IT'S A MUGGY Sunday in September at Frost Bank Center, and San Antonio Spurs media day is still a little more than two weeks away.
As the sun peeks through the arena's east entrance, condensation trickles down the floor-to-ceiling windows, a testament to the 86% humidity outside and similar to the pressure cooker inside the building for fans vying for a spot on Victor Wembanyama's official handpicked Spurs supporters group: the Jackals.
"This is something that hasn't been done to this level," said Aidan Sterling, president of the Jackals. "All the people who weren't Jackals last year, all the new guys, I know there's nerves amongst them."
Jitters would set in for some of the returning Jackals, too. Because unless they earned designation as "pack leader," membership isn't guaranteed this season, just like the Spurs aren't assured a spot in the 2026-27 NBA Finals after last season's shocking run that ended a six-year postseason drought and captivated fans.
"There's a lot of competition," said one of the Jackals' pack leaders. "Being a part of it last season doesn't guarantee you a spot this year."
It's a reality the Spurs understand all too well when measuring prospects for the upcoming season against the gauntlet that is the NBA's Western Conference, not to mention a vastly improved East or the fact that no team has advanced to the Finals in consecutive seasons since the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors. It's why Wembanyama and the rest of the squad tread carefully when discussing the sky-high expectations thrust upon the club in the wake of a 28-win improvement and Finals appearance. Wembanyama turned heads going into last season when revealing the team's goal of advancing to the postseason as a top-six seed.
Then, at September's media day, Wembanyama mentioned, "I couldn't imagine better motivation" coming off a 4-1 series loss to the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. The 22-year-old was the only Spur that day to openly discuss specifics regarding expectations for the upcoming season.
"We have some goals between us that we're going to keep between us as teammates," Wembanyama said. "We won the West last year. We don't want to do anything less this year. We want to be the first seed, and then we want to keep fighting for this top spot."
To do that, San Antonio plans to lean on process to spin success the way it has done for decades. It's the approach the Spurs used last season, focusing on internal improvement and the day-to-day to help them manage an 82-game regular season and an extended postseason.
In their minds, that's the only way to return to the game's grandest stage.
It's a methodology dating to former coach Gregg Popovich's 29-season tenure in which San Antonio established a South Texas dynasty that churned out five titles and a record-tying run of 22 consecutive playoff appearances.
At Pop's final media day as head coach during Wembanyama's second season, the Hall of Famer explained that, "even when we were a championship-caliber team, we never said we're going to win this many games. It was never a point of discussion."
It still isn't, even with a new regime calling the shots.
"Our expectation is to continue to try to improve and be the best version of this team we can be," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. "The expectations are kind of like big games, right? There's added enthusiasm, excitement, criticism, opinion. I've been on both sides of it now in this league, and I'll take the expectations."
AS PANDEMONIUM ERUPTED on the Frost Bank Center floor when the Knicks celebrated their first championship in 53 years, Wembanyama stoically scratched at the back of his head at a lectern just a few feet away, perplexed by how San Antonio fell short in a Finals series in which the Spurs held double-digit leads in every game.
"[All] five games this series had the same scenario," Wembanyama said. "[It was surprising] how relentless we were in our mistakes, and [how] they were in punishing them."
In the days that followed their loss, Wembanyama, his teammates and the coaching staff set upon the task of finding out why as they headed into the summer. Yet no one is willing to divulge exactly what they learned went awry in the Finals.
"We have a lot of clarity on why we feel like we lost and what we can do to get better," said Spurs guard Stephon Castle, who is one-third of the Spurs' expected starting backcourt.
Castle, De'Aaron Fox and rising second-year guard Dylan Harper, who shined against the Knicks in the Finals as a sixth man, played just 69 minutes together last season, including 25 in the Finals, and were outscored by 47 points in those minutes, according to ESPN Research. By comparison, the Spurs had a plus-9.4 net rating when Fox and Castle shared the floor in the regular season, plus-6.2 with Fox and Harper, and plus-11.0 with Harper and Castle. Internally, the Spurs have faith in the three-guard construction, believing Castle and Harper possess the size to consistently hold their own against wings. All three threaten opponents as penetrators able to drive into the paint at will.
"We're very fortunate to have such a dynamic roster where you can really get creative in terms of puzzle pieces and how you want to build out the puzzle," Johnson said. "We saw it at times with the three guards in addition to what you can do around Victor. ... There's definite growth for those three guys just in terms of playing off each other and continuing to complement each other."
New lead assistant Billy Donovan, who replaced Sean Sweeney when he took the head coaching job in Orlando, will be charged with fostering the on-court growth of the three guards when they're on the floor together. During the few brief portions of practice open to media, Donovan was working with Fox, Castle and Harper on the floor at the same time.
"It's been great," Fox said. "One thing we've talked about is him being able to coach three guards at the same time. When he was [head coach] in OKC, he had Dennis [Schroder], Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] and [Chris Paul]. So, he's been able to make it work. That team wasn't supposed to go to the playoffs at the time and then ended up playing well because they figured it out. That's one thing he's bringing to us."
