Building Around Victor Wembanyama Will Take Discipline and Patience

The Spurs must not rush their rebuild, even if Wembanyama is already a star.

Apr 12, 2024; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots over / Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

Going through any sort of NBA rebuild is immensely difficult, to the point where numerous general managers try to avoid it, as to not deal with the constant headaches of going through a process that takes half a decade, if not more.

The San Antonio Spurs, however, have every reason to go gleefully into their process. We all know why.

With the presence of Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs have the golden ticket. Build around him the right way, and they could be looking at a competitive window of 15 seasons, pending health.

So, what is the right way?

Outside of the obvious - that the players the team puts around Wembanyama must be able to pass, shoot, and defend as to optimize the 20-year-old - there should be a rule in place for this summer.

Don't panic.

Some teams tend to go all-in too quickly, and they end up pairing up a young player with an in-prime veteran, who later ages out which leaves them in a suboptimal situation.

The Spurs should, under no circumstances, go into the 2024 and recklessly sign, or trade for, stars that are already 26-27 years old. It would defeat the entire purpose.

Because here's the thing.

Wembanyama will more than likely be a supermax player, who will earn 30% of the salary cap, and later 35% of it.

The Spurs, in a pursuit of optimizing quality, will more than likely trade their draft pick arsenal down the road, as to field as many quality players as possible.

In short, the Spurs will eventually get capped out and run out of assets. That's the way this works. You can't justify to a fan base that you were a few wins away from a title, but you wanted to preserve your draft picks. It won't go all over well.

And by going all-in on a veteran, who will age out years before Wembanyama, you create an enormous problem, because how will you find another secondary guy with no picks and no cap space?

The Milwaukee Bucks are currently going through that, as both Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard are older than Giannis Antetokounmpo. Both are trending downwards, while Antetokounmpo can probably sustain his level of prime play for another 3-4 years.

The Spurs should not want to do that. If anything, if Wembanyama becomes the oldest member of their future core, that wouldn't be a bad thing. His younger co-stars would help him extent his prime years, by not aging out ahead of him.

Now, this doesn't mean the Spurs shouldn't say "Please and thank you" if they get a chance to dramatically improve, but it shouldn't be at all costs.

If, say, Luka Dončić - who is five years older than Wembanyama - wants to join the Spurs organization in 2026, you accept those terms because the level of quality of Dončić is so high, you'll presumably win at least a few titles before Dončić begins to slow down.

But if the secondary star is Trae Young, or someone in that star tier, the Spurs shouldn't jump at it just to add a name.

Remember, the Spurs have Atlanta's 2025 selection, and it's fully unprotected. If the Hawks struggle again next season - which isn't out of the realm of possibility - San Antonio could be in possession of an extremely juicy selection. Heck, the Hawks could win the lottery and gift away Cooper Flagg. That scenario is currently a possibility - albeit farfetched.

My overall point is this: It can be tempting to add prime talent to pair with Wembanyama for next season, particularly as the guy might make All-NBA first team and win Defensive Player Of the Year if his potential is any indication.

But the Spurs must maintain their patience, at least this summer. With a draft class that has overarching question marks, and a free agent pool that's fairly weak, San Antonio must resist cashing in assets on external players.

Use the draft picks. Use the cap space. Don't relinquish anything of substance, at least not until the right fit is made available.

Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.

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