By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-03-01 15:44:52
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马在北卡罗来纳州夏洛特举行的NBA篮球比赛上半场对阵夏洛特黄蜂队时站在球场上，2025年2月7日星期五。（美联社照片/Nell Redmond）
在经历了漫长的缺席后，NBA最年轻的球队将于周日重返霜冻银行中心，他们正在稳步实现一项计划，这项计划可能会让他们在未来十年内保持在联盟的顶端。
哦，马刺队也回来了。
这并不是他们一个月前设想的欢迎回家的方式，当时他们开始了他们的牛仔竞技客场之旅，一项改变未来的交易正在进行中，并憧憬着有意义的春季篮球赛事的到来。
马刺队从未想过他们现在就能赶上俄克拉荷马城雷霆队，但他们认为他们会更接近几年后的目标。然而，他们球队核心球员的肩部血栓迫使他们退后一步。
而当他们试图效仿的西部联盟强队周日迎接他们时，雷霆队看起来一如既往的精心设计和强大？对马刺队来说，三月又是“明年再来”的赛季。
他们希望这是最后一次。
尽管马刺队和雷霆队有很多共同点，从球队建设理念到市场规模，再到低调的稳定性，但将两支球队的管理层在本十年所进行的重建项目进行比较可能是不公平的。
首先，俄克拉荷马城的触底反弹更快，也更不引人注目。雷霆队从连续四个赛季首轮季后赛出局，到2021-22赛季和2022-23赛季连续两次在分区垫底，然后迅速恢复到受人尊重的水平。去年五月，他们进入了西部半决赛，距离输掉58场比赛仅仅两年。本赛季，他们正在西部联盟中遥遥领先。
在联盟中，几乎所有人都认为，如果有什么球队能够在未来四到六年内挑战雷霆队在联盟中的统治地位，马刺队就在名单上。他们有维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)来对抗雷霆队的核心球员谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大(Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)，他们有德阿隆·福克斯(De’Aaron Fox)和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)来对抗雷霆队的长期助手杰伦·威廉姆斯(Jalen Williams)和切特·霍姆格伦(Chet Holmgren)，他们也积累了类似的选秀资本。
问题是，马刺队起步更晚，比雷霆队的建设时间表晚了几年，而且本赛季的复杂情况并没有起到帮助作用。是的，俄克拉荷马城在几个赛季前因霍姆格伦的脚伤而损失了整整一年，但他本不应该成为他们最大的球星。雷霆队的阵容足以承受那次缺席，而马刺队却无法承受没有文班亚马两个月的时间。
因此，无论喜欢与否，圣安东尼奥不得不再次在春天原地踏步，希望雷霆队——以及火箭队、森林狼队和卢卡·东契奇(Luka Doncic)复兴的湖人队——不要游得太远。
这些球队都希望在未来几年内保持在有竞争力的冠军争夺者行列，他们将能够在接下来的几周和几个月里学习如何共同取胜。与此同时，马刺队注定要连续第六次参加选秀抽签，不确定文班亚马何时能获准复出，也不确定他复出时谁将担任主教练。
考虑到马刺队有着悠久的闪电般的运气历史，几乎没有人为他们感到遗憾，如果他们最终通过不断改善的选秀抽签机会，或者通过亚特兰大欠他们的选秀权，得到另一个改变者，同情就更难找到了。
尽管如此，这并不是计划的一部分。像周日这样的日子本应该为未来的季后赛对决定下基调。他们本应该讨论文班亚马和福克斯如何找到应对霍姆格伦和吉尔杰斯-亚历山大的方法。他们本应该讨论一支年轻球队如何像雷霆队在过去几年里所做的那样，取得同样的渐进式进步。
相反，周日和接下来的六个星期可能看起来很像过去几年赛季最后六个星期的样子。个别球员——福克斯、卡斯尔、德文·瓦塞尔(Devin Vassell)和杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)——将有机会展现自己，并展示一些成长。
但实现一个宏伟的计划？这，又将不得不等待。
直到下个赛季。
希望不会再拖更久。
Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28) blocks out San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan (10) during the first half of an NBA basketball game at Toyota Center, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, in Houston.
Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. (10) dunks the ball over San Antonio Spurs center Bismack Biyombo (18) during the first half of an NBA basketball game at Toyota Center, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, in Houston.
San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) drives past New Orleans Pelicans forward Bruce Brown (00) in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman)
San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan (10) reaches for the ball in front of New Orleans Pelicans forward Bruce Brown (00) in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman)
点击查看原文：For San Antonio Spurs, it's 'wait until next year' season again
For San Antonio Spurs, it’s ‘wait until next year’ season again
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama stands on the court during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
After an extended absence, the youngest team in the NBA returns to Frost Bank Center on Sunday, well on its way to the realization of a plan that could keep it atop the league for the next decade.
Oh, and the Spurs are coming back, too.
This isn’t the welcome home they had in mind a month ago, when they set out on their rodeo road trip with a future-altering trade in the works and visions of meaningful spring basketball ahead.
The Spurs never imagined they’d have caught the Oklahoma City Thunder by now, but they figured they’d be four weeks closer to a years-away destination. Instead, a blood clot in the shoulder of their franchise player has forced them to take a step back.
And as the Western Conference power they’re trying to emulate greets them Sunday, looking as well-designed and as formidable as ever? For the Spurs, March is “wait until next year” season again.
They hope it’s the last time.
As much as the Spurs and Thunder have had in common, from team-building philosophy to market size to below-the-radar consistency, it’s probably unfair to compare the two projects their brain trusts have undertaken this decade.
For one thing, Oklahoma City’s bottoming-out was quicker, and less dramatic. The Thunder went from four straight first-round playoff exits to two consecutive last-in-the-division finishes in 2021-’22 and 2022-’23, then bounced right back into respectability. Last May they made the conference semifinals, just two years after losing 58 games. This season they’re running away with the top seed in the West.
Around the league, virtually everyone suspects that if any teams are equipped to challenge the Thunder for conference superiority over the next four to six years, the Spurs are on that list. They have the answer to franchise player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in Victor Wembanyama, they have the answer to long-term sidekicks Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren in De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, and they’ve amassed a similar stockpile of draft capital.
The catch is, the Spurs started from a deeper hole, a couple years behind the Thunder’s construction timeline, and this season’s complications have not helped. Yes, Oklahoma City lost a full year of Holmgren due to a foot injury a couple of seasons ago, but he wasn’t supposed to be its biggest star. The Thunder were built to weather that absence in a way these Spurs can’t withstand two months without Wembanyama.
So like it or not, San Antonio has to spend another spring treading water, hoping the Thunder – and the Rockets, Timberwolves and Luka Doncic-revived Lakers – don’t swim too far away.
Those teams, which all expect to remain viable championship contenders in the coming years, will be able to spend the next weeks and months learning how to win together. The Spurs, meanwhile, are bound for a sixth consecutive lottery, unsure exactly when Wembanyama will be cleared to return or who will be head coach when he does.
Considering the Spurs’ storied history of lightning-strike luck, almost nobody is feeling sorry for them, and sympathy will be even harder to find if they wind up with yet another difference maker with their ever-improving draft lottery chances, or with the pick Atlanta owes them.
Still, this wasn’t part of the plan. Days like Sunday were supposed to be about setting a tone for playoff showdowns to come. They were supposed to be about Wembanyama and Fox figuring out answers for Holmgren and Gilgeous-Alexander. They were supposed to be about a young team making the same kind of incremental progress the Thunder did the last couple of years.
Instead, Sunday and the next six weeks might look a lot like the final six weeks of the season looked the past couple of years. Individual players – Fox and Castle and Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan – will have opportunities to assert themselves, and to show some growth.
But the realization of a grand plan? That, again, will have to wait.
Until next season.
And hopefully not any longer.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News