San Antonio’s players and staff have heard it all before.
How they are too young. How experience — often defined by losing deep in the playoffs — is required before a team wins a title. Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls lost six years in a row in the playoffs — including two years to the “Bad Boy” Pistons in the East finals — before breaking through and winning three straight. LeBron James lost six straight years in the playoffs, twice in the Finals, before breaking through with the Heat. The same is true for Larry Bird, Dr. J and nearly every other superstar the NBA has ever seen.
So why should it be any different for Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in their first real playoff run this year?
“I mean, why not?” the Spurs’ Julian Champagnie countered when speaking to NBC Sports. “I think that we’ve been putting in work all year…
“I definitely think that we all think that we could do something special this year, and be a special group moving forward. So the way we look at it is, is there’s an opportunity at hand, and that’s to win, and we want to seize every opportunity we can get.”
It starts with defense
San Antonio believes a couple of things separate them from all those previous young teams that needed more time. First is the obvious one: Victor Wembanyama. He is unlike any player the league has ever seen, and his play and competitiveness lifted the Spurs to 62 wins this season.
However, it’s his play on the defensive end that is critical to their title dreams. Having Wembanyama hanging out in the paint, surrounded by high-level physical defenders such as Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper and Champagnie, gives the Spurs a championship defense.
“I think the difference is, a lot of those young teams, their defense isn’t where it needs to be,” De’Aaron Fox said of why the Spurs are different. “And I think — especially with Vic in the lineup — we have one of the best defenses in the league. So I think that’s something that we can hang our hat on.
“As a young team — as a team period — there are times where, especially in the playoffs, that you just can’t make a shot. And we have a team that, while we don’t go on many droughts like that period, but if you do go on those droughts, we feel like we have a defense that we’re able to withstand that.”
San Antonio had the third-ranked defense in the NBA this season, and, more importantly the fourth-best half-court defense (which matters more as the game slows down in the playoffs).
Spurs put in the work
That defense is where it is — and these Spurs are where they are — because this team may be young, but it has put in the work.
Champagnie is a great example. He entered the league out of St. John’s as a knockdown shooter, but it was Gregg Popovich who sat Champagnie down and told him in no uncertain terms his defense needed to get better if he wanted to play.
“In short, and TV-friendly [language], he told me that I have a niche, which is being able to shoot, but it’s gonna be useless if I can’t play defense,” Champagnie said. “So that was kind of the message, he pushed to me and told me to play harder, put more effort into that end of the floor. Be more physical and be more nasty. That was the word he used, nasty.”
Champagnie put in the work in the G League, which continued when he started getting a chance with the big club. That work ethic was part of the team culture. Champagnie saw the work Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell and other longer-term Spurs players put in — work he saw Wembanyama put in from Day 1.
Did Champagnie always feel that the work he was putting in on the defensive end would pay off?
“Absolutely not,” Champagnie laughed. “Man, when I first got here, I had no clue. I was going through a bunch of workouts, and I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do this.’ Like, this is a whole different step from college…
“I took it personal. I said, ‘All right, well, if I want to play, I got a guard.’ That’s what Pop told me. So I kind of how I took it, but I didn’t think that it would pay off, honestly. Truly, at first, I was like, I don’t know.”
Spurs have leaders
Playoff basketball is like ordering from a completely different menu than the regular season — the drilled-down focus on matchups, the physicality, the exposure of weaknesses that can be hidden during the regular season. One of the premises of why teams need experience to win in the playoffs is just familiarity with that menu, what to order and how everything works.
San Antonio believes it already has those guys.
“I think we are young, but we do have a lot of leadership,” Dylan Harper said. “Veteran guys that have been there, like HB [Harrison Barnes], Kelly [Olynyk], Luke [Kornet]. You know them guys have been on the biggest stage and won, so, I mean, just kind of lean on them, but also just staying true to us and not letting experience get get in the way of our main goal.”
De’Aaron Fox is another one of those veterans with a little postseason experience. What playoff lessons is he trying to pass along to the young core?
“You have to play hard because everybody plays hard. It’s a little bit more physical, the refs swallow their whistle a little more,” Fox said. “It can get into your legs if you’re not able to keep that type of intensity and even raise that intensity, and then, you know, go back on offense and still make your shot.”
There are reasons the Spurs may not win a title this year, starting with the fact that the Thunder and Nuggets are in the West and both are title contenders in their own right. Just don’t tell the Spurs they are not ready, that teams don’t come out of nowhere to win a title.
“I don’t think it’s out of nowhere,” Champagnie told NBC Sports. “I think we’ve been putting the work in. We’ve had a lot of long summers, especially this past summer was super long. So I don’t want to say it’s like out of nowhere. I think we put the work in for it. I think we deserve it.”
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