Give San Antonio credit—they did the right thing with Victor Wembanyama during his rookie year. They held him out of a lot of back-to-backs early on, and they didn’t make him play center, either. They experimented with the young talent around him with an eye on building chemistry, although the idea of trying out Jeremy Sochan as a point forward looks more than a little goofy in hindsight.
Now, though, the Spurs know what they have with Wemby. Not just the Rookie of the Year, but a world-class basketball force of nature. It’s not a bad idea to spend this season playing around with new parts and pieces, but the idea that San Antonio has to wait on Wembanyama’s championship window definitely warrants closer examination.
Adding Chris Paul is a great starter move for Victor Wembanyama
Let’s start with the most significant veteran the Spurs have added so far. Signing Chris Paul was a great move, and there are already viral videos coming out of San Antonio about the chemistry Paul is building with Victor Wembanyama.
There’s no doubt that the guy whose nickname was “the Point God” will accelerate Wemby’s development. The pick-and-roll has always been a Chris Paul specialty, and he’ll show the Spurs star dozens of new angles and approaches to create matchup advantages that Wembanyama can barely imagine at this point.
But Paul is approaching 40, so the odds of him staying healthy and playing 60+ games is just a bad bet. The rest of the roster is incredibly young, and while preseason projections have San Antonio getting to the play-in round of the NBA playoffs, it’s going to be hard if they don’t have more veterans to help right the ship during the inevitable losing streaks and tough times.
Harrison Barnes just isn’t enough
Scanning the Spurs roster for more veteran talent is an exercise in futility. The sole add beyond Chris Paul was Harrison Barnes, who was acquired when San Antonio used its cap space to facilitate the DeMar DeRozan trade when the Bulls sent DeRozan to Sacramento.
Barnes is a nice player, and three or four years ago he might have been a solid move to give Wembanyama some veteran help. Now, though, he’s 32, and while he is relatively affordable by NBA standards at $18 million, he’s not going to do much other than provide a minor presence from beyond the arc.
That leaves the question of where San Antonio can go to get more veteran help. It’s not an easy question to answer, but there are viable options going forward.
How the Spurs can get more veteran talent
At this point the Spurs roster is close to carved in stone. There may be a late roster-cut candidate they like, and if that’s the case then San Antonio should definitely make a move. It’s great to have cap space and develop chemistry among their younger players, but at this point neglecting Wembanyama’s potential is just wrong. Yes, he’s only 20, but he needs playoff experience more than he needs another year of “development.”
After that, the idea is to evaluate Barnes and Paul. The best case is that Paul becomes an effective mentor who can stay on the floor and provide meaningful minutes, and Barnes provides steady scoring along with a modicum of leadership.
But there are risks here. If Paul gets hurt, he’ll be little more than an assistant coach, so monitoring his minutes will be essential. Barnes has a tendency to vanish at times, which is why he’s only making $18 million, and if that happens in San Antonio he becomes an expiring contract for a possible deadline deal.
That’s where the situation gets tricky. Yes, there will be players out there who can help the Spurs, and in theory most of them would be happy to blend in with Wembanyama. There may be a trade deadline gem who’s a great fit, but the real point of the first half of the season is internal evaluation and external scouting, with an eye on making the right addition(s) going forward into the summer.
Wembanyama's potential is unlimited
Wembanyama himself will dictate this to some extent. He’s clearly hungry to win, not just develop. He’s spoken frequently about wanting to take the Defensive Player of the Year award from Rudy Gobert, and he’s more than capable of doing that. Why not give him a chance to do more?
He’s also a potentially great scorer, especially if he can become more selective with his three-pointers. That’s a player who deserves to have a second-star running mate, along with a couple of other savvy veterans to help speed up his run to dominance and make a deep playoff run.