Victor Wembanyama & Stephon Castle working on ‘building a mansion’ with Spurs | NBA on ESPN

Victor Wembanyama & Stephon Castle working on ‘building a mansion’ with Spurs | NBA on ESPN

Uh, I mean, you just watch all the work we’ve been putting in all training camp. Um, I mean, it’s not really a surprise to us. I mean, we’ve been seeing it for a little minute now. Um, and then, yeah, we got Victor on our team, too. So, which one was he? The big tall one. Yeah. Um, just where would you say you’ve made the biggest strides since the end of last season? What we see tonight where you kind of demonstrate? Um, probably poise. Uh, I mean, last year is your first year. You don’t really know what you’re going into, but I feel like having that year under my belt kind of kind of settled me in. Um, I mean, I was super super confident coming into this game. So, um, yeah, I was happy we played well. I mean, Mitch was talking about how it’s not as easy as just throwing into seems like you’ve learned a lot about how to play alongside him in the past year. Is that fair to say? Yeah, definitely. Um, I mean, yeah, just a lot of reps, a lot of watching film together. I feel like that helps and gets overlooked a lot. Um, yeah, I mean, being able to watch film with the guy you’re going to do a lot of pick and rolls with, uh, have a lot of transition, you know, buckets with definitely helps. So, uh, being able to know where he likes the ball at, where double teams are going to come from. So, yeah, man, we’ve been working on that all summer and, uh, I mean, yeah, it’s starting to it’s starting to just shape itself out. some of the alleys that you throw to him. Does he complete them in different ways than you were expecting him to complete? Not really, honestly. Uh I mean with him, I mean, if he’s by the rim, you just you just put it up there, he’ll go get it. So, uh I mean that’s the luxury of playing with him. He makes the game a lot easier for us. You did a great job on Cooper flag tonight. Defensively, saw a little bit of emotion from you on offense and you’re usually pretty stoic out there. Did you take that as a challenge coming in going up against the number one pick? Uh I mean, yeah. Um, I mean, I take every game as a challenge, no matter who I’m matched up against. Uh, I mean, I take pride in that. I feel like that’s a big part of my game is the defensive end. So, um, I just try to try my best to, you know, impose my will on that side. What’s that like when you’re obviously always have a higher on the defensive end, but you see the four guys around you also buying a guy like Deon great defensive? Yeah. Um, just being able to set the tone. Uh, I mean, we have the best shot blocker in the league. So, I feel like if our perimeter guys are locked in, not giving up any threes, not giving up any easy driving lanes, it makes our halfcourt defense pretty hard to score on. So, um, I mean, yeah, I just feel like if we hang our hat on that, it’s going to be hard to beat us. There a few times where he played alongside. How was that? You said Luke and Wimby, that what you said? Uh, yeah. Uh, I mean, it helps us a lot. Um, I mean, having that much rim protection, it just helps us be uh even more aggressive on the ball, knowing that guys are not scared to drive into the paint, but probably more not looking to go downhill. But, I mean, yeah, I mean, just having those two, I mean, with the with the IQ they have to help us on the boards as well, is definitely a big help. What did you make a Cooper first NBA game? Um, I mean, he he he didn’t shoot the ball well, but I mean, he seemed a lot more poised than I thought he would be. I mean, my first game I was out there nervous, so I can’t really speak on it, but um I mean, yeah, I mean, he made some good reads. Uh I mean, he didn’t seem too too rattled, so um I think he’ll have a good year. Feel the same about Dylan, how he just after he kind of eased into the game a little bit, he started to play his game a little bit more. Yeah. Uh I mean, D, he’s been hooping all all summer, all training camp. So, I mean, I knew once he got settled in, he’ll be fine. Um I mean, yeah, he started off the game uh kind of shaky, but picked it up quick and helped us a lot. So, a lot about the big line that did um I mean I just thought if our guards rebounded, uh it wouldn’t really be a big problem for us. I feel like that helped us get out in transition a lot more. Uh make their big guys run a little bit. Um I mean the only thing that really hurts us with big lineups is rebounding. So, uh, having our guards come and help rebound kind of kind of, uh, stagnate that. Rebounded 50 to 37. I mean, yeah, that was that was our game plan. I mean, not I mean, that wasn’t our game plan, but I mean, it was definitely a part of it to Yeah. not not get beat on the boards. Um, especially with the big guys that they have. Uh, I mean, and the young guys that we have, being able to get out in transition was definitely a big emphasis, too. You know, they had turnovers during the preseason. Tonight, you didn’t have a single turnover. Like, part of that is you guys got to know how to around nobody’s looking for. What have you guys figured out about how to play around him when he’s kind of doing his thing? Yeah. Um we know he draws a lot of attention. So, uh I mean when he gets those post catches, iso catches, uh I mean we just tell him slow down, take your time. Um know where the know where the help’s coming from. Uh I mean we trusting him on on that side of the floor. So uh just having the right spacing around them and we have a lot of shooters where guys can’t help. So just trying to get to those spots to where you know it’s easiest for him. I guess the next step to that is he gets off the ball then you guys can look to playmate for him and he had a few of those plays