After putting up a 22-60 record in 's rookie season in 2023/24, the added a couple veterans ( and ) to the mix last summer and were expected to take a step forward, which they did -- their 34-48 mark wasn't enough for play-in contention, but it represented a 12-game improvement on the prior season.
Simply looking at the Spurs' record, however, undersells what an eventful year it was in San Antonio, for better or worse.
Just a couple weeks into the season, longtime head coach suffered a medical incident later revealed to be a stroke, resulting in assistant taking the reins for the rest of the year. Although he held out hope of eventually returning to the Spurs' bench, Popovich ultimately determined that it wouldn't be possible and formally stepped down from the role at season's end. The 76-year-old will remain with the organization as president of basketball operations, but Johnson is now the permanent head coach.
Nearly three months after Popovich suffered his stroke, word broke that the Kings were attempting to trade De'Aaron Fox and that he had given Sacramento a one-team wish list -- the Spurs were the only team on it. San Antonio isn't exactly Los Angeles or Miami, so Fox's push to join the Spurs raised some eyebrows, reflecting the impact that Wembanyama has already had on the franchise.
It seems safe to assume that if the 2024 Rookie of the Year weren't a Spur, Fox wouldn't have been looking to become one either, but the leverage he exerted ahead of the trade deadline put San Antonio in position to acquire him for a pretty reasonable price. The Spurs didn't give up any of their top rotation players in the deal and surrendered just one of their own draft picks, a 2027 first-rounder. That leaves them plenty of ammo if they want to take another major swing on the trade market going forward.
Finally, in the days following the All-Star Game, the Spurs announced that Wembanyama would miss the rest of the season after having been diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. It was a scary development, given that blood clotting issues have cut NBA careers short in the past. There was optimism in San Antonio, however, that Wembanyama's DVT was detected early enough to avoid major complications and that it should be an isolated incident.
