San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Wemby knows building a winner takes time
AUSTIN — Victor Wembanyama wants the Spurs front office to build a winning team around him as soon as possible, but he also understands it will be a “tricky” endeavor for general manager Brian Wright and Co.
“I’m eager for us to win,” Wembanyama said. “But, at the same time, we have to be patient and trust the process. Of course, it’s our job to make it happen as soon as possible.”
Wembanyama signaled he could be involved with the planning.
“More and more, I’m part of the strategy for the future,” he said.
Wembanyama’s comments to reporters came after Friday night’s 117-106 loss to the Denver Nuggets before a Moody Centerrecord crowd of 16,223.
It was the club’s third loss in a row, leaving it a Western Conference-worst 14-53 with 15 games remaining before the curtain falls on the French phenom’s rookie season.
The Spurs are loaded with draft capital and figure to have about $20 million in cap space to
work with this summer with an eye toward bolstering the roster around Wembanyama, their 20-year-old main pillar.
“We have a lot of possibilities ahead of us, whether it’s money in the bank or draft picks or being creative trade-wise,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said recently. “All those things are on the table.”
Utilizing those options correctly makes it a “tricky” task, Wembanyama said.
“I learned throughout the year more and more about how it
actually works,” he said of the Spurs’ team-building efforts headed by Wright. “It’s a big, big challenge for the front offices to not screw everything up and to build something for the future.”
For now, Wembanyama is focused on trying to pick up some more wins down the stretch while maintaining his mental toughness in the face of the mounting losses.
“You have to be as strong in the head as in your body,” he said in French to reporters from his home country. “A lot of it comes down to peace of mind. You shouldn’t worry about things that have passed, you have to concentrate on the future. It involves meditation and reflection. It’s hard at all levels, but it’s not harder than the game.”
Popovich sidesteps questions on future
The NBA’s all-time winningest coach deftly sidestepped a question about his future posed to him before Friday’s game.
Given that Popovich, 75, has said several times how much he enjoys teaching the young players who have dominated the Spurs roster the past several years, he was asked if he wants to remain their coach as long as possible, perhaps even through the length of the five-year deal he signed last summer.
“I don’t think about where I’m going to be in four years,” he said. “I think about what we have to do at practice tomorrow.”
Popovich’s contract is worth more than $80 million, making him the league’s highest-paid coach. He also serves as the franchise’s president of basketball operations, so the deal would allow him to earn out the contract even if he doesn’t coach the full five years.
While he provided no clarity about his future, Popovich was willing to talk about the challenges of coaching the league’s youngest team.
“I have to stop myself and say these guys are freshmen in college, they’re sophomores in college,” he said. “And if you don’t do that, you kind of forget that it’s going to take a while for messages to get across to some people. I have to always remind myself … how little tutelage they’ve had. It’s not the coaches’ fault, especially with the new rules in college. Guys are there for a year and they’re gone.”
Johnson’s return after illness ‘tough for him’
Keldon Johnson finished with nine points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and seven rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench Friday after missing one game due to a stomach illness.
“He thought he felt better, and I think he did feel better, but he wasn’t all there,” Popovich said. “Just energy-wise. It was tough for him.”