Where will the Spurs turn without Victor Wembanyama?
Victor Wembanyama’s presence — 7-foot-infinity with arms long enough to box with God, able to block 3-pointers from inside the paint and finish at the rim from outside it — is overwhelming. The challenge now facing the San Antonio Spurs? Finding a way to make sure his absence isn’t.
What was initially diagnosed as calf tightness, sidelining Wembanyama from San Antonio’s Sunday win over the Sacramento Kings, was revealed after an MRI to be a left calf strain. While the Spurs declined to provide a timetable beyond “providing updates as appropriate,” the ailment is expected to sideline the 21-year-old superstar for at least a few weeks …
The time lost for calf strains in the NBA is roughly 2-3 weeks, but 1:3 cases will miss more than 20 days and 1:5 cases will miss more than 30 days.
— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) November 17, 2025
… and, given how dicey a proposition it can be to play on a strained calf, how precarious lower-extremity injuries can be for a figure as towering as Wembanyama, and how absolutely vital the French phenom’s health is to the Spurs’ present and future, you’d expect San Antonio’s braintrust to err on the side of exercising an exceptional amount of caution when it comes to clearing the big fella to return to the fray.
“Obviously, we’ve seen around this league recently, the calf-tightness thing is not something you want to take lightly,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson told reporters Sunday. “Don’t want to push it there.”
Two weeks on the shelf would cost Wembanyama seven games. Three weeks would cost him 10. Any more than that — league sources told Tom Osrborn of the San Antonio Express-News that Wemby will be reevaluated in two to three weeks, which isn’t the same thing as saying he’ll be back in two to three weeks — could, for the second consecutive season, cost Wembanyama his eligibility for year-end individual awards like Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year, as well as recognition on the All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams. (And, if he would’ve gone on to actually win MVP this season, making himself eligible for the 30% max on the rookie-scale extension he can sign this summer, it’d cost him tens of millions of dollars, too.)
Wembanyama ticketed himself for serious consideration on all of those ballots with a sensational start to the 2025-26 NBA season. Entering Tuesday’s play, he ranks 14th in the NBA in scoring, second in rebounding, and first by a mile in blocks per game. He’s on pace to become the third player since the NBA started tracking blocks in 1973-74 to average 25 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 swats, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and David Robinson — and he’s scoring more efficiently than those two Hall of Fame legends did.
Big Vic leads the Spurs in minutes, field-goal attempts, free-throw attempts and frontcourt touches per game, and in usage rate, finishing nearly 31% of their offensive possessions with a shot attempt, foul drawn or turnover. He’s the double-team-demanding, game-plan-distorting hub at the center of their 12th-ranked offense; he’s the all-consuming, all-trace-erasing black hole at the dark heart of their fifth-ranked defense.
He is, literally and figuratively, the biggest reason why San Antonio has raced out to a 9-4 start, within just a game of second place in the brutally competitive Western Conference; the Spurs can’t just replace him. So: What can they do?
Can D’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle carry Spurs?
On offense, the picture starts with shifting more shot-creation and scoring responsibility toward the backcourt, where De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle have both gotten off to strong starts.
As my colleague Tom Haberstroh recently noted, reigning Rookie of the Year Castle — who’s been ruled out of Tuesday’s game against the Grizzlies with left hip flexor soreness — has leveled up significantly as a facilitator, ranking 10th in assists (7.5 per game) and 15th in points created via assist (19.5 per game) as he took on a larger role in the Spurs offense with Fox sidelined to start the season. The 6-foot-6 Castle has used his quickness and strength to become a north-south demon, averaging 13.1 drives to the basket per game — just behind All-Stars Paolo Banchero and Donovan Mitchell — taking 40% of his shots at the rim and converting a sparkling 68% of them.
Those repeated paint attacks pay additional dividends in the form of trips to the foul line. Castle’s averaging 6.5 free throws per game, drawing shooting fouls on nearly 22% of his attempts, and has the seventh-highest free-throw attempt rate of any player to take at least 75 shots this season, putting himself in the context of contact magnets like Banchero, Jimmy Butler, Zion Williamson and Luka Dončić. A few more forays into the paint and trips to the charity stripe would go a long way toward helping San Antonio’s offense stay afloat without Wembanyama serving as the tide that lifts all boats.
So, too, would Fox reminding everyone why he earned an All-NBA selection three seasons ago, and why the Spurs gladly handed him a $229 million maximum salaried contract extension over the summer.
Fox has hit the ground running in his first five games since returning from a preseason hamstring strain, averaging 22 points and 6.8 assists in 34.2 minutes per game on pristine 51/38/92 shooting splits. That’s good for a true shooting percentage of .613, which would be far and away the most efficient scoring mark of his career. He’s also doing it on fewer shot attempts, fewer touches, less time of possession and a lower usage rate than he’s had since his first two years in the league.
On one hand, that’s an indication of Fox working to fit comfortably into a (slightly) more circumscribed role as a No. 2 option next to a no-doubt-about-it centerpiece like Wembanyama. On the other, Fox’s strong showing in his first game sans Wemby — a 28-point, 11-assist performance in a win over his old team in Sacramento — offers a reminder that one of just nine players in the NBA to average better than 24 points and six assists per game over the past half-decade is eminently capable of scaling up and shouldering a heavier burden when necessary.
