SAN ANTONIO — This is going to be a long and difficult season for the San Antonio Spurs.
Even if you're fully on board with this team losing as much as possible for the best draft lottery odds, it's gonna be tougher to stomach when you're actually watching it. Expectations are pretty low for Gregg Popovich's youngest roster ever, but it wasn't fun to see the Silver and Black get dominated by a LaMelo Ball-less Hornets squad in the home opener.
If you care about this team, it's gonna hurt to see them at their lowest, but there will still be ways to enjoy this year as you follow along. Here's a survival guide with tips and tricks as you navigate the toughest Spurs season in recent memory.
1. Manage your expectations
Spurs fans have had the good fortune of hoping for a title, or at least the playoffs, for most of the last quarter of a century. It's incredibly rare that any team in any sport will have a championship window open for as long as it was here.
I'm not gonna call you spoiled, but you've gotten used to a certain standard of excellence. For many who live in San Antonio, this is your first time dealing with a pro sports team you care about going through a true rebuild. Every other team in the NBA has gone through it since the last time the Spurs did, and that 20-win campaign in 1996-'97 brought Tim Duncan to the Alamo City.
This Spurs roster has more teenagers than UTSA's basketball team does. Vegas has the over-under set at 22.5 wins, and smart money might be on the under. San Antonio could be listed as the betting underdog for every game left in the season.
Don't expect this team to win, and you won't be disappointed. There are still certain positives you can reasonably hope for on the court, though. When they do get a win here or there, celebrate the little things that helped them overcome the odds on that particular night.
2. Watch for growth
A title is impossible for a team this young, but improvement is inevitable. So many of these players are in the infancy of their NBA careers, and we get to watch them stumble through their first steps and find their footing.
Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell will try to become playmakers on the wing. Josh Primo is working on his point guard skills. Jeremy Sochan is the youngest opening-night starter in the history of the franchise. Opportunities will abound for all of them, and everyone else too.
As the Spurs contended for two decades, we really didn't get to see guys get thrown into the fire this young. It will be exciting to see the flashes of their potential, and how much more consistent they can get. Some of these youngsters may one day see their jerseys hang in the rafters, and you'll get to say how you remember when they were just a baby like a proud grandparent.
The individuals will grow, and so will the chemistry between those individuals. A team like this without a heliocentric star will need to lean on teamwork to have any sort of success, and that takes time to develop. Everybody in the locker room knows it will be a long process, and we'll get to watch the progress all season long.
3. Get excited about the draft
The Spurs chose a good year to bottom out. This is one of the best drafts in a long time, headlined by arguably the best prospect since LeBron James.
Victor Wembanyama is at least 7'3" and consistently does things that simply should not be possible for a teenager that size; things you've never seen on a basketball court. When asked about the French phenom, LeBron said that in a world of basketball unicorns, Wembanyama is an alien (though aliens are statistically way more likely to exist than unicorns, but that's neither here nor there).
Many will point out that San Antonio could lose every game this season and only wind up with a 14% chance at the top pick, and that is true. But this is far from a one-player draft.
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Scoot Henderson is a spectacular guard in the G League, worthy of a top pick in many other years. The Thompson twins, Amen and Ausar, bring skill and athleticism on the wing. Nick Smith Jr. is a stud guard who will play for Arkansas, and could be worthy of top-five consideration. Then you've got guys like Dariq Whitehead, Dillon Mitchell, Cam Whitmore, and Keyonte George who could all make a case depending on how they play this year.
The more the Spurs lose this season, the better their chances of landing a franchise-level talent in the upcoming draft. If a rough loss gets you down, take a look at the latest outings from Scoot and Wemby or familiarize yourself with the other prospects. Realize that the more they lose now, the better chance they'll have of winning later.
One fan paraphrased Fleetwood Mac's optimistic banger: "Don't stop thinkin' bout Wembanyama."
4. Don't take it too seriously
I know this may sound sacrilegious, ball is life and all that. But Gregg Popovich will be the first to tell you that there are many more important things in this life than ball. That's true even when your team is great, but it's especially important to remember when they aren't.
If you're the kind of person whose happiness and mood is severely impacted by the success of the Spurs, now is a good time to recalibrate that dynamic if you can. If you can't, try to focus that passion on tips 1-3.
We each have but one life to live. Why spend your time being real-life angry and toxic on Twitter because your sports team has chosen to field a non-competitive roster for the first time in decades? Think of all the other things you could do!
Spend some quality time with your family, go out into nature and exercise, volunteer in the community, adopt a pet from the shelter, work on perfecting your marinara sauce recipe. All of these would be better uses of your time than getting mad about the losses of a team that isn't built to win right now.