San Antonio’s defensive excellence certainly revolves around its star center. There’s a reason Victor Wembanyama was the unanimous choice for the 2025-26 Defensive Player of the Year award.
The 7-foot-5 Frenchman is a shot blocking extraordinaire.
Yet this series has been a prime indication of why the Spurs’ are an excellent defensive team around Wembanyama. San Antonio does not have an individual matchup for Anthony Edwards. Frankly, the Spurs are short on lockdown perimeter defenders. Yet, through double teams and tight rotations, they’ve managed to largely keep Edwards in check, sans the fourth quarter of Game 4.
It’s the mark of a well-coached team that’s getting the most out of its personnel via its schematic decisions. More specifically, it’s the mark of a Sean Sweeney-coached defense.
The St. Paul native has been regarded as one of the NBA’s premier defensive minds in recent years. After four seasons in Dallas – which included a run to the 2024 NBA Finals – Sweeney is paired with Wembanyama to form a power defensive duo.
How did that marriage come to be?
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson took over as interim head coach for the 2024-25 campaign while legendary bench boss Gregg Popovich battled health issues. After the season, Johnson was named the coach on a full-time basis.
His staff was small during his interim campaign due to the circumstances, and expansion was required. Johnson needed an associate head coach.
He didn’t know Sweeney — a Cretin-Derham Hall High School and University of St. Thomas alum — personally when he started his search last offseason. The coach’s reputation was sterling. And, after a few conversations, Johnson determined Sweeney to be a good fit for San Antonio. Yes, Sweeney has the experience with five previous coaching stops, including a combined eight seasons as a top assistant for current Mavericks coach Jason Kidd. But more important was who Sweeney was as a person.
“I just took a liking to his ability to articulate his basketball philosophy and what he thought about whether it was just the game and NBA coaching in general in terms of competitiveness and how hard you should coach and holding guys accountable,” Johnson said. “But also the modern, creative part and thinking outside the box.”
Johnson believed the introduction of fresh thoughts were “appropriate” for himself heading into his first official season as a head coach. He retained everyone from last year’s staff, but knew he needed to add not just bodies, but ideas.
“To be able to add to that group was really beneficial,” Johnson said, “and Sean has been a big part of that.”
The Spurs sported the fifth-worst defense in the NBA last season, surrendering 116.3 points per 100 possessions. They were third-best this season (110.4). San Antonio entered Tuesday’s Game 5 against Minnesota with the league’s top playoff defense (102.9).
“I thought we were getting a really good coach, and we have, so that hasn’t been surprising,” Johnson said of Sweeney. “I’ve really enjoyed his honesty, I’ve enjoyed his competitiveness.”
Sweeney is again a head coaching candidate in this cycle, with his name being linked to the Chicago Bulls’ opening. He’s 41 years old and is still awaiting that first opportunity to sit at the front of the bench.
That Johnson, 39, tabbed a non-former head coach to take his side was perhaps a surprise at the time. But Johnson noted San Antonio has long been supportive of him and providing the head coach with what he believes he needs to be successful.
“I think I need to know what I need around me to support me or complement me, and just getting to know Sean and talking to him, it just felt like a really, really good fit. And I hate to say it, but it really wasn’t a whole lot deeper than that,” Johnson said. “I don’t know how productive we’ve been, but I think we’ve really enjoyed just coaching hard.
“I think, from top to bottom, we coach our players hard and I would advocate for our players that they allow us to coach them hard, and I think that’s a really, really cool dynamic to be a part of and I’m blessed to have players and coaches that do that with no agendas and no insecurities.”