Spurs fans are substantially underselling De'Aaron Fox's partnership with Wembanyama

Anyone who watched the Spurs’ late-season flash may have missed one of the biggest clues for the future. De'Aaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama only played five games together, so their starts felt disjointed. But dismissing their potential now overlooks everything Fox brings.

De'Aaron Fox ran one of the most efficient offenses when he was with the Sacramento Kings behind Sabonis, and Wembanyama is already a better player. Think back to 2022-23 when the Kings made the playoffs, and we remember that Fox was the driving force behind that offense becoming a significant force and one of the best in the association.

Now, imagine that with Wembanyama as the other half of the equation. The duo barely had time to begin to mesh last season, but there's a lot of reason to be excited about the future. The Spurs believed in the pairing enough to hand Fox a max extension, sealing a long-term partnership with their young franchise star.

Wembanyama and Fox will be an excellent pairing

Here’s what makes it compelling: Fox’s downhill scoring maps perfectly alongside Wembanyama’s elite rim presence, and both are strong in pick-and-roll execution. Advanced numbers show they were among the most efficient offensive producers in the league when sharing the court. The chemistry didn’t show up fully during that short run, but the numbers tell a deeper story.

The widespread doubt comes from surface-level viewpoints. Fox’s 17 games in San Antonio with only five overlapping with Wembanyama leaves fans longing for more proof. Those stretches underplayed Fox’s ceiling as a playmaker next to a generational two-way big. And yes, they did not immediately click in late-game orchestrations, but that small sample size is not definitive.

Spurs leadership sees that too. Their extension of Fox is both a performance reward and a declaration that they plan to build around this duo’s ceiling. The culture is shifting from thinking about contending to actually becoming a contender. Before training camp opens, the fans who are ready to question that pairing should hold off. Wembanyama is still very young, Fox is in his prime, and this offense could look historic by January.

Let the data drive the narrative here. Wembanyama with someone like Fox at the helm is unquestionably an upgrade from what the Spurs were working with before, and the fanbase just needs to have patience.