By Jeje Gomez | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-10-22 09:58:32
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。
终于，圣安东尼奥马刺队再次迎来了外界的期待。在经历了几年安逸的平庸之后，球队进入了毫无压力的重建过程。如今，球队已迈入维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 时代的第三年，那些从无缘季后赛的失利中寻找慰藉的日子已经一去不复返了。马刺需要重返季后赛。除此之外的任何结果，都将意味着失败。
对于那些还记得这支球队曾视高期望为理所当然的球迷而言，他们会欢迎这种压力的回归。幸运的是，球员和教练组似乎也同样如此，尤其是在经历了上赛季之后——如果不是因为文班亚马遭遇深静脉血栓，马刺本有机会通过附加赛品尝到成功的滋味。
今时不同往日。文班亚马如今身体健康，并且看起来已准备好迈向无可争议的超级巨星行列。德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 目前伤缺，但预计只会缺席少数几场比赛，他将成为这位法国巨人急需的得力助手。马刺以一份备受争议的顶薪续约合同在福克斯身上下了重注，并渴望证明自己的决定是正确的。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 已不再是新秀。德文·瓦塞尔 (Devin Vassell) 更是享受了一个健康的休赛期。阵容中关键位置的空缺也已得到填补。圣安东尼奥如今阵容深度、老将领导力、运动能力、顶级天赋以及相当的延续性，一应俱全。这是一支为赢球而打造的球队，如果最终事与愿违，无疑会令人失望。
高期望不仅针对整个团队，也同样落在个人身上。米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 曾是一名助教，上赛季因一位传奇教练遭遇健康问题而临危受命。直到今年夏天他“临时主帅”的标签被摘除之前，他一直免受严厉的批评。如果马刺开局慢热，或者那套并未发生太大变化的战术体系未能奏效，那么所有的目光都将聚焦于他。约翰逊必须弄清楚，如何最大限度地发挥三名持球在手时威力最大的后卫，以及在多大程度上使用让文班亚马打大前锋、新援卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet) 打中锋的大个子阵容。在他的轮换阵容中找到防守与投射之间的平衡点，也将是他的重中之重。
前述的三位持球手——福克斯、卡斯尔和新秀迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper)，他们持续不断的突破将是激活球队进攻的关键。这一重要元素能够放大文班亚马所带来的优势，但在过去却因人员配置问题而缺失。他们还需要投进足够多的三分球来迫使防守方不敢收缩，并找到在无球端做出贡献的方法。这三名球员似乎都已准备好迎接挑战，尽管我们尚未亲眼见证他们将如何融合，但这足以让我们抱持谨慎的乐观。
在一支围绕活力四射的后卫群和一位一代一遇的中锋建队的球队里，侧翼和前锋球员扮演的是辅助角色，但这并不意味着他们感受不到压力。这些位置上的人员储备足够深厚，一段时期的投篮失准或几次过多的糟糕防守回合，都可能让某人丢掉在轮换阵容中的位置。毕竟，上场时间不可能分给每一个人，但如果球队磨合不顺，他们也有足够的资产在赛季中期进行交易以整合天赋。
最后，是球队的基石。文班亚马在仅仅出战117场比赛后，就已被视为联盟前五球员的潜在人选，任何关注他的人对此都不会感到惊讶。这位“外星人”是我们前所未见的奇才。他和马刺队花了整整两年时间，才摸索出如何运用他的天赋。现在看来，他们终于找到了答案。这支球队的上限取决于文班能将他们带到何处，如果他能保持上赛季展现出的水平，同时融入季前赛中惊鸿一瞥的新技术，那么圣安东尼奥的成就或许会远超博彩公司和怀疑论者的预期。质疑他是否已准备好迎接这种审视是愚蠢的，因为像他这样独一无二的球员，此时必定早已习以为常。然而，从今往后，仅靠个人光芒是远远不够的。
圣安东尼奥正迎来其重建过程中的关键一年，在这一年里，期望与压力将成为常态。这正是每个人在那些低谷赛季中所期盼的：让比赛的胜负再次变得至关重要。对于一支在连续六次无缘季后赛之前、曾连续22年闯入季后赛的球队来说，真正关心战绩榜是一种熟悉的情感。但随着联盟的残酷现实最终追上了这支长期以来看似超凡脱俗的马刺队，这种情感也逐渐消退。
希望，这是一个前所未有的成功新纪元的开端。但即便不是，它也应当带回那种体育运动所能提供的最纯粹的感受——胜利时的狂喜与失败时的心碎——一种在近年来麻木感中久违了的情感。
点击查看原文：San Antonio Spurs Season Preview: Moving forward on the road back to relevance
San Antonio Spurs Season Preview: Moving forward on the road back to relevance
Finally, expectations return to San Antonio. After a few years of comfortable mediocrity came a rebuilding process, with its absence of pressure. Now entering the third year of the Victor Wembanyama era, the time to look at the silver linings of playoff-less seasons is over. The Spurs need to return to the postseason. Anything else would be a failure.
