At 23-29, the Spurs occupy just the No. 12 seed in a crowded Western Conference. They are a scant 3.5 games behind the No. 10-seeded Golden State Warriors (28-27), but without their best player, they seem doomed now to miss the play-in tournament entirely and head straight for the lottery.

The Spurs are signaling optimism, with a team source telling The Athletic that Wembanyama is expected to be fully healthy and ready at the start of training camp in October. Per the team source, Wembanyama had been experiencing low energy in recent weeks, which initially caused concern.

The French sports newspaper L'Equipe published a photo of Victor Wembanyama across the entirety of its front page on Friday, the San Antonio star looking down with his hands on his hips.