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Spurs’ fatal flaw that will doom 2027 NBA championship chances

Nairavoice · Oct 31, 2026 · 6 min read

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The Spurs’ fatal flaw that will doom San Antonio Spurs entered the 2026-27 campaign with only one goal in mind, and that is to avenge their five-game series loss to the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. After all, Many would argue that the Spurs should have won that championship after building double-digit leads in each of those five games.

But the Spurs floundered when it mattered the most. In Game 2, Spurs’ fatal flaw that will doom Victor Wembanyama threw a pass off of Stephon Castle’s back, giving the Knicks the ball and the opportunity to take the lead. In Game 4, the Spurs blew a 29-point lead and lost in the final seconds to an OG Anunoby tip in. And then in Game 5, Jalen Brunson killed them off with a 45-point night.

Nonetheless, it looks like everything is lining up for the Spurs to complete their redemption arc this season. The circumstances in Oklahoma City are rather unfortunate, but the Thunder experiencing a deluge of injury woes to a few core players, such as Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, and Cason Wallace, is a devastating blow to their title hopes. Anthony Edwards is out for two months and the Minnesota Timberwolves are scrambling. The Denver Nuggets look old and much worse than last season.

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However, the Spurs are going to have to overcome this fatal flaw if they were to finally wash away the sting of last season’s heartbreak.

Can Victor Wembanyama develop a go-to offensive move?

It’s a testament to the talent this Spurs team has that, in the first year of playoff contention with Wembanyama leading the way, they came oh so close to winning it all. But it’s also rather telling that the Spurs lost due to their subpar execution in the clutch, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that their offense sputters when up against adversity.

What the Knicks did was put Karl-Anthony Towns on Wembanyama, had him body him up and push him away from the basket, and the Spurs star had difficulties getting to his spots. What made this not quite a viable game plan for the Thunder was that Isaiah Hartenstein’s presence made it so that Wembanyama could camp into the paint. Towns, of course, is known for his outside marksmanship and makes defensive rotations for the reigning Defensive Player of the Year that much more difficult.

Wembanyama did not play very well during Game 1, Game 4, and Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He had to settle for difficult shots from the perimeter, and he had some troubles finishing near the basket as well as he didn’t have the strength to overpower Towns. During those three contests, all Spurs losses, Wemby shot 33.8% from the field, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that he doesn’t have a go-to scoring move.

It was a catch-22 for Wembanyama. The Knicks would not allow him to set up shop near the basket, with Towns intentionally pushing him away from the hoop to make his life more difficult. Due to this, he had to catch the ball at the high post area, or even behind the three-point line. But his handle, despite being solid for a player his size, is not elite enough to the point where he can fashion clean looks for himself consistently.

Just take a gander at some of the best scorers in the game today. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s handle is elite, he can get to his spots in the midrange at will, and his ability to make shots with defenders draped all over him is almost unparalleled in today’s NBA. Nikola Jokic, at his best, can just back up all the way to the rim, and destroy teams with his feathery touch. If they send double teams, he can just ping the ball to the open man.

At this point, Wembanyama doesn’t quite have that go-to move in his offensive repertoire that he can resort to to get his team buckets when they need them. One possible solution is for him to bulk up, but at 7-foot-4, his center of gravity is always going to be high and players of Towns’ build are always just going to be able to make catches in the post difficult for him, so this isn’t exactly a catch-all panacea.

Perhaps mastering the sky hook, which would be unstoppable at his height, or maybe even having his own version of the Dirk Nowitzki fadeaway would make him an even more unguardable superstar.

Wembanyama is never going to be like Shaquille O’Neal who can overpower every defender that comes his way. Or he’s not going to be Hakeem Olajuwon, who was gifted with balletic feet. And that’s not necessarily bad. But having something in his repertoire that all but guarantees the Spurs two points would go a long way towards helping them get over the hump.

Former Spurs star LaMarcus Aldridge already implored the 22-year-old Frenchman to develop his signature move, and then develop counter moves for it. It’s safe to say that Aldridge, who has 20,558 career points in the NBA by making a living off of that silky smooth turnaround jumper from midrange, knows what he’s talking about.

Something to watch out for: the Spurs’ three-guard look

Will starting Dylan Harper benefit the Spurs’ in the long run? Perhaps. Having their three guards (Harper, Castle, and De’Aaron Fox) get more and more accustomed to playing with one another should help them build the requisite chemistry to power this team to a title.

Spurs’ fatal flaw that will doom

But there might be some skillset incompatibility among those three that the Spurs have to watch out for. Those three appear to be at their best with the ball in their hands, and someone has to sacrifice touches whenever they all share the floor together.

So far, Castle is the one who’s having to adjust the most. He is averaging a bonkers 8.2 three-point attempts per game heading into their Friday night contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves, which is up by over four attempts from his average last season.

But as Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said, many get so fixated over starting lineups when they’re just units that start games. Nonetheless, the Spurs have to be keeping a close eye on this situation, and they could always deploy a more balanced lineup by giving Julian Champagnie more minutes when the games matter the most and by utilizing Tobias Harris, who is currently still dealing with a calf strain.

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