Those who remember the time when high expectations were a given for this franchise will welcome their return. Luckily, it seems the players and coaching staff do as well, especially after last season, when the Spurs could have tasted success by making the play-in had Wembanyama not dealt with deep vein thrombosis.
Things are different now. Wembanyama is healthy and looking poised to make the leap into undeniable superstardom. De’Aaron Fox is out but expected to miss only a handful of games, giving the French giant the sidekick he desperately needed. The Spurs invested heavily in Fox in the form of a controversial max extension and are eager to get proven right. Stephon Castle is not a rookie anymore. Devin Vassell had the luxury of a healthy offseason. The holes at key places in the roster have been filled. San Antonio has depth, veteran leadership, athleticism, top-end talent, and a good deal of continuity on its side. The team is built to win, and it will be disappointing if it doesn’t.
High expectations are not confined to the collective but also to individuals. Mitch Johnson was an assistant who had to take over after a legendary coach battled health issues last season. He was shielded from serious criticism until the interim tag was removed over the summer. All eyes will be on him if the Spurs have a slow start or if the schemes, which have not changed that significantly, are not effective. Johnson will have to figure out how to maximize three guards who are at their best with the ball in their hands and how much to play big lineups with Wembanyama at power forward and newcomer Luke Kornet at center. Finding the balance between defense and shooting in his rotation will also be a high priority.
Those three aforementioned ball handlers, Fox, Castle, and rookie Dylan Harper, can be the key to supercharging the offense with relentless driving, a major ingredient that accentuates what Wembanyama provides but hasn’t been present due to personnel reasons. They will also need to hit enough threes to keep the defense honest and find ways to contribute off the ball. All three seem ready for the challenge, which is enough to cause cautious optimism despite not being able to see how it would all look yet.
The wings and forwards are complementary players in a team built around dynamic guards and a one-in-a-generation center, but that doesn’t mean they’ll feel no pressure. There’s enough depth at the positions that a cold shooting spell or a few too many bad defensive sequences could cost someone a spot in the rotation. There are not enough minutes for everyone, after all, but there are enough assets to make an in-season trade to consolidate talent if things are not working out.
Finally, the centerpiece. Victor Wembanyama is being discussed as a potential top-five player after suiting up for just 117 games, and no one who has been paying attention should be surprised. The Alien is something we have never seen. It took him and the Spurs two years to even figure out how to use his tools. It seems that they finally have the answers. The team will go as far as Wemby takes them, and if he plays at the level he showed last season while sprinkling in the additions to his game he flashed during preseason, San Antonio could go farther than the oddsmakers and skeptics think. It would be foolish to wonder if he’s ready for the scrutiny, because someone as unique as he is has to be used to it at this point. But individual brilliance alone won’t do going forward.
San Antonio is entering the defining year of their rebuild, when expectations and pressure will become the norm. It’s what everyone hoped for during those bad seasons: for things to actually matter again. For a franchise that made the playoffs 22 years in a row before missing them six straight times, truly caring about the standings is a familiar emotion that faded as the realities of the league caught up to the, for a long time, seemingly exceptional Spurs.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new era of unprecedented success. But even if it isn’t, it should bring back the feeling of elation in triumph and heartbreak in defeat that sports at their best provide and have been missing in recent years of numbness.
By Jeje Gomez, via Pounding The Rock