Basketball experts and fans are universally picking the Spurs as the team most likely to make the leap from the lottery to a 2026 playoff participant. Many reasons support this, including another season of improvement from Victor Wembanyama, a full year of Victor on the floor with De’Arron Fox, talented young guards Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, and a true back-up 5 in Luke Kornet.

However, for the Spurs to make the playoffs this season, at least one of last year’s playoff participants must drop off. But when I look around the good teams in the Western Conference, I ask myself – did they actually all get better? I would feel a lot better about the Spurs’ chances of leaping into the playoffs if the team played in the Eastern Conference, where top teams like the Celtics, Pacers, and Buck

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