The San Antonio Spurs are one of the best teams in the NBA with statement wins over the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, and Los Angeles Lakers, and the rest of the league is starting to take notice.
It's still early in the season, but the San Antonio Spurs are fourth in the Western Conference with a 17-7 record. They've managed to impress all while De'Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, and Victor Wembanyama have missed time with injuries.
As if their record wasn't impressive enough, the Spurs are 3-1 against the three teams ahead of them, beating every team they've played at least once.
In November, the Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets without Wembanyama. They held Nikola Jokic to 21 points and nine rebounds, which, for the Joker, is an underwhelming game.
Weeks later, the Nuggets are still thinking about that game.
"By the way, San Antonio is really good," said head coach David Adelman, unprompted on Wednesday. "If anybody hasn't noticed, Wembanyama hasn't played. I know we lost to them, everybody, but they're okay. San Antonio's got an okay team."
While Wembanyama has missed the last 11 games, Fox, Harper, Castle, Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes, and Keldon Johnson have taken turns stepping up. At times in their careers, Johnson and Vassell were seen as franchise centerpieces, but have adapted nicely to the demotion to role players.
"So many players like Vassell, I think if they were elsewhere, Keldon Johnson, I think their roles could be so much bigger," added Chandler Parsons on FanDuel's Run It Back. "They'd get more recognition, they'd average more points, but it doesn't seem like it bothers this group. I think that's just the DNA of this franchise, this organization, and the culture that they have and that they're accustomed to, where they're all just bought in, and you kind of get that feeling when you watch them play."
The Spurs have long asked excellent players to have a smaller role. Boris Diaw, Manu Ginobili, Patty Mills, and Danny Green blossomed in San Antonio, but instead of chasing a bigger role elsewhere, they were convinced to stay--and win--with the Spurs.
Vassell and Johnson seem to be on the same page, and with rookie Dylan Harper coming off the bench, the team-first culture seems to be alive and well in San Antonio. Once Wembanyama returns, the Spurs are expected to make the leap from great to elite, and both rivals and analysts are taking notice of the sky-high potential the Spurs are exhibiting.
The Spurs are yet to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, but will match up with them three times before the month ends in the most extreme litmus test the NBA can offer.