By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-06-30 16:28:11
2026年5月26日星期二，在俄克拉荷马城佩科姆中心举行的西部决赛第五场第三节中，圣安东尼奥马刺队中锋维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)（1号）起跳封盖俄克拉荷马雷霆队后卫谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)（2号）的投篮。在马刺历经七场大战击败雷霆后，俄克拉荷马城选中了身高7英尺3英寸的阿戴·马拉 (Aday Mara)，以期夺回他们的西部冠军宝座。
被一位身高7英尺4英寸的巨人超越后，雷霆决定在今年夏天尽可能地拔高阵容。而已经对维克托·文班亚马尝试过这种策略的森林狼，则放弃了高度，转而走向了相反的方向。
在季后赛中部分因为对方拥有三控卫后场而被淘汰后，开拓者决定通过组建四控卫阵容来压马刺一头。而在目睹了西部最好的球队在总决赛中输给了一群年近三十的老将之后呢？
勇士显然准备好去验证，将联盟最老的球员加入到联盟最老的阵容中，是否会成为圣安东尼奥的克星。
当你的球队像马刺那样完成飞跃时，情况就是如此。同赛区的其他每一支争冠球队都会把推翻你作为首要目标，即便他们对于如何做到这一点无法达成共识。
因此，随着自由市场于周二晚间开启，马刺并不需要通过一笔轰动的签约来彰显自己的存在感。他们的竞争对手正从多个方向朝他们席卷而来。
那么，总经理布莱恩·莱特 (Brian Wright) 想要多样化他的应对手段，也就不足为奇了。
正如对阵尼克斯时经历的三个惨烈的第四节过度反应存在危险一样，盲目认为被马刺在季后赛击败的球队下次不会带着更好的应对方案卷土重来，同样是危险的。蝉联两届NBA常规赛最有价值球员的谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大，正是那些在未来10个月里注定会死盯着文班亚马的超级巨星之一。
竞争就是这样。先是文班亚马利用MVP颁奖典礼来激励自己在西部决赛中前进，而现在吉尔杰斯-亚历山大将利用文班亚马在俄克拉荷马城主场热泪盈眶的庆祝画面，来提醒自己下个赛季仍有需要证明的东西。
但这不仅仅关乎个人动力。这将是文班亚马时代第一个对手管理层、球探部门和数据分析团队试图打造属于他们自己的“马刺克星”的休赛期。
其中一些球队的想法不会奏效，因为圣安东尼奥拥有比他们更好的球员。但当你看看西部季后赛球队在这个休赛期已经做出的调整时，你就能看到马刺潜在的软肋可能会受到各种各样的考验。
首先是雷霆，他们在西部决赛中曾以3-2领先，随后马刺连扳两局以4-3赢下系列赛。俄克拉荷马城已经拥有切特·霍姆格伦 (Chet Holmgren) 和以赛亚·哈尔滕施泰因 (Isaiah Hartenstein) 这两位高效的7英尺长人，而霍姆格伦在面对文班亚马时基本被限制住了。
那么雷霆在上周的选秀大会上做了什么？他们又增加了一个可以用来对付马刺的庞大身躯，用第12号签选中了身高7英尺3英寸的密歇根大学中锋阿戴·马拉。如果他们能在潜在的季后赛重逢中，让这三位大个子中的两位始终留在场上，这可能会给缺乏强硬内线帮手的圣安东尼奥带来麻烦。
事实证明，除文班亚马之外缺乏体型优势在总决赛中成了一个软肋，这导致马刺在上周的选秀中同时拿下了杰登·昆坦斯 (Jayden Quaintance) 和小塔里斯·里德 (Tarris Reed)，同时也让引进一名成名大前锋成为球队在自由市场上的首要任务之一。
但试图在内线压制并不是对手下赛季试图攻击马刺的唯一方式。
森林狼曾凭借其技术各异的巨人阵容给圣安东尼奥带来过挑战（直到后来失效了），他们与朱利叶斯·兰德尔 (Julius Randle) 以及纳兹·里德 (Naz Reid) 分道扬镳，转而选择用安东尼·爱德华兹 (Anthony Edwards) 和拉梅洛·鲍尔 (LaMelo Ball) 来推快节奏。
波特兰交易来了贾·莫兰特 (Ja Morant)，尽管考虑到达米安·利拉德 (Damian Lillard)、朱·霍勒迪 (Jrue Holiday) 和斯库特·亨德森 (Scoot Henderson) 已经在那儿，开拓者看起来拥有了太多的控球后卫，但一笔针对杰伦·布朗 (Jaylen Brown) 的交易是否能为他们提供一些在面对马刺时所缺乏的进攻火力？
如果勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James) 真的准备在金州联手斯蒂芬·库里 (Stephen Curry)，谁也无法保证他们中的任何一人能保持足够长久的健康，从而在明年春天重现2024年巴黎奥运会的荣光。但这样的组合，将能够检验文班亚马、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 在如何收割季后赛比赛方面学到了多少。
2025年11月12日星期三，在圣安东尼奥举行的一场NBA比赛下半场中，圣安东尼奥马刺队前锋维克托·文班亚马（1号）试图封盖金州勇士队后卫斯蒂芬·库里（30号）的投篮。在马刺出人意料地闯入总决赛后，西部其他争冠球队正准备在自由市场上大展拳脚以推翻他们。在金州，库里与勒布朗·詹姆斯联手的可能性或许会成为马刺的强劲对手。
此外，还有像掘金、火箭和湖人这样的球队，他们无疑也在头脑风暴属于自己的“马刺克星”阵容。对莱特来说，好消息是他不需要为了应对每一个对手而单独进行签约。
大多数最聪明的应对招数已经存在于他的更衣室里了。我们还没有看到最好的文班亚马、卡斯尔或哈珀。卡特·布莱恩特 (Carter Bryant) 将从多一年的力量训练和经验积累中获益匪浅。想必，达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox) 在下赛季开始时将拥有两条健康的脚踝。
把所有这些因素结合在一起，或许就足以阻止西部其他球队赶超的脚步。
但随着一些争冠对手变得更高，另一些变得更快，还有一些变得更老？
他们现在都清楚自己正在追赶谁。
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。
点击查看原文：Why every contender in the West has a summer plan to chase down Spurs
Why every contender in the West has a summer plan to chase down Spurs
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) goes up to block a shot by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) during the third quarter of Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. After the Spurs toppled the Thunder in seven games, Oklahoma City drafted 7-foot-3 Aday Mara to help it regain its Western Conference crown.
