'Very Selfless': Spurs' Secret Recipe of Talent, Togetherness Has Them Ready for WCF Against Thunder

Everyone knows about Victor Wembanyama, but Game 6 in Minneapolis belonged to Stephon Castle and Game 1 in Oklahoma City could belong to anyone.

Sep 29, 2025; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward-center Victor Wembanyama (1) along with guards De’Aaron Fox (4) and Stephon Castle (5) pose for photos during Media Day at Victory Capital Performance Center in San Antonio. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

MINNEAPOLIS -- Stephon Castle had just powered his Spurs to the Western Conference Finals behind an unprecedented performance in Game 6 in Minneapolis.

At 21 years old, the second-year stud became the youngest player in NBA playoff history with a game of at least 30 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and five made 3-pointers. Castle had never scored that many points in a playoff game before, and he'd never hit that many triples in an NBA game ever.

"It feels good, it's definitely a blessing," Castle said. "I feel like there's somebody on our team that breaks some type of record every couple games. Just to be a part of that is definitely a good feeling."

Therein lies the true danger of this Spurs team, the secret sauce that has them so far ahead of everyone else's schedule for them. Everybody and their grandmother already knows about larger-than-life Victor Wembanyama and his prodigious talent. On this playoff run, the world outside of San Antonio is beginning to take notice of just how deep and ready this young squad is around him.

"I think we're really talented group that plays together and plays very selfless, and we're all young, so playing like that... that's where most of the record breaking comes from," Castle said. "We got a lot of young guys that are very talented on our team, so I think it could be anybody's night on any given night. Us just being very selfless, and the way we move the ball is just fun to play."

May 12, 2026; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5) dunks over Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) during the second half of game five of the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

The Spurs selected Castle fourth overall in 2024, and as of writing this the three teams ahead of them would love to have a do-over on that. It was plain to see that he was the best perimeter defender in the draft, but there were questions about his ability to shoot the ball and run the offense. In a very short time, he's developed so much that those once-valid concerns are completely obsolete.

Months after drafting Castle, All-Star point guard De'Aaron Fox made his way to San Antonio. Months after that, the Spurs struck gold again in the lottery and lucked into one of the best guard prospects in recent memory in Dylan Harper.

All of a sudden the Spurs had assembled an Avengers-level guard room to pair with Victor Wembanyama with three high-level advantage creators. Many people who share basketball opinions for a living wondered if that was actually a bad thing, too much playmaking and only one basketball. Outsiders posited that San Antonio should trade the pick, or use it on an outside shooter. Many wondered if Harper was the right fit, or if he'd rather put up bigger numbers on a worse team.

Those concerns were never more than wishful thiking, nonsensical bloviating, a waste of hot air into microphones and ink onto paper.

"All year it was like, 'did he get drafted to the wrong spot?' This that and the third," Harper said dismissively after clinching a Western Conference Finals berth as a rookie. "I never thought about that, because just I kind of knew how good we were, and I knew the impact that everyone brought to the table, and I knew that we can do things like this."

May 15, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) shakes hands with San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper (2) against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second half during game six of the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images | Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Castle and Harper play with a level of poise, maturity, and overpowering strength and skill that makes it hard to believe they'd still be in college if they weren't so good at basketball. They know that there's a lot they don't know yet, and they lean on the experience around them to keep getting better every day.

"They're as coachable as anybody we have, they listen when we tell them stuff, and they get on the court, and they're just like attack dogs, and they just go," coach Mitch Johnson said of his star pupils. "They don't make a lot of repeatable mistakes when they're given direction, they typically are very fast processors that pick up things very quickly."

"At all times we have two of us out there, and we're all able to play off of one another. We can all get to the basket, we all make our open shots, we facilitate for each other and other and other guys on the court, it just adds the dynamic of our team," Fox said.

"Being able to get stops, rebound, push in transition, it makes it easier," he said. "Sometimes you play a team and they have one ball handler, and we're able to wear that guy down, and it makes it hard for that team, with us having three of them, it makes it pretty easy. We can take the pressure off of each other, we can try to take the pressure off Vic as well, and we're in this position."

The Slash Bros playfully and affectionately call Fox 'Unc' as the 28-year-old speed demon denies the title with a big, gleaming smile. If he is indeed the Splash Uncle, he's the kind of uncle that's experienced enough to share wisdom and close enough in age to hang with his nephews.

Apr 26, 2026; Portland, Oregon, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5) embraces guard De'aaron Fox (4) during the second half in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers during game four of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images | Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

"It's dope, and it's something that I don't take for granted, having guys who are this talented, have watched me throughout my career, and then we get to be in the same locker room, get to be on the court together. It's something I love," said Fox, the only Spur in the starting lineup with any playoff experience coming into the season.

"I want them to feel that success from early, from as early as you can get in your career, because you never know when those things can come back around," Fox said. "For me it's just... giving little tidbits that they can get here or there, because they're so talented, just giving them a cheat sheet to kind of maneuver throughout the league and do a long season. I try to add what I can to what they can already do, and they can already do a lot of things."

"They just are always relentless and going forward, and I love it about them, and I just try to help channel the energy at times," Johnson said of the youngsters. "Obviously I think De'Aaron's poise and composure combined with his competitiveness, I hope is something that they would continue to look at with him and take away."

Fox dealt with a sore right ankle in the latter stages of this series, and gutted it out in Game 6 as he joined forces with Castle to start putting the Timberwolves to bed early. He had 21 points and 9 assists, facilitating everything and picking his spots to be aggressive.