“Sometimes you can be freed of decision-making when you have less options to choose from,” Johnson told reporters after the win over the Kings. “You got the big fella to [keep] happy, when Steph plays [as well], so [Fox] probably could be a little bit more aggressive tonight. Not have to play nice.”
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While Fox eschews niceness, it’d be nice to see more out of Devin Vassell, too. When playing alongside Wembanyama, the sixth-year swingman slots somewhat quietly into a complementary role, more frequently spacing the floor than getting involved directly in actions; he finishes just 13.9% of San Antonio’s offensive possessions with a shot attempt, turnover or foul drawn when sharing the floor with Wemby. When Wembanyama’s not on the floor, though, that usage rate jumps all the way up to 24.4%, according to PBP Stats — a jump of a couple of spots in San Antonio’s offensive pecking order. (A handy back-of-the-envelope comparison: That’s the difference between, say, the size of Dyson Daniels’ role in the Hawks’ ecosystem, and the size of Jalen Johnson’s.)
While the presence of Fox and Castle — and the impending return of rookie playmaker Dylan Harper, who’s missed seven games with a calf strain of his own and is expected “to return soon after Thanksgiving,” according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic — should help mitigate the loss of Wembanyama on the offensive end, remaining near the top of the league on defense figures to be a tougher task.
What about the defense without Wemby?
San Antonio has allowed just 106.5 points per 100 possessions with Wembanyama on the floor this season, a level of point-prevention that would rank second in the league, better than anybody but the smothering, rampaging Thunder. Without Wemby, though, the Spurs have been significantly more permissive, allowing 123.5 points per 100 — a rate that would rank 28th in the NBA over the full season, ahead of only the basement-dwelling Wizards and Nets.
There’s a caveat there, though. Luke Kornet — the backup center the Spurs targeted in free agency to maintain an elite level of rim protection even when Wembanyama went to the bench — has missed seven of San Antonio’s 13 games. When he’s been available, the Spurs have more than held serve in non-Wemby time: It’s only been 196 non-garbage-time possessions, but with Kornet in the middle and Big Vic on the pine, the Spurs have conceded just 108 points per 100 — again, a top-two-caliber defensive rating — and outscored opponents by 20 points in 92 minutes.
After developing into a key rotation piece and advanced stats darling in Boston, Kornet has been as advertised as an offensive rebounder, finisher and, most importantly, interior deterrent in San Antonio. Kornet is holding opponents to just 47.4% shooting at the rim when he’s the nearest defender — the sixth-lowest mark among 194 players who have contested at least 25 up-close shots, according to Second Spectrum.
“[Kornet] fits our brand of basketball,” Johnson told reporters. “It may look a little different [without Wembanyama], but we don’t have to alter our style of play.”
Johnson will need Kornet to stand tall in Wembanyama’s stead. Just as important: Even factoring in a heavier workload for Kornet than the 23 minutes per game he’s averaged thus far — the 7-2 reserve averaged 27.7 minutes per game in the 16 starts he made for the Celtics last season, and played 28 in his first start of this season against the Kings, scoring 13 points on 5-for-5 shooting, grabbing 11 rebounds and blocking 3 shots — the Spurs will need to find a way to hold fast when the backup-turned-starter sits down, too.
Bismack Biyombo got the bulk of the backup 5 minutes when Kornet was unavailable earlier in the season. They, um, didn’t go so hot — San Antonio was outscored by 26 points in his 46 minutes of work — which is one reason why the recently-returned-to-health Kelly Olynyk got them against Sacramento.
The 34-year-old Olynyk provides a dose of complementary playmaking (eight assists in 18 minutes against the Kings) and floor-spacing (37.1% from 3-point range for his career) that gives San Antonio a different look offensively; he does not, however, offer anything approaching the kind of rim protection that Wembanyama, Kornet or even a 33-year-old Biyombo bring to the table. (He has always had pretty good hands, though, consistently posting strong steal rates for a big man.) It’ll be interesting to see if Johnson feels compelled to push some different buttons tactically in non-Kornet minutes; San Antonio has played 26 possessions of zone defense in 13 games, according to Synergy Sports tracking, 18th among 28 teams that have used any zone at all.
It’ll also be interesting to see if this represents an opportunity for forward Jeremy Sochan — who has seen his minutes and role dramatically reduced after missing the first six games of the season with a sprained wrist — to reestablish his value. The 2022 lottery pick didn’t reach an agreement on an extension of his rookie-scale contract before the season, meaning he’s headed for restricted free agency this offseason. If he can turn in a strong shift as a versatile defensive piece — potentially even serving as a small-ball 5 in place of Biyombo — while continuing to make his 3-pointers, he could reassert his place in San Antonio’s long-term plans … or, failing that, mark himself as a person of interest for another franchise’s future outlook.
While the Spurs went just 13-23 after a blood clot prematurely ended Wembanyama’s second season, this year’s version of the roster looks — on paper, at least — to be better positioned to withstand a few weeks without him. We’ll find out very quickly whether that’s true: After Tuesday’s meeting with the Grizz, San Antonio will host the surging Hawks before going on the road to face the better-than-expected Suns and feisty Trail Blazers, followed by matchups with Nikola Jokić’s Nuggets and Anthony Edwards’ Timberwolves.
Break even there, and you can feel pretty good about staying in the middle of the pack in a crowded West. Slip into a slide, though, and all of a sudden the vaulted, contention-caliber ceiling that looked imminent during those strong opening weeks of the season might start to seem beyond even Wembanyama’s reach.
