The San Antonio Spurs made a coaching hire that could be key for Victor Wembanyama and Dylan Harper’s development.
The San Antonio Spurs have one of the most promising rosters in the NBA. It’s packed with young talent, including generational prospect Victor Wembanyama, number two pick Dylan Harper, and 2024 Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle. Having young talent is only the first step of the rebuild. The Spurs have to develop their players into stars that can challenge for the title. San Antonio has a successful history of drafting and developing players such as Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili into Hall-of-Famers.
Their recent coaching hire shows an intent to continue developing their young core into stars. San Antonio Spurs hire assistant coach who has worked with Trae Young, Tyrese Maxey and Victor Wembanyama
The Spurs are bringing a familiar face for Wembanyama into the building. Player development specialist Tim Martin has joined their coaching staff.It’s a critical coaching hire for the Spurs, whose first priority should be the development of their first-round draft picks, Harper and Carter Bryant, into immediate contributors.
Martin has worked with NBA All-Stars such as Trae Young, Tyrese Maxey, and Wembanyama himself. Maxey’s development for the Philadelphia 76ers has made him a surprise contender to take the torch from Joel Embiid in the near future to lead the organization.
Meanwhile, Young was the NBA’s assist leader last season, and took the Atlanta Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021.
Wembanyama trained with Kevin Garnett this offseason as a part of an intense summer regimen. He’s locked in on his third NBA season, hoping to make the playoffs for the first time in his career.
The Spurs re-signed De’Aaron Fox in a statement of intent: they want to win games now, even with their young core. Martin could play a crucial part in bringing the young players up to speed to support Wembanyama and Fox.
This will be the first NBA season since 1996 without the legendary Gregg Popovich as Head Coach of the Spurs. Popovich won five championships, created a dynasty, and developed numerous young talents into superstars during his time in San Antonio.
Popovich stepped down in May, but expectations remain high for new Head Coach Mitch Johnson and the Spurs. Now is the time for Wembanyama to turn talent into results.
He was on track to win Defensive Player of the Year before missing the second half of the season due to deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. Wembanyama was averaging a league-leading 3.8 blocks per game, and the Spurs were contending for the postseason.
But even in a stacked Western Conference, San Antonio needs to make the playoffs. Wembanyama’s talent is too great to be irrelevant in the postseason, especially now he’s alongside an All-Star in Fox, and three highly-touted young prospects in Castle, Harper, and Bryant.
Health will be the key issue for the Frenchman. Listed at 7’3”, keeping Wembanyama on the court will be difficult throughout the season. But now we’ve seen his talent, it’s time for Wembanyama to lead the Spurs to wins.
