The Athletic: Without Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox is bringing the Spurs’ offense to life

After Wednesday’s 114-112 win over the Orlando Magic, the Spurs have the NBA’s eighth-best offensive rating at 119.4. They have the league’s ninth-best assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.0 since Wembanyama went out with a strained calf, after ranking 23rd in the 12 games with Wembanyama before that.

It’s a notable enough improvement that Johnson received a Western Conference coach of the month nomination. That wasn’t because the Spurs offense is better without Wembanyama. It’s that the team has finally jelled under De’Aaron Fox’s leadership.

Johnson’s next task will be to mesh the open flow Fox has brought to the offense with Wenbanyama’s occasionally static power game.

Wembanyama slowing down the half-court offense isn’t inherently problematic. He’s early in his development and, with enough reps, he’ll be passing and scoring around double teams so easily that having him hammer away in the post will be efficient and effective.

Until then, Fox is showing Johnson another path forward, one that provides Fox the room to get deep into the paint and then open things up for Wembanyama and others from there.

Fox consistently gets deep into the paint and makes kickout passes easily from there. With him on the floor, the Spurs are getting more one-pass open 3s and easy swings to an open shooter in the corner. The defensive rotations are different than with Wembanyama in the post because help defenders aren’t as ready to recover out to the shooters against the flow of Fox’s action than they would be after double-teaming a Wembanyama post-up.

Fox is proud of his speed, but what makes him impactful is how he hits the brakes. He is strong enough to drive right into a big man in the paint and then spin off of him to hit a pull-up. But when he’s really disruptive is when he starts decelerating through the lane and luring in extra help defenders to create open 3s.

Wembanyama slowing the game down makes things a little easier for the defense to prepare its escape plan. On the bright side, he’s so hard to contain and is getting a lot better at manipulating those double-teams. The Spurs’ offensive upside is higher with their big man out there, even if it may function a little more smoothly without him holding down post position. On the other hand, the pick-and-roll between Fox and Luke Kornet — who is starting with Wembanyama injured — is working well now that Fox has his rhythm.

When Wembanyama is out there, Johnson’s offense includes a lot of Horns plays, where two bigs start the action on the free throw line. These classic sets are ideal for players whose screening draws a lot of attention, or when setting up a secondary wing creator for an angled pick-and-roll. But there’s not a lot of mystery to them, and offenses crave mystery these days. Running Horns for Wembanyama makes the Spurs’ half-court offense predictable.

That’s fine in the long run. The franchise is trying to develop Wembanyama into a transcendent player, and that means plenty of growing pains and a need for some structure. But now that Fox is in control of his game and able to create valuable offense with his driving ability in space, Johnson has another way to play.

When he returns from injury, Wembanyama could take Fox and the Spurs’ offense to the next level by studying Kornet. The former Celtics big man makes smart reads on how and when to screen. He’s mastered the art of not getting in the way until it actually helps his team.

Notice on this play how Kornet never even comes close to screening Timberwolves wing defender Jaden McDaniels, who takes a high pick-up point on Fox coming across half court.