like on the trail like how how has that opened things up for you as a Yeah. Um I mean his ability to shoot the ball obviously helps and he’s bringing the big out of the paint. So uh once once he doesn’t have that that first initial look. Uh we have a lot of guys that could touch paint and create for themsel or others. So um him dragging the bigs out of the paint definitely help help us get downhill. I know you guys are probably surprised at what he does, but Anthony Davis, Eric Lively, the big lineup that they were talking about, just what does it mean to do that against some of these guys that are very highly regarded defensively from um what does it mean? Yeah, just for Victor and his obviously what he could be this year. Um I mean I think he the best player in the league, so I mean I expect that from him uh no matter who’s really matched up against him. I feel like if you don’t send two, you’re probably in trouble. So, um I mean yeah I mean I mean they have obviously great great defenders on that team but um better old beats good D. Oh there you go right there out. Y sub out. Yep. I’ll do it stands out to you about tonight. Attention to detail. our attention to detail. Still glimpses of, you know, sometimes getting carried away a little bit, but um much more control than I’ve seen from us in the past. Uh coming out of timeouts, I feel like we scored after every single timeout where we had a position, no matter who was on the court. So that that was great. Yeah, that’s about it. A lot’s going on with you at the moment, but was there a moment tonight when you thought about what you’ve been through the last eight months? Of course. Of course, when there’s a few a few minutes left in the fourth and we’re up 30 or something, you know, and um it feels like, you know, every day we try to lay a break to to build our huge uh mission, whatever. And uh it felt like the job was done for the day, you know. It felt like this is what we we’ve been working on. This is what we struggled. Uh this is what we’ve been working for. This is what we struggled for for so long. And it just felt like uh I can say this like it uh it fits, you know, like I felt like uh I was in my place. You spent the whole summer preparing your mind and body kind of for this moment. So, how did your mind and body feel out there? Good. I mean, much more in control uh of myself. the mind I’m not worried about because I saw I saw what it’s like to be confronted with uh you know potentially losing a lot whether it’s your career or your health you know so I’m I’m not taking this for granted anymore but the body it’s uh it’s I’m having more fun now I’m not struggling to move as much you know and I know I’m still need to get better and I’m still going to get better the one thing that strikes me is the level of aggression playing with now. Can you just explain where it comes from? Because you’re not the same a few months ago. I know you got stronger during the summer, but that explains all like why so much aggression. It explains a lot, but not all of it for sure. I feel like uh know it’s a mix of knowledge of the game, you know, of recognition of patterns on the court and obviously physical development. You know, it’s uh but if I could have been if I was able to to do that when I was 19 years old or 16 years old, whenever I would have done it, but I mean, I would have tried to do it, but there’s some things that just take time and you know, um I’m able to do it now. The proof is there, so there’s no reason to not do it. The reaction around the country tonight, if you watch on TV, is wow, Wimy added all this to his game. He’s unstoppable now. Okay. Did did it feel like that to you that you’ve added something new and you were showing the world something different? Of course. Of course. It was also uh you know, we needed to make a statement in our locker room. you know, I felt like I needed to make a statement to my teammates, but uh yeah, I’m I’m also just the beginning, you know, because there’s so much more I want to add to my game and but some things take some things take time and you know, uh it’s in maturity. How are you feeling coming into this game after, you know, eight months? So the feeling really I think it was I mean I’m sure it was mine but I think it was also my teams was that you know there wasn’t anything we really could have done to more to help us today. You know it felt like we did everything we needed to. So if we felt ready and uh we felt like we wouldn’t have any regret about things we should have worked on things we should have done in the summer. So I guess the the conclusion is I was uh how can I say that comfortable with the work we put in and with the preparation up to this point and now it’s you know all the the the dice are are thrown in the the Western Conference you know and uh we you know we just need to fight to the death. You just said you said we need to make a statement. Obviously, you personally missing some time the last couple months, but why we why did the San Antonio Spurs need to make a statement on opening night? Because we um I haven’t seen us win a opening night game. Uh we’re on the road and we’ve stepped up so many things in our uh the way we work back home. So, it feels like it’s time to move on to our the next step and we need to make a statement because we’re all tired of losing. That’s the truth. [Music]

The San Antonio Spurs’ Stephon Castle and Victor Wembanyama speak after their 125-92 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
0:00 This wasn’t a surprise for the Spurs
0:30 Biggest improvements as a team and individual for Stephon Castle
3:00 Thoughts on Cooper Flagg’s debut
5:40 Anthony Davis is the best player in the league?
6:20 Wemby speaks
9:00 Wemby’s “unstoppable” now

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