Behind coach Mitch Johnson’s guidance, the Spurs are in the thick of the chase for No. 1 in the West.
LOS ANGELES — In Mitch Johnson’s first full season as head coach, the San Antonio Spurs have been the league’s most improved team. They have their third-best record, rank in the top seven on both ends of the floor and went 4-1 against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Johnson was rewarded with a trip to Los Angeles, where he coached the USA Stripes team in the All-Star Game. Before that, he spoke with NBA.com about his team’s offensive improvement, Victor Wembanyama’s growth and managing the Spurs’ rotation.
NBA.com: You’re in the top 10 on both ends of the floor. From the outside, the defensive part of that is more expected. Are you pleasantly surprised with how well you guys have played offensively this season?
Mitch Johnson: Yeah, we talked about the offense probably needing more time to mesh and jell. It’s our first time as a group, and we have a lot of people who haven’t played together before or are younger in this league. So, the continuity piece and the chemistry piece of anticipating what your teammate is going to do take time.
What we’ve done a good job of is we’ve played fast. We’ve been able to play fast and share the ball. Those two things have really helped us see where we can gain clear advantages and then take advantage of those opportunities, whether that’s for ourselves or for our teammates.
NBA.com: One area where you’ve really improved is free-throw rate, and Victor Wembanyama is a big part of that. He’s playing bigger, taking fewer jump shots. Was that a big emphasis as a staff and for him going into the season to get more shots near the basket and get to the line more often?
Biggest jump in free throw rate (FTA/FGA), 2024-25 to 2025-26
| Team | 2024-25 | Rank | 2025-26 | Rank | Diff. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Antonio | .234 | 22 | .286 | 8 | .052 |
| Detroit | .248 | 12 | .300 | 3 | .052 |
| Oklahoma City | .220 | 28 | .271 | 14 | .051 |
| L.A. Lakers | .271 | 1 | .322 | 1 | .051 |
| LA Clippers | .251 | 9 | .297 | 5 | .046 |
Through All-Star break, 2026
I think both. First, for us as a group, we saw our personnel, between Victor, De’Aaron [Fox], Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, even for a young kid, and the ability those guys have to be able to put pressure on the paint, on the rim and defenses. Keldon Johnson, as well. We just felt like if we could play fast and move the ball, that would be a facet of our offense that could be really advantageous.
With Victor, I do think that his and our group’s education and continued evolution of understanding that he’s not going to be able to play with the basketball and get space. So, we understand that post-ups or isos can, at times, bring crowds. A lot of times, those are passes to his teammates, because we don’t play in crowds.
Him running the floor, getting him on the move with different actions or trying to give him some space to build momentum towards the rim. Then his rolling after screening and DHOs (dribble hand-offs) have been a huge part of it. Continuing to see environments, spaces and actions that provide some of that for him, and his mastery of that stuff has been part of the evolution.
Victor Wembanyama, paint shooting & free throw rate
| Season | PFGM | PFGA | PFG% | PFGA% | FTA/FGA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | 359 | 599 | 59.9% | 51% | .309 |
| 2024-25 | 209 | 312 | 67.0% | 36% | .221 |
| 2025-26 | 202 | 322 | 62.7% | 49% | .443 |
PFGM, PFGA, PFG% = Field goals made, field goals attempted and field goal percentage in the paint
PFGA% = Percentage of total field goal attempts that have come in the paint
NBA.com: I’m curious about your starting lineup. Devin Vassell was out, came back, and came off the bench for a few games. When you put him back in the starting lineup, you kept Julian Champagnie there instead of Harrison Barnes, with Castle coming off the bench one game. What is it about Champagnie that’s kept him in the lineup?
He’s been one of the guys who’s gotten yo-yo’d quite a bit until this last stretch, and he’s always done a great job with that. Honestly, he’s played really well for us at the start of the game recently. So, it was just a call that we went with.
Obviously, we’ve brought Victor off the bench for numerous games this year. So bringing guys off the bench isn’t a heavy conversation or a big momentum shift in how our staff or I feel about a player. It’s just something that we work through. Whether that’s been through availability or just who’s playing well, we’re trying to fit groups that work together at the right time.
NBA.com: In the NBA Cup Final, with the score close and with five minutes left, you played Fox, Harper and Castle together (with Vassell and Wembanyama). It was the biggest moment of the season, and you played those guys together for the first time. Since then, the three guards have played just 21 total minutes together. Is there not enough shooting on the floor with all three? Do you like Barnes or Champagnie out there to have additional catch-and-shoot options?
No, I don’t think so at all. We’ve had so many domino effects of availability, and so sometimes having another guy out can affect how you play those three guys. It doesn’t reflect those three guys.
Those three guys can play together, and they will play together. We have no concern over the lack of shooting. I understand that’s a talking point, but I think all those guys taking the right shots and us running clean offense and expecting where their shots will come from, they’ll make enough shots that it won’t be a concern.
NBA.com: What excites you most about Castle?
He’s absolutely relentless and fearless.
NBA.com: Going forward and for the last eight weeks of the season, what’s the one thing that you want him to improve on, on either end of the floor?
We had a meeting [with] eight games left before this break. The two things we talked about a ton, because we started the year pretty good and it fell off a little bit in terms of analytics, were our pace and offensive rebounding. Sometimes offensive rebounds can also show themselves in the crash rate, where you don’t get the rebound and things like that.
Just going for the offensive rebound and then playing with a pace would be the two things offensively. Defensively, I think rebounding and then a tough one to quantify, but I’d say silly fouls.
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John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
