SAN ANTONIO — Victor Wembanyama says he enters training camp with improved conditioning and the experience of a long playoff run behind him as the Spurs prepare to follow their trip to the NBA Finals.
Speaking at media day Monday, Wembanyama said “my baseline has increased” despite a shorter offseason. The 22-year-old is beginning his fourth NBA season after San Antonio’s five-game Finals loss to New York in June.
His summer work included a different sporting environment. Wembanyama trained with Provence Rugby in Aix-en-Provence, France, alongside Harrison Barnes following a Spurs gathering in Paris. The experience introduced different physical demands and another view of how a team prepares together.
He discussed the value of that work in terms of movement, strength and learning from athletes whose sport requires a different kind of contact. It was one part of an offseason organized around continuing his development after the demands of the postseason.
The Finals appearance provides a clear point of reference for the work ahead. San Antonio now has direct experience of reaching the last round, along with the memory of the opponent that finished the job.
The emotional effect of the Finals loss was also part of the conversation. Wembanyama described difficulty sleeping and processing the defeat, while teammates said the disappointment remained with them through the summer.
“Definitely still with me,” Dylan Harper said, according to KSAT. “It's probably going to be with me forever.”
Stephon Castle pointed to how close San Antonio had come to winning. De'Aaron Fox described the need to rest, recover and resume work without allowing the loss to dominate the entire offseason.
Those reflections will now accompany the more practical decisions of training camp. Castle and Harper both downplayed outside discussion about the starting backcourt, emphasizing that they could contribute in different combinations.
Harper said he would accept the role the coaching staff considered best for the team. Castle expressed confidence that the guards could work together regardless of who started.
San Antonio opens its preseason schedule against Atlanta on Oct. 8 at Frost Bank Center. Before then, the Spurs will begin translating their individual summer work and shared experience of the Finals into the next season's preparation.
Sources: Wemby; Wemby Video; KSAT — Spurs media-day reporting.
