Revisiting laughably wrong Spurs preseason predictions that never had a shot

Now that the regular season is officially over, we can finally look back at all of the doubters the 62-20 Spurs had before the 2025-26 campaign kicked off and laugh. The talent on this team is immense, and while media members will use that fact to penalize Victor Wembanyama's MVP case now, there weren't many believers before the year began.

The Spurs 3-headed guard rotation wasn't supposed to work

This criticism was always rooted in fallacy. There was an assumption that San Antonio would be forced to play De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper at the same time, but there are 48 minutes in a ball game. There would be some overlap between two of them for any given stretch, but there was never pressure to put all three of them on the floor at the same time.

While that was an intriguing game plan that fans actually wanted to see, Mitch Johnson opted not to really use it. He seemed to decide that it was more valuable to ensure at least one of their several dynamic playmakers could run the offense from start to finish. It was the correct move to make.

These downhill destroyers put relentless pressure on defenses. It's smart not to give opponents a break. They all can penetrate consistently, finish efficiently, and distribute like an Amazon warehouse. It's a headache to deal with when they're also trying to ensure Wembanyama doesn't have one of those 40-point-in-26-minutes performances. That brings me to my next point.

The Spurs don't have enough shooting

Speaking of the guards, this assumption was based on the belief that the Slash Bros wouldn't be able to add a "P" in the right spot of their pseudonym often enough to make a difference. They were wrong again. After rocky starts, Harper and Castle are on fire from the perimeter, adding to the threat Harrison Barnes, Julian Champagnie, and Devin Vassell already posed.

Keldon Johnson even picked it back up from deep. He's having a stellar shooting season for the first time since 2022 when he averaged 40% on his threes. We know how dangerous the Alien can be when he gets rolling, too. Their in-season improvements have elevated them into the top 15 as a team in 3PT%, but they've been in the top 10 for the past two and a half months.

San Antonio wasn't supposed to win anything close to 60 games

Most members of Spurs Nation know this preseason prediction by heart. You can look on ESPN, Bleacher Report, or anywhere else you'd like for what expectations were for this team before the games were played. They weren't very high. Many of them had the Silver and Black between 41 and 44 wins.

It turns out growth is not linear. Sure, some teams make small improvements, and those are generally seen as positives. They are. That doesn't mean every group will move the same way, though. Not every franchise is fortunate enough to be the Spurs, and while that sounds cocky, it's more about the reputation this organization is known for. They develop well and know how to build a competitive team.

Wembanyama is on the roster. That makes a difference. The inevitable Defensive Player of the Year continues to prove that he's even better than advertised. Like Tim Duncan, he's the anchor that makes everything go, and with the assortment of talent in Coach Johnson's rotation, there shouldn't have been a doubt that this group would take a significant step forward.

Last season, an abnormally adverse season railroaded what was already looking like a team ahead of schedule. The pieces were already in place. All they had to do was look closely to see it. Nobody really did, and now the Spurs are on the doorstep of the playoffs with the second seed in the NBA.

They really couldn't have been more wrong.