By Jeff McDonald, Spurs Writer | San Antonio Express-News, 2024-04-15 13:23:17

由Gemini Pro人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。

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圣安东尼奥马刺中锋文班亚马在 2024 年 4 月 9 日星期二对阵孟菲斯灰熊队的 NBA 篮球比赛上半场。 （美联社照片/布兰登·迪尔）

当马刺球员在周一下午整理完自己的储物柜并散落到夏季时，教练格雷格·波波维奇、总经理布莱恩·赖特和马刺队其他工作人员需要完成他们的第一个围绕文班亚马建立球队的季后赛。

下一个赛季的目标：不要再经历 22-60 的战绩。

悲观的人看到连续第二个 60 负赛季，并指出尽管文班亚马打出了 NBA 历史上最好的新秀赛季之一，但马刺队的战绩并没有丝毫改善。

乐观的人会注意到马刺队结束了这个赛季，并在最后 11 场比赛中赢得了 7 场。

效力球队的第五个年头，也是球队任职时间最长的球员凯尔登·约翰逊说：“即使我们没有赢，我们仍在进步。”“我觉得我们正在朝着正确的方向努力。我觉得我们近在咫尺，这只时间问题。”

对于前台工作人员来说，在这个夏天，围绕文班亚马建立球队的工作正式开始。

这有可能（尽管可能不大）——马刺队使用他们收集到的一系列首轮选秀权来尝试交易一位明星，与文班亚马一起奔跑。

但更有可能的是，马刺队将尝试通过自由球员填补阵容，使用他们自己的选秀权，并通过自由球员增加一些资深的角色球员。

灵活是最重要的，赖特说。

赖特说：“每个人都有一个愿景和一个想要执行的计划” “但是如果在纸面上是静态的，并且无法根据你看到的情况进行调整，那么这可能不是什么计划。”

如果赖特和他的团队感受到围绕文班亚马建立一支冠军球队的压力，他们没有表现出来。

赖特说，该计划是“积极进取，但要具有战略性进取”。

赖特不愿谈及文班亚马的到来及其随后的崛起是否会加快建立季后赛球队的进程。

赖特说：“我们在过去几年里一直这么说——球员会决定进程，仅仅通过他们个人的发展，然后是集体发展。”

马刺队进入 6 月份的选秀大会，手握自己的选秀权，如果运气好的话，他们会再次进入选秀大会的前列。他们只有 10.4% 的几率在芝加哥下个月的抽签中获得状元签，排名第五。

这比他们去年夏天选中文班亚马时 14% 的几率略低。

如果猛龙队的首轮选秀权跌出前六，马刺队也有机会获得它。猛龙队以 NBA 本赛季第六差的战绩结束了这个赛季，这让马刺队有 54.1% 的几率获得选秀权。

马刺队还在第二轮拥有一个选秀权，即第 47 顺位，以前属于洛杉矶湖人队。

马刺队只有一名球员在本赛季的阵容中进入不受限制的自由球员名单，替补前锋切迪·奥斯曼。

替补中锋桑德罗·马穆克拉什维利即将成为受限制的自由球员，让马刺队有权匹配外部报价。

如果马刺队需要腾出额外的阵容名额，他们有办法做到。朱利安·香槟妮、多米尼克·巴洛和查尔斯·巴塞正在下个赛季的非保障合同中，而德文特·格雷厄姆仅有 290 万美元的保障金。

赖特说，这个想法是找到适合文班亚马技能和时间线的球员。

赖特说：“我不知道这是否有一项蓝图”。“他非常有活力，我觉得你可以用很多方式建立球队，所以我们必须不断努力。”

毫无疑问，文班亚马是该组织最重要的人员，他说他对马刺队目前的建队方式充满信心。

当被问及随着本赛季失利越来越多，他对球队的信心是否动摇时，文班亚马摇了摇他的头。

文班亚马说：“从未动摇过一秒钟”。“我从未想过自己不在最佳状态。我希望我们没有输掉 60 场比赛。但今天尽管很难，我知道这是为了长期发展。我 100% 信任我的队友，我信任这个过程。”

作为这个过程的一部分，波波维奇和工作人员中的其他人将花费时间，对本赛季进行总结，并评估哪些是有效的，哪些是无效的。

马刺队花了一段时间才找到自己的立足点，本赛季初让杰里米·索汉尝试打控球后卫，让文班亚马与扎克·柯林斯一起首发。

球队从 11 月 5 日到 12 月 15 日未能赢得一场比赛，取而代之的是创下球队纪录的 18 连败。

波波维奇最终重新启用特雷·琼斯为首发控球后卫，将柯林斯移至替补席，让文班亚马可以在中锋位置首发，并找到了一套可用阵容。

在牛仔竞技场之旅之后，马刺队成为 NBA 进步最快的球队之一。

波波维奇说：“如果我说这不是一个充满挑战的年份，那将是不真实的”。“输球是有挑战性的。但这却是我在这里度过的最令人满意的一年，仅仅是因为我被允许执教的球员的品格”。

说完后，波波维奇退回到自己位于弗罗斯特银行中心办公室，和本赛季的每一场比赛一样。

星期一标志着新的一周的开始，还有很多工作要做。

原文如下：

'No one blueprint:' How the Spurs aim to build around Wemby

[Image] San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama plays in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)

As Spurs players cleared out their lockers Monday afternoon and scattered to the wind for the summer, coach Gregg Popovich, general manager Brian Wright and the rest of the Spurs staff had work to do entering their first full offseason of building around Victor Wembanyama.

