Precocious Spurs arrive right on time in the conference finals

Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs have rapidly arrived as championship contenders.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)

— The

San Antonio Spurs

weren’t supposed to be this far along at this point in their development, entering the Western Conference Finals with confidence, momentum — and just about everything they need on the court except for significant

NBA

playoffs experience.

The Spurs aren’t concerned about everybody else’s timeline. They’ve got another

series to play soon

against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, and they’re aiming to win it.

“I understand the general expectations of what we were supposed to do in October aren’t necessarily aligned with where we’re at right now,” coach Mitch Johnson said after the

139-109 romp

past the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night

. “We never talked about what we were going to be or what we were going to do. We just knew that we had a lot of potential and we were going to try to be the best team we could be.”

Drafting Victor Wembanyama with the

first overall pick in 2023

was the most obvious step toward this moment for a proud franchise that won a collective five NBA championships over coach Gregg Popovich’s storied tenure from 1996-2024, but the way they’ve assembled a strong, smart, speedy and slick-shooting backcourt around him has proven to be a masterpiece in roster building.

Stephon Castle, who led the Spurs with 32 points and 11 rebounds in Game 6 and went 5-for-7 from 3-point range, was the

fourth overall pick in the 2024 Draft

.

Dylan Harper, whose energy off the bench was a consistent edge in the series, was the

second overall pick in the 2025 Draft

. Six of their nine primary rotation players were first-round draft picks by the Spurs.

Then there was the

trade for two-time All-Star De’Aaron Fox last yea

r, adding a steady veteran for Castle and Harper to emulate.

“They’re as coachable as anybody we have,” Johnson said. “They listen when we tell them stuff, and they get on the court and they’re just like attack dogs and they just go. I think the one thing I can give them both credit on and praise them is they don’t make a lot of repeatable mistakes.”

The Timberwolves had far more collective experience in the playoffs and overall over the Spurs, but they were the ones who made far more of those correctible gaffes.

The younger Spurs looked like they had the better on-court habits, starting and ending with their determination and ability to get out on the fast break and beat the Timberwolves back in transition.

“We’re a really talented group that plays together and plays very selfless, and we’re all young,” Castle said. “I think we can beat anybody on any given night. Us just being very selfless in the way we move the ball, it’s just fun to play.”

Wembanyama in particular matured a lot within the series, after his

ejection early in Game 4

for elbowing Naz Reid in the neck.

He came back with a measured vengeance in Game 5 and was content to play a supporting role in Game 6 while Castle and Fox did most of the damage for a machine-like offense that scored 36, 38 and 36 points over the first three quarters.

“It feels like it’s connection between each other in the first minutes of the game,” said Wembanyama, who had 19 points in 27 minutes in Game 6. “This team, whenever we’ve hit first and taken an early lead, we’ve beat them. Really, whenever we beat them it was by like 30 every time. The way they play also makes it that they get tired because they play so physical, and we try to beat them with pace.”

Even though this group has logged only 11 playoff games together, the Spurs clearly don’t look out of their element on the big stage.

“The nature of the playoffs makes it that we’re going to play against better and better teams. There was already a leap between the first and second round. It’s going to be probably an even bigger leap between the second and third,” Wembanyama said. “We’ve got guidance. We’ve got a good coaching staff — the best, actually. So we can trust them.”

Starting on Monday night

in Oklahoma City.

“Just the words ‘conference finals’ is crazy. It’s like something I heard my whole life, and now being in it is just special,” Wembanyama said. ” It’s hopefully many more conference finals to come.”