The San Antonio Spurs boast one of the best centers in the NBA, and the rest of the team wants to copy a blueprint laid out by a Western Conference rival.
The San Antonio Spurs, on paper, are the second-best team in the Western Conference behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In practice, the Spurs' 4-1 record against OKC should suggest that they are actually the best team in the league, and the Thunder simply benefited from a hot start to the season.
Of course, the Spurs still have a ways to go before they are title frontrunners, not just contenders. With Victor Wembanyama leading the charge and an elite supporting cast, the Spurs are certainly on the rise, and they look to the Denver Nuggets for some inspiration.
Spurs Are Building a Jokic-Murray Relationship
This season, the two-man lineup of De'Aaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama outscore their opponents by 13 points per 100 possessions. The Spurs' best five-=man lineups add Julian Champagnie, Dylan Harper, and Keldon Johnson to that duo, but it's safe to say that Fox and Wembanyama are at the center of the Spurs' success.
Not bad for a duo that played only six games together heading into the season!
"I think we're in a great spot," Fox said after the win over the Pistons. "Obviously, there's always room to grow. It's a little different than being like Jamal and Jokic, where y'all have played seven, eight years together."
For now, Wembanyama is largely considered the second-best center in the league behind Nikola Jokic, although the Fox and Wemby pairing is just as good, if not better, than the Nuggets' All-Star duo.
"I think both offensively and defensively, we kind of know what each other want to do, what spots we want to be in, and we're continuing to get better at that," Fox added. "But as I said before, just the way that this team operates, the way that this team plays, we could have games where you're not on the same page, per se. But, I mean, we have so many games where all five guys are on a string, both offensively and defensively, and that's when we have games that look like this, and we try to replicate that as much as possible."
While the Spurs are led by Wembanyama and Fox, the rest of the team has embraced their roles. Harper and Johnson both selflessly come off the bench, and Julian Champanie and Devin Vassell are serving primarily as off-ball floor-spacers.
Despite a lack of postseason experience, the buy-in up and down the roster should make the Spurs formidable in the postseason.