WEMBANYAMA WASTED NO time jumping back in the lab after San Antonio's Finals loss and looked to make the most of the shortest offseason of his young career. In addition to working with Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon for the second consecutive summer, Wembanyama and several Spurs, including free agent addition Tobias Harris, visited Fox for workouts at his home gym outside Houston.
"We had a long season, but you don't want to go the entire summer without being able to be around your teammates and getting in the gym together," Fox said. "Just being able to be around each other, I think, is big. We have a group of guys that like being around each other."
Wembanyama tested that notion in August by inviting several teammates to Paris for more work on the court, in addition to sightseeing and fellowship. Wembanyama wanted his teammates to know where he came from to get to where he is now as a generational superstar.
So, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and his teammates worked out at Palais des Sports Maurice Thorez, where Wembanyama's professional basketball career began as a gangly teenager with Nanterre 92. Wembanyama described the time with his teammates as touching, emotional even.
"They were willing to make this trip, and they were also curious about what I wanted to show them," Wembanyama said. "So it matters because these people matter to me. This place matters to me. Having the two of them together is kind of the same as when family comes to visit here."
Second-year forward Carter Bryant sat with Wembanyama on plane rides as a rookie last season, discussing "our personal goals, team goals, collective goals [and] off-the-court goals." He said he enjoyed the fellowship in France with his teammate, coming away impressed by how far Wembanyama has come, and how he has maintained humility, which has helped him to grow as a leader.
"[It was big] for us to take the time out of our summers after we had been together longer than anybody, then come to his home and for him to educate us about where he's from, [to] just be around him in his element," Bryant said. "For him to get to that point and come back to where he started and then have the people around him that are like, 'Yo, next year we're going to take that next step.' Not too many people get that experience."
In between the work on the court and deep conversations about what took place during the Finals, the Spurs in Paris broke bread together on multiple occasions, including one dinner on a riverboat on the Seine River with the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop. During the visit to Paris, Bryant and his girlfriend biked 32 miles one day. Veteran forward Harrison Barnes even set up a tour of the Louvre for the visiting Spurs.
Wembanyama continued his summer work while his teammates visited Paris by taking Barnes with him to train with a French rugby club. There, the 7-foot-4 center said he worked to improve his balance.
So, even after a season in which Wembanyama became the NBA's youngest and first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, finished third in MVP voting and led San Antonio to the Finals for the first time in 12 seasons, Bryant couldn't help but marvel at Wembanyama's insistence on involving his teammates in his offseason work.
"With a franchise like this, the biggest thing is family having each other's backs and understanding what we stand for as a unit," Bryant said.
SAN ANTONIO UNDERSTANDS the challenge ahead of returning to the Finals. Even if the Spurs consistently play at their peak, forces beyond their control could derail everything.
Injuries and the matchup against the upstart Spurs stopped the Oklahoma City Thunder last season from returning to the Finals. The Indiana Pacers' bid for a return ended before the next season even began with Tyrese Haliburton tearing his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of that series against OKC. Injuries also slammed the brakes on the 2024-25 Boston Celtics' potential return to the Finals, while the 2024-25 Dallas Mavericks vanquished their prospects by trading away their best player, Luka Doncic.
The last team to win the title after losing in the Finals the previous year was the Warriors, who used a once-in-a-generation cap spike to add Kevin Durant to a core that had already won a title in 2015. The Spurs' only notable free agent signing was Harris, a 15-year veteran who has never been beyond the second round of the playoffs.
Still, the Spurs know they can't just jump straight back to the Finals to make up for the mistakes that cost them the series against the Knicks. Throughout the entire organization, everyone has bought in to the idea of taking everything one step at a time -- the same approach they used last season.
"It's human nature, right," Spurs forward Devin Vassell said. "You want to be back in that situation, but you can't skip a day. You can't skip training camp. You can't skip the preseason. You can't skip opening night. You can't skip the lone back-to-backs. You can't sit here and snap your fingers [and] you're back in the Finals. It just doesn't work like that. Nothing is guaranteed. So, we've got to keep implementing what we were doing last year, stuff that carried over and just building good habits. We can't fast forward anything. So, just take it day by day."
Veterans Barnes and Luke Kornet advanced to the NBA Finals at previous stops. Golden State captured a title in Barnes' first Finals appearance (2015) but fell the next season 4-3 to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Kornet, meanwhile, played for the Celtics in the 2022 Finals, which the Warriors won in six games, and returned in 2024, when the Celtics beat the Mavericks in five games to end a sixteen-year title drought, three years longer than San Antonio's current titleless run.
"For us, it's a matter of focus that we have every single day in terms of what's our standard we're setting for ourselves and comparing it against that," Barnes explained. "I don't think it's one of those things where you simply carry momentum from one season to the next. You have to come back and start the journey from day one again.
"I do think there's something that sharpens your focus, like shared heartbreak. And mind you, health is always a major factor. Those things are out of your control. But for the things that are in your control, having that experience helps you frame how you approach every single day."
Several fans at the Jackals' tryouts could relate, showing their dedication in front of Sterling in a Chewbacca costume underneath a David Robinson jersey, and, of course, green alien garb.
Meanwhile, San Antonio's alien, Wembanyama, and his teammates continue to temper expectations for the season.
"This isn't pressure," Sterling said. "This is passion."