The goal for next season: Don’t go 22-60 again.

The glass-half-empty types see a second consecutive 60-loss season and note the Spurs’ record did not improve an iota despite Wembanyama turning in one of the best rookie campaigns in NBA history.

The glass-half-full types will note the Spurs finished the season on something of a tear, winning 7 of their final 11.

“Even when we don’t win, we’re still getting better,” said fifth-year forward Keldon Johnson, the team’s longest-tenured player. “I feel like we are striving in the right direction. I feel like we are right there and it is only a matter of time.”

For those in the front office, the task of putting pieces around Wembanyama begins in earnest this summer.

It is possible – though not probable – the Spurs dip into the storehouse of first-round draft picks they have collected a try and trade for a star to run alongside Wembanyama.

More than likely, though, the Spurs will try to fill in around the margins, using their own draft picks this season and adding a few veteran role players via free agency.

Flexibility is paramount, Wright said.

“Everybody has a vision and a plan you want to execute,” Wright said. “But if it’s static on paper and it is not adaptable based on what you’ve seen, it’s probably not much of a plan.”

If Wright and his team are feeling the pressure to put a winner around Wembanyama sooner rather than later, they aren’t showing it.

The plan, Wright said, is to “be aggressive, but be strategically aggressive.”

Whether Wembanyama’s arrival and subsequent rise has hastened the timeline for building a playoff team, Wright would not say.

“We’ve said this for a few years now – the guys will determine the timeline, just by their individual developments and then collective development,” Wright said.

The Spurs enter the June draft armed with their own pick, which with any reasonable luck could again land them near the top of the draft again. They own the fifth-best odds of landing the No. 1 pick in next month’s drawing in Chicago at 10.4 percent.

That is a shade worse than the 14-percent chance they cashed in to score Wembanyama last summer.

The Spurs also have a chance to earn Toronto’s first-round pick if it falls outside the top six. The Raptors finished the season with the NBA’s sixth-worst record, giving the Spurs a 54.1 percent chance of poaching the pick.

The Spurs also have a pick in the second round, the No. 47 overall that once belonged to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Spurs have only one player set to enter unrestricted free agency off this season’s roster, backup forward Cedi Osman.

Backup big man Sandro Mamukelashvili is poised to become a restricted free agent, giving the Spurs the right to match outside offers.

Should the Spurs need to free additional roster spots, they have means to do so. Julian Champagnie, Dominick Barlow and Charles Bassey are under non-guaranteed contracts for next season, while Devonte’ Graham’s is only guaranteed at $2.9 million.

The idea, Wright said, is to find players who fit Wembanyama’s skillset and timeline.

“I don't know that there's one blueprint,” Wright said. “He's so dynamic that I think you can build the thing in a lot of different ways and so we've got to keep chipping away with that.”

As inarguably the most important man in the organization, Wembanyama said he has complete faith in the way the Spurs are trying to build.

Asked if his confidence in the team wavered as the losses piled up this season, Wembanyama shook his head.

“Never even one second,” Wembanyama said. “I never thought at any point I wasn’t in the best place. I wish we didn’t lose 60 games. But as much as it is hard today, I know it’s for the long-term. I trust my teammates 100 percent and I trust the process.”

As part of that process, Popovich and others on the staff will spend the days to come rehashing the season that was and evaluating what worked and didn’t.

The Spurs took a while to find their footing, opening the season with Jeremy Sochan experimenting out of position at point guard and Wembanyama starting alongside a second big man in Zach Collins.

The team went from Nov. 5 to Dec. 15 without winning a game, putting together a franchise-record 18-game losing streak instead.

Popovich eventually reinstalled Tre Jones as the starting point guard, moved Collins to the bench so Wembanyama could start at center and found a serviceable rotation.

After the rodeo road trip, the Spurs were one of the most improved teams in the NBA.

“It would be less than genuine if I said it was not a challenging year,” Popovich said. “Losing is challenging. But it was one of the most satisfying years I’ve spent here, just because the caliber of the character of the guys I was allowed to coach.”

With that, Popovich retreated to his office to the Frost Bank Center, same as he had after every other game this season.

Monday marked the start of a new week, and there was work to be done.

By Jeff McDonald, Spurs Writer, via San Antonio Express-News