we’re at right now,” Johnson said. “We never talked about what we were going to be or what we were going to do. We just knew that we had a lot of potential and we were going to try to be the best team we could be.”
Wembanyama gets the most attention, but the Spurs have plenty of weapons around him – building the team by drafting well and taking advantage of some good fortune in the lottery. Stephon Castle, the fourth pick in 2024, led the way in Game 6 with 32 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 5-of-7 from three-point range. Rookie guard Dylan Harper, the No. 2 pick last summer, continued his outstanding series with 15 points and five rebounds off the bench.
“We’re a really talented group that plays together and plays very selfless, and we’re all young,” Castle said. “I think we can beat anybody on any given night. Us just being very selfless in the way we move the ball, it’s just fun to play.”
There’s more on the Spurs:
- At 28, De’Aaron Fox is enjoying his role as a mentor to his two young backcourt partners, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN. Fox, who was acquired from Sacramento at last year’s deadline, is trying to build on their natural talents and create a winning culture. “I want them to feel that success from as early as you can get it in your career because you never know when those things can come back around,” he said. “[I] just give them little tidbits that they can get here or there because they’re just so talented. Just giving them a cheat sheet to kind of maneuver throughout the league. I try to add what I can to what they can already do. They can already do a lot of things.”
- Minnesota coach Chris Finch admits he made a mistake by beginning Friday’s game with center Rudy Gobert guarding Castle, Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes in a subscriber-only story. “I’ll take the blame for the start of the game,” Finch said. “We flipped the matchups around. We tried to do some things there that maybe slow down their start. Allowed Castle to get hot early, that certainly wasn’t the plan. That’s on me.”
- The Spurs seem mentally prepared for the challenge of facing the defending champion Thunder in the conference finals, observes Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports. “The nature of the playoffs means that we’re going to play against better and better teams,” Wembanyama said. “And that was already elite between the first and second round. But we have the guidance. Good coaching staff, the best actually, so we can trust them.” Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman offers a series preview with a comparison of the two teams in several important areas.