Having been overtaken by a man standing 7-foot-4, the Thunder decided this summer they needed to become as tall as possible. Having already tried that strategy against Victor Wembanyama, the Timberwolves gave up on height and zagged in the opposite direction.
Having been eliminated in part by a backcourt with a trio of point guards, the Trail Blazers decided to one-up the Spurs by assembling a quartet of them. And having watched the best team in the West fall in the NBA Finals to a bunch of guys pushing the age of 30?
The Warriors, apparently, are ready to find out if adding the league’s oldest player to the league’s oldest roster will prove to be San Antonio’s kryptonite.
This is what happens when you make a leap like the one the Spurs just made. Every other contender in the conference makes toppling you their main objective, even if they all can’t agree on how to do it.
So as free agency was set to open Tuesday evening, the Spurs did not need to make a splashy signing to make their presence felt. Their competition is coming for them, on multiple fronts.
It’s should come as no surprise, then, that general manager Brian Wright would want to diversify his countermeasures.
Just as there’s danger in overreacting to three brutal fourth quarters against the Knicks, there’s also peril in assuming that the teams the Spurs beat in the playoffs won’t come back with a better plan the next time. Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, the reigning back-to-back NBA Most Valuable Player, is among those stars who figure to be obsessing over Wembanyama for the next 10 months.
That’s how it works. First Wembanyama used the MVP trophy presentation to drive him in the conference finals, and now Gilgeous-Alexander will use Wembanyama’s teary-eyed celebration on Oklahoma City’s home floor to remind him he still has something to prove next season.
But it’s not just about individual motivation. This will be the first offseason of the Wembanyama era in which rival front offices, scouting departments and analytics operations try to build their version of a Spurs stopper.
Some of those teams’ ideas won’t work, because San Antonio has better players than they do. But when you look at how Western Conference postseason teams have adjusted already this offseason, you can see all sorts of ways in which the Spurs might have potential vulnerabilities tested.
Start with the Thunder, who held a 3-2 lead in the conference finals before the Spurs came back to win the series in seven games. Oklahoma City already had two productive 7-footers in Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, and Holmgren was mostly neutralized against Wembanyama.
So what did the Thunder do in last week’s draft? They added yet another huge body to throw at the Spurs, selecting 7-foot-3 Michigan center Aday Mara with the 12th overall pick. If they can keep two of those three big men on the floor at all times in a potential playoff rematch, it might cause problems for a San Antonio team that lacked a rough-and-tumble frontcourt sidekick.
The dearth of non-Wembanyama size proved to be a liability in the Finals, which led to the Spurs taking both Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed in last week’s draft, and also made the addition of an established power forward one of the team’s top priorities in free agency.
But trying to overwhelm inside isn’t the only way opponents are going to try to attack the Spurs next season.
Minnesota, whose collection of variably-skilled giant bodies had posed a challenge to San Antonio until it didn’t, parted ways with Julius Randle and Naz Reid and chose instead to push the tempo with Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball.
Portland traded for Ja Morant, and even though the Blazers appear to have way too many point guards when one considers that Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson already are there, might a trade for Jaylen Brown give them some of the offensive firepower they lacked against the Spurs?
And if LeBron James really is set to join Stephen Curry in Golden State, there’s no guarantee that either of them will stay healthy long enough to recreate the 2024 Paris Olympics next spring. But that’s the kind of pairing that could test how much Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper have learned about how to close out playoff games.
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) tries to block a shot by Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) during the second half of an NBA game in San Antonio, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. After the Spurs’ surprising run to the NBA Finals other Western Conference contenders are gearing up in free agency to topple them. In Golden State, the prospect of pairing Curry with LeBron James could be a strong opposition for the Spurs.
Then there are teams like the Nuggets, Rockets and Lakers, who undoubtedly are brainstorming “Spurs stopper” lineups of their own. The good news for Wright is that he doesn’t have to make a separate signing to cover each one.
Most of the smartest counter moves already reside in his locker room. We haven’t seen the best of Wembanyama, Castle or Harper yet. Carter Bryant stands to benefit immensely from an extra year of weight-training and know-how. De’Aaron Fox, presumably, will begin next season with two healthy ankles.
Throw all that together, and it might be enough to keep the rest of the West from catching up.
But as some contenders get taller, others get quicker, and others get older?
They all know who they’re chasing now.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News