The San Antonio Spurs Have Arrived, And They Aren’t Hanging Around

A lashing opening night 125-92 win for the San Antonio Spurs over the Dallas Mavericks showed the NBA world why the Spurs will be one of the most feared and dangerous teams not only in the west, but in the entire NBA. Everything seems to be finally clicking for the Spurs after a solid few years of rebuilding, and that conversation about the future is finally becoming a reality in San Antonio.

The youth movement in San Antonio is hard to argue against being the best in the NBA, and their long term rebuild is finally coming to fruition. Having a solid crop of elite first round picks over the last 5-10 years, the Spurs young talents have finally begun to bloom into some of the best and most promising players in the league, and smashing the ball out of the park on their opening night was exactly the type of message they wanted to send out to the entire league.

Of course the player who set a crazy standard in game one was former NBA rookie of the year Victor Wembanyama, scoring 40 points, and having 15 rebounds. Everybody knows that Wembanyama is soon to be considered one of the NBA’s top players in the league due to his height, freakishly good athleticism, and all round basketball talent, however Wemby himself is trying to join that conversation now. Going 15-21 from the field, and 1-2 on three point attempts, he is playing the perfect and exact way the Spurs have been wanting him to play, and his game only one week in is looking scary.

But even with Wembanyama stealing the show, it was last year’s rookie of the year Stephon Castle who after an offseason of hearing his name in every trade proposal ever put up a very impressive 22 point game, and proved why going forward he is the future number one playmaker for the Spurs.

However aside from the success of individuals, one thing stood out massively, and something which makes this heavy win even better. Having De’Aaron, arguably their best playmaker and veteran out, and Jeremy Sochan a very solid defensive guy in the paint both out for the game, the young Spurs starting five not only managed to shut down the likes of Cooper Flagg, Klay Thompson, and Anthony Davis, but took them down easily, and shows how deep the Spurs will be this season, and how dangerous they can be even without some of their best players. It seems like the Spurs have finally found their stride and have left second gear, and for the entire western division, a new and very worthy challenger has arrived.