"He was great, very poised," Castle said. "Played under control the whole game, didn't really force any shots. He took the shots that he wanted to, got to the spots when he wanted to. To have a lead guard, a veteran guard like that on our team that can get to any spot on the court whenever he wants, is it's definitely cool to be alongside."

May 15, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard De'aaron Fox (4) shoots the ball over Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle (30) in the second half during game six of the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images | Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

"He's one of the toughest guys in league," Johnson said of Fox. "He doesn't miss any games. He's one of the guys he doesn't talk about it much, doesn't show much, and he had moments in this game that we needed just to settle us."

"A lot of times probably the casual observer wouldn't understand when you're up 16 points, hypothetically you don't need to be settled in, it feels like you got a big lead in the playoffs," Johnson said. "On the road against his team, that's not the case, and he made multiple plays all night long, whether they showed up in the box score or not, that just settled us and was a catalyst on both ends in the first and the third quarter, specifically. And he doesn't get enough credit for that."

Johnson wants to make sure all his guys get the credit they deserve, but this whole dynamic has worked precisely because each and every one of them has sacrificed their individual goals and egos for the collective. They do not care who gets the headline as long as that headline includes the phrase, 'Spurs Win.'

On any given night any of them can be the biggest star. On Friday night in Minneapolis, Castle's play drew the most attention.

His versatile play throughout the series jumped off the screen as he stifled the big, bruising Julius Randle on defense while picking Minnesota apart and shooting the lights out on the other end. How many guards in the history of the NBA could be expected to perform as well or better in the exact same scenario?

The scenario Castle finds himself in surrounded by talent and support is incredible, and he knows it.

"The confidence that our coaches have to put the ball in my hands and let me go through mistakes and see different coverages, have reps with the ball in my hand, I think over time it's helped me," Castle said.

"He takes on any matchup," Fox said. "It could be a big man, it could be a point guard. He's able to do pretty much everything on the court, and especially when you shoot the ball like this, it's already hard to stop him,. We see so many different matchups, whereas if he has a big on him, if he has a guard, if he has a wing on him, he's so unselfish, he'll, he goes, he screens, he plays DHOs, he gets downhill, he catches shoots, he gets to the free throw line, he does so many things on the court that even when he's not making shots, he's still affecting the game in a positive way."

"Staying aggressive throughout, that is very tough to guard with the guys that are spacing the floor," Castle said. "Me getting off the ball, getting the ball to Fox, they're putting the best defender on Fox, ball comes back to me. We have Vic in the pick and roll, you have Julian (Champagnie) or Dev (Vassell) in the corner, so there's somebody that can make a play with the ball all over the court, so I feel like it just makes it so much easier for me to be able to do that and make reads."

This Spurs team is so deep that in this long piece about their star power, Victor Wembanyama has barely been mentioned.

"He was amazing," Wembanyama said of Castle. "It was one pass that I haven't seen again on the film, but one late pass. Sometimes he does some things just amazing. The composure to make the late choice and to push the difference into as far as they can go to take care of all our strength, he was great. He shot the ball when he should have shot it, and made the shots, and he passed the ball when he should have passed it. That's pretty high up there."

Speaking of shooting, Castle scorching the nets in Game 6 is nothing new. He's shooting 44% on almost five attempts per game in the playoffs, and a similar leap in accuracy from Harper who hit 48% after the All-Star break has opened up San Antonio's offense and completely silenced any concerns anyone may have had about San Antonio's spacing.

Many of those shots are nice and openm and that's thanks in part to all the attention that Wembanyama draws. After Wemby got off to a ridiculously hot start in Game 5, Minnesota's coach Chris Finch decided that couldn't happen again and tried to flip the matchups. He had Rudy Gobert sagging off Castle so he could help at the rim. Castle punished that strategy by firing with no hesitation and cashing in, to the point that Finch put his hand up afterward to acknowledge his mistake.

"I'll take the blame for the start of the game," Finch said, still processing the end of his season. "We flipped the matchups around. We tried to do some things there that maybe slow down their start. Allowed Castle to get hot early, that certainly wasn't the plan. That's on me."

On two plays in the first quarter, Wembanyama set a screen for Castle that drew so much attention from Minnesota that Castle got a wide-open lane to the basket and finished with extreme prejudice. He spoke about Wembanyama's influence afterward.

What is the Timberwolves’ defense, uh, doing? pic.twitter.com/LgDU4lFBf2

— Silver & Black Coffee Hour (@SlvrBlkCoffeeHr) May 16, 2026

"His gravity and how good he's got at setting up his angles for screens and forcing guys to have to either let the ball handler get downhill or get off his body with how good he is, for him to be able to set screens like that just opens up the court for everybody," Castle said. "Any defense is just super worried about him, especially when he's when he's in the paint. So you know, for us guards to have that as a screener is definitely a luxury for us."

'Luxury' is a perfect word to describe San Antonio's depth of talent. Pairing Wembanyama with a single high-level playmaker is dangerous. Flanking him with three downhill stars and a number of floor spacing two-way wings who all genuinely enjoy playing together with no individual agenda? That's borderline unfair to the opposition.

If there's one team that has the defensive personnel to at least slow down the Spurs' four-headed monster, it's the defending-champion Thunder. But San Antonio's extreme talent level, and the collectivism they play with, allowed them to best OKC in four of five meetings this season.

"It's gonna be a hard-fought series, very physical, two teams with high aspirations," Castle said. "They're playing really well right now. We're playing really well right now. I mean we're in each other's way of going to the Finals, so I think it'll be a good series."